Foothills mall ‘town halls’ begin, community kicks in

FORT COLLINS — Monday evening’s first of two town halls this week, the second is tonight, began as the next several years of remaking the Foothills mall look to do: casually — then picking up speed.

A muralist painted at the Elizabeth Hotel’s façade, at its entrance. A sign on the door said no masks OK for the vaccinated, though others should wear them. A Louisiana native and Texas resident who’d come to town with Prism Places greeted and checked-in guests.

Reggae pulsed politely from speakers in the Old Town-area boutique hotel’s Walnut Room; chatter began — “outdoor malls are great in summer, but …” and a moment later “well, it’s wedding season you know, so …” — as the space began to fill.

Clyde Wood, the McWhinney vice president, sipped a locally brewed Odell IPA as he chatted with early guests. 

A couple sporting twin black t-shirts proclaiming “School of Rock” — the woman with strawberry bubble gum and ocean teal accents to the ends of her hair — took their seats.

Wood switched to water.

Prism president Stenn Parton moved to the front of the room, microphone in hand.

Logos To Go

On the screen behind him the word Prism — no logo, plain and bespoke, but no rainbows slicing through a 3D box or anything — and the McWhinney logo, the familiar-to-Coloradans stylized M and W looking partly like two diamonds on their sides, partly like the infinity sign — that is, partly like forever.

Before him sat about 70 who’d come out to answer questions, drink the water and the wine, and see what might be done about the mall by which they’d been, in Wood’s words to the gathered, “underwhelmed.”

The recent buyers of the mall for $45 million sought a start to community conversations of “now what?” City denizens agreed.

Parton walked the group through several dozen questions, beginning with a fun one, with answers given via smartphones connected to a tabulating app, the results appearing on-screen in real-time.

He interacted frequently and often, on nearly every question to the point where a handler cautioned near the end of the need for speed.

Participants, most of whom were city residents with more than 10 years in town, complied.

• “The [mall] interior offers very little of what I want,” said one.
• “The demographic of [those inside] shops are a complete miss,” said another.
• “I’m surprised it’s that high,” said several, on seeing a terribly low rating of whether people would recommend those inner sanctum stores to others.

Chatter was cooperative, it built on Parton’s questions and prior comments, and it focused on the sorts of subjects one might expect: chain store or local artisans; open areas and freewheeling social movement or programmed events in dedicated space; who would come to the new mall, and who couldn’t come for the evening’s efforts.

One participant said families with young children weren’t there because they were home with their kids.

This was echoed afterward by Amanda Lima, owner of Lima Coffee Roasters in the Mall. She’s lived in Fort Collins for 32 of her 34 years; her first job was in the mall at the Colorado Coffee Exchange. 

A full FoCo demographic would include those millennials, she said. Town halls tend to attract those with time: elders of a city or its youth, both with time and intention to direct toward such commitments.

She nonetheless thought the evening went well.

“I’m very happy they were the ones” to buy the mall, she said of the companies guiding the process and wanting to make good, and make money, on their bargain basement investment.  

Get Moving

L.A.-based Prism Partners and Loveland-based McWhinney are partners in the deal and both Wood and Parton promise a “one of one” result, whatever that eventually looks like.

Parton said that surveys would get out to the city in multiple ways, including working with a third-party question-taker, and on social media.

The casual and conversational will eventually lead to form and function, like the beginnings of whispers, then proposals, then closing of the deal itself through the mall’s receivership to the now and into the now what?

Parton noted a mall redevelopment of recent memory — the north of $300 million spent by the previous owners that produced the underwhelm. He later wouldn’t say how much the partners are prepared, or not to spend on their work.

“Where you spend it,” is more important than how much, he said after voting had ended.

Monday’s conversation was at the Elizabeth; Tuesday’s is at the former Loft Outlet, at the mall. It begins at 6 p.m.

© 2021 BizWest Media LLC

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