Grocery store may rise near College and Drake in Fort Collins

FORT COLLINS — The Fort Collins Planning and Zoning Commission next Thursday will review a proposal for an 18,000-square-foot grocery store to be located at 2839 S. College Ave.

The size of the proposed retailer and the applicant, Denver-based Rogue Architecture, suggests that the new business could be an outlet of Lakewood-based Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Inc. (NYSE: NGVC). Rogue has been involved in construction of multiple Natural Grocers locations, including in downtown Greeley, and the grocer’s website indicates that its stores range from 5,000 to 16,000 square feet.

Natural Grocers also opened a store at 745 N. Lincoln Ave. in November 2023, and Rogue was also involved in that project.

According to the application filed with Fort Collins city planners, the vacant 55-year-old building on the site, which had been home to several businesses including a former Mitsubishi dealership, would be demolished to make way for the grocery store.

Know More LLC of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, purchased the site, on the west side of College Avenue just south of Drake Road, for $3 million in 2022. The seller was D65 LLC, headed by R. Michael and William P. Dellenbach.

Natural Grocers already has a store at 4318 S. College Ave. A spokeswoman for the company had not returned calls in time for BizWest’s afternoon deadline seeking to ascertain whether the chain is indeed involved in the plan, and if so whether the existing store 15 blocks to the south would be closed.

Representatives for the architect and the city planning staff also had not returned calls seeking details of the plan.

A conceptual review hearing for the plan will be held at 9:15 a.m. Thursday.

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