Legal & Courts  May 2, 2003

Real Estate: McWhinney getting closer to landing major retailers

LOVELAND — McWhinney Enterprises appears ready for a great leap forward in the race to build a regional shopping center in Northern Colorado.

Potential anchor tenants were in town during the week of April 21 to visit the proposed site for a 500,000-square-foot “lifestyle” center at McWhinney’s Centerra development.

Poag and McEwan, the developer working on the McWhinney site, may be announcing the commitment of key retailers before the annual International Council of Shopping Centers the week of May 19.

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The timing is crucial. If Poag and McEwan can secure at least one anchor, then it has more to sell at the ICSC meeting in Las Vegas, where shopping center owners and developers show their wares to retail chains.

“The reaction so far from all the (prospective tenants) we met with previously has been very favorable,´ said Nick Christensen, vice president of real estate for McWhinney.

Poag and McEwan is among three different developers considering three different sites in Northern Colorado for a lifestyle center, all in the vicinity of 500,000 square feet.

Other cities in the hunt for a similar shopping center are Windsor and Fort Collins.

It’s possible the first developer to secure a roster of anchor tenants will be the only one to get out of the ground. That decision seems to be in the hands of the retailers.

Weld Food Bank set to move

GREELEY — The Weld Food Bank is stuffed.

The non-profit agency, which distributes about 4.5 million pounds of food each year, has run out of space at its existing warehouse at 104 11th Ave. in Greeley.

In response, the Food Bank has staked out a three-acre lot near the intersection of N. 11th Avenue and H Street where it hopes to build a new 30,240-square-foot facility.

“We have, for a number of years, been renting freezer space in Denver and dry storage in Fort Collins,´ said Leona Martin, executive director of the agency. “Besides being an expense, it’s very inefficient.”

Furthermore, Weld County’s fast-growing population combined with a soft economy has increased the demand for the Food Bank’s services, Martin said.

As planned, the Food Bank wants to raise $2.5 million for development costs at the site. “We hope to be half way there by June,” Marti said.

The construction timetable for the new warehouse has not been established.

Mason North trips “trigger”

FORT COLLINS — Mason Street North is about to jump off the drawing board and into the ground.

Developers of the $8 million mixed use project have received lease commitments for half of the 20,000 square feet of commercial space, which they considered necessary before they could break ground.

“We needed a trigger,´ said Mickey Willis of Paradigm Realty, a partner in the New Urbanist project at the eastern fringe of Martinez Park.

“Typically in a mixed-use developing, depending on the economic atmosphere, we need about 60-percent pre-lease on our commercial space and 50-to-60 percent for residential.”

Willis has pre-sold 10 of the 20 loft condominiums in the project.

Mason Street North’s backers include Boulder-based Wolff Lyon Architects and Wonderland Hill Development Co., the same builder that constructed the Martinez Park Co-housing project.

The project includes three buildings and covers 42,000 square feet. Commercial space has been leased by professional offices, including medical and real estate users.

“We’re going to have a caf?,” Willis said. “That’s probably going to be the only retail over here.”

Residential units are priced from $150,000 to $394,000.

Construction on all three buildings could start as soon as this summer, Willis said.

In-Situ eyes Fort Ram building

FORT COLLINS — In-Situ Inc., a technology company that plans to move to Fort Collins from Laramie, has picked the former Fort Ram building, 450 Linden St., for its temporary offices.

In-Situ has placed the 15,000-square-foot building under contract and hopes to move by next year.

The company, which makes water analysis instruments, needs the temporary space until it can build a permanent campus at 105 E. Lincoln Ave.

In-Situ’s plans call for a 41,625-square-foot facility on four acres along the north bank of the Cache la Poudre River. The company has 65 employees.

LOVELAND — McWhinney Enterprises appears ready for a great leap forward in the race to build a regional shopping center in Northern Colorado.

Potential anchor tenants were in town during the week of April 21 to visit the proposed site for a 500,000-square-foot “lifestyle” center at McWhinney’s Centerra development.

Poag and McEwan, the developer working on the McWhinney site, may be announcing the commitment of key retailers before the annual International Council of Shopping Centers the week of May 19.

The timing is crucial. If Poag and McEwan can secure at least one anchor, then it has more to sell at the ICSC…

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