Rents won’t come cheap at redeveloped Foothills Mall

Renting space for a store at the redeveloped Foothills Mall won’t come cheap.

The mall’s new owner and developer, Alberta Development Partners of Denver, said Wednesday it expects to charge “top-of-market” rents for space in the mall, similar to those found in larger cities like Denver.

“It’ll be as nice as any Class A mall in any city in this country,” Don Provost, founder of Alberta, told those gathered for the Everitt Real Estate Center conference in Fort Collins Wednesday.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Business Cares: April 2024

In Colorado, 1 in 3 women, 1 in 3 men and 1 in 2 transgender individuals will experience an attempted or completed sexual assault in their lifetime. During April, we recognize Sexual Assault Awareness Month with the hopes of increasing conversations about this very important issue.

Retailers should not expect any discounts, he said.

In exchange, they will get a chance to do business in a mall that will “be the best new asset in Northern Colorado,” he said.

Retail rents in the Denver and Northern Colorado markets have been climbing from their recession lows, increasing 14 percent since the fourth quarter of 2008, according to Matt Bannister of CoStar.

Alberta is planning on revamping the mall from the inside out, redesigning the interior of the space by adding windows and bumping up the height of the ceilings.

Two large lawns will be located on the east and west sides of the mall, which will also see the addition of a movie theater. The exterior of the building will feature what Provost called “sophisticated Colorado contemporary architecture.”

Outdoor amenities will include a skating pond in the winter and dancing fountains designed by the same company that created the famed fountains at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas.

The redesigned mall is scheduled to open in time for the 2014 holidays.

Alberta has said that it plans to attract higher-end retailers to Foothills, and Provost expressed confidence in the firm’s ability to do just that.

Retailers such as Forever 21, Charming Charlie and H&M are newer concepts and are looking to grow as the economy continues to improve.

Publicly traded retailers’ balance sheets are healthier than ever, Provost said, and these companies are looking for growth in order to deliver higher returns and share prices to their stockholders.