Chrisland sells 43 acres for Johnstown Plaza retail center

JOHNSTOWN — While Chrisland Real Estate Cos. is still acting as broker for multiple other landowners within the 2534 development in Johnstown, the company this week sold off the last major chunk of land it owned itself to make way for hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail development.

Chrisland officials announced on Tuesday that they’ve sold 43 acres to Kansas-based Johnstown Plaza LLC and sporting goods retailer Scheels, which is building a 250,000-square-foot megastore at the site.

Chrisland CEO Ryan Schaefer and Johnstown Plaza’s Allen Schlup declined to disclose the price paid for the land on Tuesday, and Larimer County property records do not yet reflect the sale. In addition to the Chrisland land, Scheels also purchased roughly four adjacent acres for another landowner that will serve as parking for the store.

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The 2534 development, for which Chrisland first gained approval in 2005, is a 600-acre master-planned project at the southeast corner of Interstate 25 and U.S. Highway 34 that is slated to include a mix of retail, office and light-industrial uses, along with apartments and single-family homes. Many of the retail pad sites along the south side of Highway 34 have already been developed.

Johnstown Plaza is the main retail center within 2534 and will sit directly to the south of the pad sites. It is slated to include nearly 1 million square feet of retail space. The first phase of that, including Scheels, includes 564,000 square feet of space that will straddle Thompson Parkway. It will sit on the land purchased from Chrisland. Scheels, which has already begun work on its site, is slated to host an official groundbreaking ceremony Feb. 17.

Schlup — whose company developed the 1.1 million-square-foot Corbin Park shopping center in Overland Park, Kan. — said Tuesday that no leases have been signed yet for the Phase 1 spaces, though he said multiple announcements will be coming soon. Johnstown Plaza’s website indicates that the company is in discussions with several retailers, including Hobby Lobby, Burlington Coat Factory and Gordman’s.

“We are deep into negotiations with a number of tenants,” Schlup said.

Johnstown Plaza LLC is under contract to buy the land for Phase 2 of the retail center, which will sit mostly west of Phase I along I-25 and include 402,000 square feet.

None of that includes Liberty Firearms, which is building a new location south of Johnstown Plaza, and a pair of hotels that are under construction near the shopping center.

Chrisland, meanwhile, owns just one other piece of vacant land in the development, a 1.5-acre parcel at the corner of Highway 34 and Thompson Parkway that is slated for retail and restaurant uses.

“We’re evaluating multiple offers on it right now,” Schaefer said. “We’ve sold off most of what we’ve owned over the last 18 months.”