Kum & Go Gas Station and Convenience Store Proposed for 150 S. Wadsworth Blvd.

The City of Lakewood is reviewing plans for a 6,000+ square foot gas station and convenience store at 150 S. Wadsworth. This site is an undeveloped property just north of the downtown Lakewood Swedish Medical Center and ER, and just south of the planned (but not yet built) nursing facility at 100 S. Wadsworth. The planned gas station will back up to The Villas, an adult living community of 145 townhomes.

In the past, the city has worked with residents of The Villas to ensure that both the Swedish Medical Center and the downtown Lakewood Walgreens would have buffer zones between the planned developments and the homes of Villa's residents that backed up to the Wadsworth corridor. I'm guessing the city will require a buffer in this case as well, but I haven't heard any details yet.

I also don't have any details yet on the site plan for the downtown Lakewood Kum & Go, but I do know that the company has been rolling out new, larger stores that feature outdoor patios, a food focused layout, and craft beer stations that can fill growlers to go.

Belmar Sold to Starwood Capital Group

Well, it's finally a done deal. Belmar has been sold Starwood Capital Group.

As I reported earlier, the Southern Utes, faced with a downturn in gas revenue, have been looking to raise cash by selling Belmar. It's finally happened. Interestingly. Continuum Partners, the design firm that has been the driving force behind Belmar since its inception, has also announced they will sell their minority share of the downtown Lakewood development. But what do we know about Starwood Capital?

The Denver Business Journal is reporting that Starwood's interest in Belmar is focused on expanding retail, which reflects the strong economic recovery currently underway in Colorado. It wasn't that many years ago that I heard people say Belmar (and indeed the entire metro area) was overbuilt in terms of retail, but the population of the front range is expected to boom over the next decade, and downtown Lakewood is well positioned to capture its share of that growth. The Denver Post, meanwhile, quotes Lakewood's deputy city manager as saying that only 50% of Belmar's residential and 45% of its commercial development is complete. (Does that 50% include the large Trifecta building, which is almost but not quite finished? I don't know.) Starwood has a history of buying underdeveloped properties, adding value, and then selling them for a healthy profit. Taken together, this suggests Starwood sees Belmar as having lots of room to grow.

Starwood has been involved with development in Denver before, including around the revamped and bustling Union Station. But Starwood is a huge, huge investment firm. They're involved with everything. The firm owns property worldwide, including resorts in Spain, office buildings in Florida, and hotels in London. Belmar was a big deal for the Southern Utes and Continuum. For Starwood, a big deal was its 2005 acquisition of Group Taittinger for $3.2 billion. In a portfolio like that, will Belmar be just another measly $250 million property?

Marketing Vision for Belmar Focuses on Millennials

Last September, marketing giant CBRE took over the leasing of Belmar's 600,000 square feet of retail and 250,000 square feet of office space. The contract was awarded by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, which owns 90% of Belmar.

In CBRE's press release, Jim Lee, vice president of CBRE's Denver office, suggested the company's target audience was millennials.

"Millennials seek a unique shopping experience," he's quoted as saying. "Retailers, taking notice of this trend, are shifting the way their stores are laid out and how they communicate with their customers. This new experiential retail model creates a dynamic retail experience for Belmar’s customers."

He also promised "additional fashion brands, entertainment concepts and restaurants,” adding "because of its eclectic-vibe, Belmar is poised to attract the chef-driven restaurants and boutique retailers emerging from this trend."

That said, there's not a lot of available retail space in Belmar.

Loopnet lists 13 retails spaces for rent. These spaces are a fairly small, ranging from 2000-3000 sq. feet. The largest, at a little over 5000 sq. feet, is the site currently occupied by Lane Bryant (which is moving to the former Cold Water Creek location).

There's also a single 3000 sq. foot restaurant space, which is apparently the site formerly occupied by the Oven. It's being offered along with the space next door-- currently occupied by Jamba Juice, which is relocating as well.

Finally, there's a 32,000 sq. foot pad site, which I believe is the dirt lot on the southeast corner of the Whole Foods parking garage.

Again, not a lot of space.

This may change, however, as it appears that 15,000 square feet of retail in the form of a new building is in the works for the parking lot behind 24 hour fitness (né Bally's) and Ted's Montana Grill.

Gas Station at 290 S. Pierce Street to be Rebuilt as 7 Eleven

The dilapidated gas station at the corner or S. Pierce and Wadsworth looks like it will soon be replaced, as the Dimension Group has a proposed 7 Eleven store and fueling station plan before the Lakewood planning commission.

The Dimension Group, a civil engineering firm based out of Dallas, TX, but with an office in Greenwood Village, CO, specializes in gas stations. Nothing in their portfolio suggests the final product will be anything particularly interesting architecturally, but a decent gas station in downtown Lakewood would be nice, and anything would be better than the run down structure that's there now.

Update: The new building will be a 3350 square foot convenience store fronting the corner of Pierce and Alameda. The fueling pumps will be to the east, under a canopy.

Roosters Men's Grooming Center Coming to Belmar Block 5

Work is ongoing in this vacant space under the Whole Foods parking lot. A sign in the window of 455 S. Vance Street lists RG2 Grooming #2 as the tenet, but it appears this will be home to a Roosters Men's Grooming Center. 

Sounds great. One little critique: their website lists this location as in the "Belmar Mall." 

Please, no. 

 

Fusion Federation Opening in Belmar

Fusion Federation, a fashion retailer specializing in women's clothing, has a sign up in an empty Belmar storefront on Alaska Drive. It looks like the plan is to open in August.

From the look of their webpage, their clothes are fashion forward (and to my eye, a little bit Goth), with prices just a bit above Forever 21 or H&M. 

The Weakest Link

If there's a weak link in the effort to make an urban, walkable neighborhood out of central Lakewood, it's the Belmar Best Buy.

The site violates all sorts of new urbanist principles. Instead of defining the corner of Alameda and Wadsworth, the Best Buy sits back behind a massive parking lot. It presents a blank wall to the tree-lined sidewalk on W. Alaska Dr. The building has no windows. The list goes on.

Continuum allowed it during the darkest days of the recession, presumably under the assumption that bad development was better than no development.

Alas, this is not so, at least not for anyone who wants to see good urban planning in downtown Lakewood. The only bright spot is that there's plenty of talk in the financial world of Best Buy going belly up. Perhaps then this terrible building and its oversized parking lot can be repurposed by a retailer interested in something other than rehashing the greatest hits of 90's strip mall suburbia.

Businesses New to Belmar in the Last 6 Months

The economic news continues to be bad, so it's interesting to reflect on how many new businesses have come to Belmar in the last six months:

Target
Nordstrom Rack
Champa Street Burger Works
European Wax Center
Shining Stars Kids Dentistry
100% Chiropractic Wellness Center
Charming Charlie
St. Anthony's Health Passport

In addition, there are three more on their way:

The Rock Wood Fired Pizza & Spirits
Zinga!
Aruba Aloe

This list is just for stores in the Belmar redevelopment proper. If we throw into the mix areas outside the borders of the old Villa Italia mall, but still within walking distance of residents, we pick up a few more:

Firehouse Subs
Froyo Zone
Waxing the City

Now, some of these stores I'm excited about (Target, say, and Nordstrom Rack). Others I know I'll never set foot in (I'm talking about you, 100% Chiropractic Wellness Center). And there are some where I'd have loved to have seen a more premium brand fill the niche (Hmm... Zinga! or Pinkberry. Guess which froyo shop I'd rather have opening in my neighborhood.)

But I'm impressed at the number of new businesses opening in what are tough economic times, and in a very non-traditional location.

Urban Target @ Belmar

Our new Target store has been open almost a month now.

This article from the Denver Business Journal gives some stats on the store, which is the Denver metro area's first "Urban Target."

Particularly impressive (to me) is the ample parking for bicycles. There are also dedicated car pool parking in the parking garage. It all seems so green, but may also simply be a reflection of the kind of traffic increase this store is going to bring to downtown Lakewood. I've already seen the turn lanes off Wadsworth Boulevard onto Virginia Ave. and Alameda back up so much that southbound traffic on Wadsworth came to a halt for several cycles of the turn signals.

Traffic, of course, is part of living downtown anywhere, and in that sense the corner of Wadsworth and Alameda has truly become, at long last, downtown Lakewood.

As for me, I'll be walking or riding my bike to the new Target.