Nearby subdivisions help feed Broadlands Marketplace interest

BROOMFIELD — The new Broadlands Marketplace in Broomfield is on the verge of completion. With nearly 60 percent of the center already leased, it shouldn’t be long before local residents have a wide variety of businesses to provide service retail, restaurant and grocery options.

?Activity has been brisk,? said Jeffrey Hirschfeld of Antonoff & Company, the broker handling the leasing arrangements. ?It’s an exciting project, and it’s right near the Broadlands golf course as well. We’ve had a lot of restaurants looking to put in a location to serve the morning traffic for the golf course. We’re seeing a lot of interest from that area.?

The 14.6-acre property is located at the southwest corner of 144th and Lowell Boulevard. A 58,000-square-foot Safeway grocery store anchors the center, and several smaller retailers will fill out the marketplace.

Hirschfeld already has leased spots to a liquor store, a bank, a dry cleaner, two hair salons and a tanning salon as well as a pizza parlor. He expects the Safeway to open sometime in October. The smaller inline retail spaces are currently available at $24 per square foot. Antonoff & Co. also has two self-standing parcels for sale, one measuring 30,000 square feet and another at 75,000 square feet.

The marketplace also will have a gas station, probably operated by Safeway, located on the north side along 144th Avenue. The two access points into the Broadlands Marketplace will be located on both Lowell Boulevard and 144th Avenue.

With vehement competition among cities for retail centers, Broomfield entered into an agreement last year to provide $500,000 over the next five years to Safeway to ensure construction of the grocery store and its adjoining commercial center. Half the funds from the city will come from sales tax revenues from the grocery store, which is expected to generate $370,000 in city sales tax in its first year alone.

This is the third tax incentive deal made between Broomfield and grocery store operations in the last five years following two $600,000 reimbursement deals with King Soopers for locations on West 120th Avenue and Miramonte Boulevard.

Grocery complexes traditionally generate a high percentage of sales tax revenues for municipalities around in the north metro area, sometimes leading to fierce infighting among communities to produce desirable developments. City officials have stated publicly that the incentive was necessary in order to guarantee Safeway’s participation in the project.

Much of Broomfield’s funds will be applied toward landscaping, plazas and other public improvements to the site, which Hunt Properties terms ?pedestrian-friendly.? The center will include wide sidewalks, canopy areas for outdoor seating at the restaurant facilities, a large plaza with bench seating and parking for golf carts from the nearby Broadlands golf course.

The marketplace adds a lot to that sector of the Broomfield community, according to Don Dunshee of the Broomfield Economic Development Corp.

?I think it’s going to be a major success. It’s a really nice looking project,? said Dunshee. ?It’s virtually up at this point in a great spot, plus nearby Dillon Road and 104th is a major east-west street that feeds right into the Northwest Parkway.?

Construction is proceeding north of this location on the $415 million Northwest Parkway, a toll road feeding into E-470 and I-25 that is scheduled to open Dec. 31.

The Broadlands Marketplace comes with a built-in consumer base with its proximity to the enormous new Broadlands subdivision, a housing development located at 136th and Lowell that eventually will total more than 2,000 homes at build out.

?There are 1,000 that are already occupied,? said Dunshee. ?Then you have Aspen Creek, which has 500 homes and that’s about a third occupied already. Eagle Trace, an older subdivision, is only a mile and a half away. There’s a lot of development close by that project in the Westminster area as well.?

The Broadlands Marketplace is owned by Dallas, Texas-based Hunt Properties Inc. Hunt Properties specializes in developing community and neighborhood retail centers in strong growth areas and partners with national tenants to anchor the properties, including Safeway, Kroger, Home Depot and Wal-Mart. The company operates and continues to develop properties in Texas, Colorado, Arizona, California, Oklahoma and Florida.

Hunt also developed the Broomfield Marketplace shopping center at Miramonte Boulevard and U.S. 287, which was fully leased when it opened.

Captec Reality Capital, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., provided financing. Captec traditionally provides equity capital for projects such as the Broadlands Marketplace, allowing developers to focus their time and efforts on project management and growing the retail center.

?Hunt is doing a great job on this project,? said Dunshee. ?It’s really roaring ahead.?

The massive scale of the Broadlands subdivision also gives the Marketplace some assured success in that there is virtually no competition in the surrounding area.

?There really isn’t anything else in the area, retail-wise,? said Hirschfeld. ?I think that’s one of the major reasons we’re getting so much activity.?

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