McWhinney faces tough questions about ‘social and economic heart’ of Baseline

BROOMFIELD — As McWhinney Real Estate Services Inc. prepares to build Center Street — a district that the company and Broomfield planners consider to be the “social and economic heart” of the Baseline mega-development — the developer is facing scrutiny from city leaders who appear a bit wary of a potential reduction of commercial space in favor of more homes.

Center Street — which will sit on about 63 acres in the middle of the 1,100-acre Baseline project located south of Baseline Road, west of I-25 and east of Sheridan Parkway — was envisioned as the development’s urban commercial core that could include offices, hotels, apartments, senior living, entertainment options and restaurants.

While all of those uses are still on the table, McWhinney presented plans for Center Street during a concept review before the Broomfield City Council recently that were more residential-centric than previous iterations. 

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Developer representatives told city leaders that a host of factors such as increasing construction costs — which can lead to higher rents for retailers and make newly built storefronts less competitive — and the COVID-19 pandemic — which devastated many brick-and-mortar retailers and lessened demand for certain types of office space — have created market conditions that necessitate a pivot. 

“We have to start somewhere, and we think this is the responsible way to start,” McWhinney’s Baseline general manager Kyle Harris said during Tuesday’s hearing. 

As constituted, “Center Street District is proposed to consist of approximately 215,000 square feet of commercial/retail (including an anchor grocer), 620,000 square feet of office (including traditional office, loft office, and medical office), a 180-room hotel, and 1,240 residential units (including 180 active adult units),” Broomfield planning documents show.

It’s unclear specifically how this breakdown of uses differs from previous conceptual notions of Center Street, but both the city and the developer acknowledged that commercial and retail space has been reduced in favor of housing. 

Regardless of any strategy shifts, McWhinney officials say they remain committed to building a vibrant core for Baseline.

Still, city planning staffers and elected officials have concerns such as the overall density and intensity of development, the potential negative fiscal impacts on Broomfield’s public coffers due to the shift away from certain commercial elements, public-land dedications, and the placement of unappealing surface parking near community gateways.

The ability to raise metro-district funding to pay for future infrastructure projects could be negatively affected by the presence of more homes and fewer businesses, Broomfield officials said.

“This was not quite as strong as we expected it to be from the retail side and therefore there is some underlying concern about the finances,” Broomfield economic-vitality director Jeff Romine told elected officials Tuesday.

Because plans for Center Street are still conceptual, Broomfield city manager Jennifer Hoffman said it’s tough to accurately estimate the specific dollars-and-cents impact that a less commerce-centric district could have for the city. 

Councilwoman Heidi Henkel recalled that in the past, developers have promised city residents that commercial aspects of projects will follow soon after residential elements. But once the residential projects are approved, “there’s really no incentive for them to come back and help us develop the commercial,” she said. 

McWhinney representatives are expected to be back before Broomfield leaders in August for additional preliminary reviews, and members of the City Council requested more data from which to better review changes to specific elements of the Baseline concept. 

Few existing communities in the Boulder Valley or the northern Denver metro area match Baseline in sheer scope and diversity of development types.

At full build-out, which could take decades, the community could boast more than 17 million square feet of commercial space and more than 9,200 homes.

McWhinney is projected to submit site plans and subdivision plats for city approval in mid-2023 with construction expected next year.