Legal & Courts  October 28, 2005

Retail on drawing board for northwest Loveland

LOVELAND – From absent to abundant, northwest Loveland’s retail scene could change dramatically in coming years if two grocery-anchored shopping center proposals take shape.

At the southwest corner of Wilson Avenue and 43rd Street, 43rd Street Partners is proposing Glen Isle Towne Centre. The approximately 20-acre site is zoned for 140,000 square feet of retail and office space, said developer Bob Dildine. Across 43rd Street to the north, Hunt Properties owns an already approved center, dubbed Loveland Crossing in planning documents.

As proposed, Glen Isle Towne Centre will feature an approximately 67,000-square-foot grocery store along with other retail uses. No grocery tenant has been confirmed yet, Dildine said, although King Soopers has been mentioned.

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“We’ve been talking with King Soopers for quite a while now, but we have not signed any lease with them yet,” Dildine said.

Glen Isle Towne Centre will also include a bank and general retail uses such as a liquor store, card shop, beauty shop, restaurants and convenience retail. “The typical things you’d find in a grocery store-anchored retail center,” Dildine said.

The center is located in the midst of an area that currently offers no other retail development. “There’s no retail in that whole area north of Eisenhower,” Dildine noted.

Another center, Loveland Crossing, is proposed at the northwest corner of Wilson and 43rd. The 85,000-square-foot commercial development was approved in the fall of 2004, said Sherry Albertson-Clark, manager of Current Planning for the city of Loveland. As proposed, a grocery store would occupy about 58,000 square feet.

According to city records, the center was acquired by Hunt Properties of Dallas. Albertson-Clark said that for months after the center was approved by the city, she received telephone inquiries from would-be tenants. Since then, however, a reporter’s call was the first inquiry in several months.

Dildine said he is confident that Glen Isle Towne Centre has a better site and site plan as far as inking a grocery store tenant is concerned. “We’re confident that we’re going to be very competitive.”

Plans for Glen Isle Towne Centre call for Mediterranean-style finishes featuring stucco, stone and a tile roof. “It will be a very highly designed, very well-designed center,” Dildine said. “We think it will be probably the highest quality center in Loveland.”

Should Loveland Crossing acquire that major tenant first, however, “It would probably make it less likely that we could get going in the near future,” Dildine added. “We think there will be two grocery stores there, but they’re not going to go in right together.”

A proposed Super Wal-Mart store on U.S. Highway 287 in north Loveland could also potentially slow the development of Glen Isle Towne Centre. “It affects us in the sense that it affects some of the market studies for the grocery store people as far as their ability to produce the income they need to sustain a store,” Dildine noted.

Dildine estimates his center proposal is six to eight months from receiving final approval from the city. Construction is probably at least 18 months out, he said.

As far as the city of Loveland is concerned, both the retail center sites are situated on land earmarked for neighborhood activity center use, Albertson-Clark said. Both are annexed and zoned for a planned unit development. She noted that the city’s perspective is that the market will determine whether both retail centers develop and when.

LOVELAND – From absent to abundant, northwest Loveland’s retail scene could change dramatically in coming years if two grocery-anchored shopping center proposals take shape.

At the southwest corner of Wilson Avenue and 43rd Street, 43rd Street Partners is proposing Glen Isle Towne Centre. The approximately 20-acre site is zoned for 140,000 square feet of retail and office space, said developer Bob Dildine. Across 43rd Street to the north, Hunt Properties owns an already approved center, dubbed Loveland Crossing in planning documents.

As proposed, Glen Isle Towne Centre will feature an approximately 67,000-square-foot grocery store along with other retail uses. No grocery tenant…

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