Plans for Foothills Mall now visible on horizon

As Northern Colorado’s biggest, newest retail project prepares to welcome shoppers, another appears poised to announce a long-awaited expansion and update.

The two shopping centers will be getting plenty of attention in the next few weeks, with the opening of Loveland’s Promenade Shops at Centerra, and beyond with expansion plans at Foothills Mall in Fort Collins in the offing.

Northern Colorado’s daily newspapers are beginning to buzz with stories on the opening of the Promenade Shops, the open-air, “lifestyle” retail complex on the northeast quadrant of Interstate 25 and U.S. Highway 34.

One story in mid-September suggested the grand opening of the center, set for the weekend of Oct. 28-30, might be a bit of a bust, with a shrinking fraction of the new retailers opening on time.

Another story, in a different newspaper, told of millions in sales tax losses that would deplete treasuries in some Northern Colorado cities while Loveland reaps the rewards that the Promenade Shops offer.

And meanwhile, Foothills Mall’s corporate owner has been quietly pursuing a plan to remake the Grand Dame of Fort Collins’ retail scene, so that it might restore some sales-tax balance with more attractive offerings.

Foothills General Manager Cynthia Eichler used this analogy to describe the progress of the plan: “It’s like a funnel,” she said. “You start with something quite broad, and then you gradually narrow it.”

And how far down the funnel has the Foothills plan moved? “About three-quarters of the way,” Eichler said. “Maybe more.”

Because Foothills’ owner, General Growth Properties Inc., is a publicly held company (NYSE: GGP) managers have been constrained by federal securities regulations – and their own wariness of them – in describing exactly what might be on the agenda.

But whatever is in store, it’s likely the rest of the community will know sooner rather than later.

Will it be before the end of this year? “Personally, I would love to see that happen,” Eichler said, “but I’m not sure we’ll be able to hit that benchmark.”

John Buckbaum, General Growth’s CEO, was in Fort Collins in August to talk with Eichler and Fort Collins city officials about expansion plans during a 2 1/2- hour meeting, Eichler said. He even took a little time to do some mountain biking in the foothills west of Fort Collins.

Buckbaum, the 48-year-old son of GGP’s board chairman, has been a company director since 1992 and CEO since 1999. Eichler said Buckbaum, also a board member of the USA Cycling Development Foundation, never travels without his bicycle.

Fort Collins City Manager Darin Atteberry, citing agreements with GGP, said he would not discuss details of plans to expand and update Foothills, but said he was satisfied with progress of talks with the company.

“I think we’re on track,” Atteberry said, adding that the plan seemed ambitious enough to offset some of the expected loss of sales-tax revenue when the Promenade Shops project opens.

Speaking of Promenade, project developer Terry McEwen, president of Poag & McEwen Lifestyle Centers Inc., said the newspaper account predicting a slim turnout by retailers for the center’s grand opening was inaccurate.

The story in the Fort Collins Coloradoan suggested the permitting process for retailers opening at Centerra was bogged down, and that a large number of them would sit out the opening weekend.

“Actually, that daily story was wrong,” McEwen said. “They were trying to make an issue out of something that is not an issue. Stores don’t start working on the permitting process until they sign a lease, and those who just signed their leases most recently are still going through the process.”

McEwen acknowledged that some of the Promenade Shops would be shut for the center’s grand opening – he and other project backers had always known that would be the case.

“There are a few who are not going to make it by the 28th,” he said. “But by Thanksgiving, I think we’re going to have all our current tenants open.”

McEwen and other shopping center developers and retailers were cheered by a report from consumer trend analysts at Ernst & Young LLP predicting that holiday sales would rise 6 percent to 7 percent above last year’s levels, even though high gasoline and energy prices threaten to keep the lid on shopping.

News editor Tom Hacker covers real estate for the Northern Colorado Business Report. He can be reached at (970) 221-5400, ext. 223, (970) 356-1683, ext. 223 or at thacker@ncbr.com.

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