Longmont developer buys S. Main property with eye on mixed-use project

LONGMONT – Kiki Wallace, developer of the Prospect New Town neighborhood on Longmont’s southern edge, has purchased a piece of land on S. Main Street in anticipation of a revitalization of the area just south of the city’s downtown core.

Through the entity Burlington Neighborhood LLC, Wallace paid $597,000 for 125 S. Main from the owners of Essex Motors. The property, which covers two-thirds of an acre on the west side of Main, is the site of You Sell Auto. Wallace said he’s also under contract to purchase a similar-size vacant parcel just to the south at 127 S. Main for $400,000 from the same owners. And he’s got an option on a half-acre vacant property at 129 S. Main.

Wallace said his short-term plan is to spruce up the properties and continue leasing them while the city does flood mitigation work just to the south along the St. Vrain River. But within the next five to 10 years his intent is to develop a mixed-use project that would include high-density residential and retail components.

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The property sits about a block and a half south of a major redevelopment of the former Butterball turkey plant site at First Avenue and Main Street.

“Longterm I expect it to be right in the path for Longmont’s vision for developing … that part of town,” Wallace said. “It’s a nice little parcel with lots of potential.”

He doesn’t want to begin the redevelopment, however, until the city’s flood mitigation work is done. The property, he said, was partially flooded during the historic flooding of 2013. But it’s near multiple areas that were devastated by the rising waters.

The city over the past year has purchased the former Royal mobile home park to the west of Wallace’s property and the properties at 131 and 133 S. Main just to the south. Plans include widening the river channel through the area and building a new bridge over the river to help keep future floodwaters better contained.

“Once they do all of that, it becomes a much more feasible development site,” Wallace said.