Foothills mall remains the region’s biggest

FORT COLLINS — The biggest shopping center in Northern Colorado could have had a much more “country” theme to it if Fort Collins’ rapid growth from a farm hamlet to a more-cosmopolitan community hadn’t changed a few minds early on.

Foothills Fashion Mall, built in 1973, is still the region’s biggest shopping center 28 years after it first opened. At more than 600,000 square feet of leasable space, the popular shopping mecca is more than 20,000 square feet bigger than its nearest competitor, the Greeley Mall, which has about 584,000 square feet of leasable space.

But in those early days back in…