Les Schwab Tire Centers opens 1st Colorado stores

Les Schwab Tire Centers said it will have its first five Colorado stores open by Thursday.
The Bend, Ore.-based tire retailer built all five stores since it announced it was coming to Colorado in March.

Customers might be taken aback at first by the chain’s service model, which harkens back to the days of full-service gas stations: A Les Schwab employee runs out to the car when a customer pulls on the lot.
“Sometimes they unroll their windows and ask if they parked in the wrong spot, but a majority of customers are excited and happy to be taken care of,” said Jeff Lowry, area manager for Colorado. “Our big deal is service.”

Since the Aurora store opened first on Sept. 21, Les Schwab officials used it for a training store for the 60 or so employees hired to work the five stores. Most of those hires were made locally, Lowry said.

Les Schwab has 374 company-owned stores nationwide, mostly in the western United States, including the new stores in Denver. The company has sold $1.4 billion worth of tires as of January, Lowry said.

The total number of Les Schwab stores is 440, with 6,660 employees.

The company picked metro Denver to open its first five Colorado stores because of the growing population and improving local economy, Lowry said. “It’s a great community and we’re excited to be a part of it.”

Grand opening celebrations for the stores are planned for Thursday through Saturday, with free food, cake and soft drinks. Saturday, the company is giving away Denver Nuggets tickets and allowing local high schools to sell tickets to on-site food trucks for fundraisers.

Congratulations to Tami Lord and Peter Pavlakis of Legend Retail Group for their work in helping Les Schwab open their first stores in Colorado!

Legend Retail Group
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Denver, Colorado 80222
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The new stores are located at:
• 3430 N. Tower Rd., Aurora, opened Sept. 2.
• 2001 Federal Blvd, Denver, opened Oct. 15.
• 945 Sergeant Jon Stiles Dr. Highlands Ranch, opening Thursday.
• Littleton: 13331 W Bowles Ave., Littleton, opened Oct 5.
• Parker: 11265 Pikes Peak Dr., Parker, opening Thursday.

Denver Business Journal by Dennis Huspeni, Reporter
Date: Tuesday, October 16, 2012, 2:49pm MDT - Last Modified: Tuesday, October 16, 2012, 3:23pm MDT

New Belgium, Smash Burger team up to pair burgers and beer

Smash Burger and New Belgium Pairing Menu

• Truffle Mushroom Swiss Burger & Fat Tire Amber Ale
• BBQ, Bacon & Cheddar Burger & 1554 Black Ale
• Colorado Burger & Ranger IPA
• Spicy Baja Burger & Sunshine Wheat
• Spinach and Goat Cheese Chicken Sandwich & Shift Pale Lager
• Crispy Buffalo Chicken Sandwich & Ranger IPA

DENVER — New Belgium Brewing Co. has teamed up with Denver-based Smash Burger to reinvigorate the classic American beer and burger pairing.
At the restaurant’s 16th Street location in Denver, founder Tom Ryan and New Belgium sensory specialist Lauren Salazar unveiled six new beer and burger pairings last week.
When looking at brewers in Colorado that would fit well with Smash Burger’s menu, Ryan said New Belgium rose to the top based on its creativity and quality.
“Burgers and beer are a great American occasion,” Ryan said. “We are bringing great beer and burgers to the forefront.”
Smash Burger has launched the pairings at the Denver 16th Street location and at Fort Collins’ 2550 E. Harmony Road location.
Eventually, the menu parings, such as the Truffle Mushroom Swiss Burger with Fat Tire Amber Ale, will be available at all 16 Colorado Smash Burger stores.
Salazar, who helped pair all of the beers, said craft food, such as craft beer, has lots of flavor. The burger’s ingredients can highlight the beer’s taste and vice versa.
For example, he said, the hops in the Fat Tire are understated and the mushrooms in the Truffle Mushroom Swiss Burger help bring them out.
There are plans to extend the pairing concept to other states.

A NEW ANGLE ON WALMART SUPERCENTERS

News about Legend Retail Group's listing and client...

"It will look different from any of our other stores in Denver or Colorado.”

By John Mossman The Denver Post

 
The design of the proposed Walmart in the 9th-and-Colorado project will be a compromise between the developer’s upscale rendering and newer Walmarts being built in other urban areas, company officials said.    “I think it will look somewhere between the developer’s rendering and a store that obviously has our branding and at least a hint of our architectural signature,” said Josh Phair, Walmart’s public-affairs representative in Colorado. “It will look different from any of our other stores in Denver or Colorado.”    The proposed store will be similar to urban stores the company is building in Washington, D.C., and Chicago — “stores that look nothing like a suburban Walmart,” Phair said. He added: “It’s really dictated by the design guidelines for the project. In essence, the neighborhood has kind of built the store for us on the exterior.”     

Developer Jeff Fuqua’s plan to have a Walmart as the anchor of the $180 million, 28-acre redevelopment project has inflamed neighborhood critics. They say having a Walmart as the anchor of the project — on the old University of Colorado Hospital site — will destroy their middle-class neighborhood; increase crime, traffic and noise; and hurt small, local businesses. They also abhor Walmart’s labor and employment practices. Those sentiments have been expressed at various community meetings, most recently Wednesday night. Fuqua says the project can’t go forward without Walmart, a large sales-tax generator that is the only major retailer to agree to the stringent design standards.    The Walmart will have underground parking, with limited surface parking, and will blend in with the rest of the project, with no hint of the big-box look of most of its stores, officials say. “You could probably drive by on Colorado Boulevard and not know that is a retail store,” Fuqua said.

Walmart officials also said they’re still studying whether the store will be a 24-hour operation, pending a security analysis and community feedback, although the company’s “default” position is for round-the-clock hours.

Delia Garcia, media director for Walmart West, told The Denver Post that the store will be a Supercenter, despite its size of 119,000 square feet — modest by Walmart standards. “Supercenter refers to product mix, not size,” she said Thursday. “Everybody thinks it means super-sized, but it doesn’t. What it really means is you can have electronics and apparel and all those departments as well as a grocery. It’s about one-stop shopping convenience. There are some Supercenters that are 100,000 square feet and some that are 230,000 square feet.” Phair said the Supercenter will have sustainable features, including reduced greenhouse-gas emissions, low-flow water fixtures and energy-efficient heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems. Not planned are a tire and lube center, garden center, drive-through pharmacy, gun sales or liquor sales, except for 3.2 beer, Phair said.


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By John Mossman: 303-954-1479, jmossman@denverpost.com  

Downtown Office Depot To Be Transformed Into Mixed-Use Development

By John Mossman
The Denver Post

The downtown property that currently houses Office Depot at the corner of 16th and Market streets will be transformed into a new 10-story mixed-use development called 16M.

It will offer office space, street-level retail and restaurant amenities and, on the upper floors, residential units.

Completion of the project — which is being developed by Integrated Properties Inc. along with Elevation Group and Sage Hospitality — is planned for early 2014.

The project, which has been approved by the Lower Downtown Design Review Board, includes residential rental units, 130,000 square feet of office space, 15,000 square feet of retail space, a rooftop fitness center and outdoor terrace, and three levels of underground parking with direct access to all floors.

"We're very excited about the momentum in the LoDo district and are confident 16M's visibility and easy accessibility for both tenants and residents will exemplify the mixed-use, work-live-play vitality of the district," said Bruce Deifik of Integrated Properties.

"Easily accessible urban locations have become more attractive as fuel costs remain high and as companies attempt to boost recruitment efforts by providing greater convenience to employees."

Jamie Gard — executive managing director of Denver-based Newmark Knight Frank Frederick Ross, which is the leasing and marketing agent for the project — said the Office Depot will be demolished to make way for the development.

The street level likely will be all restaurants, Gard said. "Anything from high-end, white-tablecloth to fast casual," he said, "and the hope is to have a blend. We're talking to a bunch of people."

Floors two through six will be offices, and 43 rental units will occupy floors seven through 10.

The project initially was proposed as a 180-room W Hotel with 56 condominiums on top.

The design review board sent the developers back to the drawing board in March, asking the architecture firm Gensler to modify the plan to remove rooftop functions that violate height limitations, break up the mass of the facade along Market Street, integrate the architecture of the residential portion with the office portion, and emphasize the corner of the building.

Re-posted by: Legend Retail Group
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Chipotle eyes 155-165 new stores in 2012

Denver Business Journal
Date: Thursday, July 19, 2012, 2:48pm MDT - Last Modified: Thursday, July 19, 2012, 4:56pm MDT

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. said it expects to open between 155 and 165 new restaurants this year.

The Denver company (NYSE: CMG) outlined its growth plans in reporting its second-quarter financials for the year.

Chipotle opened 55 restaurants during the second quarter and now has 1,316 locations.
Through the first six months of the year, Chipotle has added 87 locations.

Click here for more information.


Legend Retail Group

Big-Box Vacancies Prove Hard To Fill

The closing of big-box stores in recent years belonging to the likes of Borders Group Inc., Circuit City Inc. and others has left suburban shopping centers around the country with lots of space to fill.

National vacancy stats for big-box centers have come down a bit to 6.6 percent from a recent high of 7.9 percent in 2009, according to CoStar. But CoStar expects that figure to inch back up by the end of this year, likely hitting 6.8 percent, because of more retailers closing their doors in the weeks and months ahead.

Memphis has seen plenty of examples, especially when looking at empty retail spaces from a broader perspective than the typical metric of a big box that has a minimum of at least 50,000 square feet or so.
The 20,000-square-foot Tower Records space in Downtown’s Peabody Place center, for example, was vacated when the music retail giant was liquidated six years ago and still has not been filled.

A 16,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by World Market, directly across Germantown Parkway from Wolfchase Galleria, still has not been filled since the store’s closing three years ago.

Tower Records, which had been one of the anchors of Peabody Place, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2004, then again in 2006. World Market entered the Memphis area six years ago with three stores, but in 2009 the owner of the chain announced it was closing 26 stores and exiting eight markets, including Memphis.

In a statement about the closings, World Market’s president and CEO Barry Field said the company was moving to “rationalize its operations and media markets in this challenging economic environment.”

“The challenge in filling big-box spaces would be the lack of 40,000- to 60,000-square-foot users, and this is not just a Memphis problem,” said Andrew Phillips, vice president of investment and retail services in Memphis for Colliers International. “We are seeing some discounter retailers who will take down larger spaces, but they are not willing to pay the kind of rents that many landlords want to see.

“If a landlord decides to subdivide the space, it can be expensive, but we have seen some activity when a landlord is willing, or financially able, to do so. A good example of this is at the Market at Riverdale Bend, where we had a 45,000-square-foot former Best Buy space, which the landlord divided for Planet Fitness and Goodwill.”

Phillips said the spaces formerly occupied by Blockbuster, the movie chain that exited the Memphis market a few years ago, have been actively scouted. For the old Blockbuster space in the Germantown Collection, he said there’s been a great deal of interest and that Colliers has just signed a lease for a majority of the space with Gould’s Salon.

Most of those locations have high visibility and demanded higher rents. That requires particular care to choose the right tenant to backfill those spaces.

“Memphis (also) was flooded with big boxes with Kroger’s purchase of Schnucks and subsequent closure of certain locations,” Phillips said. “We have already seen a few of the best located former grocery stores backfilled, and many of these grocers are doing quite well. Many of us were hoping to see another grocery chain immediately jump into the Memphis market after the Schnucks departure, but it will take some time.”

Longmont's Twin Peaks Mall to Get Major Makeover

LONGMONT -- Baby steps won't be enough to revive 27-year-old Twin Peaks Mall. It's going to take blowing the roof off the joint.
That's what the mall's new owners, NewMark Merrill Mountain States, told an audience of more than 150 people Wednesday that attended the second public meeting the company has hosted since it bought the mall in February.

Managing director and principal Allen Ginsborg told the crowd that after receiving input from more than 2,000 community members and, even more important from the standpoint of making Twin Peaks a strong revenue generator again, more than 100 retailers, the mall as it is must cease to exist.

The mall was in foreclosure when NMMS bought it in February for $8.5 million, a fraction of the $33.6 million the previous owner had paid in 2007.
"For the most part the retailers that want to move into this market are not traditional, enclosed, regional mall tenants," Ginsborg said. "It's an open-air format. That's the direction they're driving this to.
"We see this project as a different type of experience. More of an outdoor, community oriented center."
Ginsborg unveiled an artist's rendering that showed a large fountain with kids playing, some outdoor seating, decorative features and storefronts that surrounded the plaza. The "Twin Peaks" sign stood atop an open-air archway.

Marketing Tool Most Real Estate Pros Want?

A very interesting article about technology in the Real Estate Business.  Legend Retail Group has been doing iPad tours for over a year.  They are a great tool to use and the way the industry is going with the new technology.  A great way to carry around demos, tours, aerials and any information you need in one handy carrying case.  No need to haul around 3 Ring binders anymore!

Daily Real Estate News | Wednesday, April 04, 2012

The iPad is the marketing tool that more than three out of four of 110 real estate professionals recently surveyed say they would most like to have, according to the survey by Imprev, a marketing technology company.
The real estate professionals surveyed selected up to five marketing products they most wanted, with the iPad coming out No. 1, followed by 35 percent who want an automated “drip” e-marketing campaign, 29 percent who prefer single property Web sites, 28 percent who said personal blogs, and 25 percent who eyed video.
“Real estate agents are shouting that they want their iPad apps,” says Renwick Congdon, Imprev’s CEO and founder. “The iPad from Apple is quickly becoming a ubiquitous marketing and productivity tool for the real estate industry.”
While the iPad is rated what agents most want to have, real estate pros surveyed said their current favorite technology is the smartphone.
“Mobile marketing continues to accelerate at breakneck speed,” says Congdon. “It’s a game changer for the industry.”

Click the link for the rest of the article.

Marketing Tool Most Real Estate Pros Want?

Best Buy to shut 50 stores

MINNEAPOLIS — Best Buy said it plans to close 50 big-box stores and open 100 smaller locations focused on mobile technology in the U.S. in fiscal 2013 and cut $800 million in costs by fiscal 2015. The news came Thursday as the biggest U.S. specialty-electronics retailer posted a fiscal fourth-quarter loss partly due to restructuring charges, but its adjusted results topped Wall Street's expectations.

Best Buy's strategy of focusing on closing some of its hulking stores to concentrate on smaller Best Buy Mobile outlets illustrates the shifting nature of the electronics industry. Shoppers aren't flocking to big-box stores as they used to. And sales of TVs, digital cameras and video-game consoles have weakened, while sales of tablet computers, smartphones and e-readers have increased.

The company said it has not finalized which locations will be targeted for closure.

"We are quite deliberate and thoughtful when we make such decisions," Best Buy spokeswoman Susan Busch said. "We are working to ensure the impact to our employees will be as minimal as possible, while serving all customers in a convenient and satisfying way."

Busch said the company will announce details about specific store locations and timings for closings once they are finalized.

Best Buy operates 23 big-box stores and five mobile locations in Colorado, according to Best Buy spokeswoman Kelly Groehler. That total includes 19 big-box stores and four mobile stores in metro Denver.
Best Buy lost $1.7 billion, or $4.89 a share, for the period ended March 3. That compares with a profit of $651 million, or $1.62 a share, a year ago.

The Minneapolis-based company said its quarterly results included $2.6 billion in charges. They were mostly related to its purchase of Carphone Warehouse Group's interest in the Best Buy Mobile profit-sharing agreement and related costs, as well as an impairment charge tied to writing off Best Buy Europe goodwill and restructuring charges.

Taking these items out, adjusted earnings were $2.47 a share, above the $2.15 a share that analysts surveyed by FactSet forecast.

Revenue rose 3 percent to $16.08 billion but missed Wall Street's $17.18 billion estimate.
For the full year, Best Buy lost $1.23 billion, or $3.36 a share, compared with a profit of $1.28 billion, or $3.08 a share, in the prior year. Adjusted earnings were $3.64 a share, which tops the previous year's $3.43 a share.

Colorado Papa John’s restaurants for sale

The Baltimore company that owns 40 Papa John’s pizza restaurants in Colorado wants to sell all of its locations and already has a buyer for four in the Denver area.
PJCOMN Acquisition Corp., which is operating under bankruptcy protection, has another 32 locations in Minnesota that are also for sale.

The company is offering its restaurants in three lots, divided by location — Denver, Colorado Springs and Minnesota — and expects to reveal the successful bidders and backup bidders on March 21.
Bidders must pass muster with Louisville, Ky.-based Papa John’s International Inc.    (Nasdaq: PZZA), and the bankruptcy court judge has the final say in any sale. No one connected with PJCOMN, Papa John’s or the bankruptcy case was willing to respond to questions, but the details are spelled out in documents filed in various court cases.

Of the 32 Denver-area restaurants PJCOMN is offering to auction off, the company said it’s already found a buyer for four: 12093A W. Alameda Ave., Lakewood; 14575 W. 64th Ave., Arvada; 2420 Arapahoe Road, Boulder; and 1901 Youngfield St., No. 107, Golden.
PJCOMN has asked for bankruptcy court approval to sell those four to L&J Associates LLC for $22,000 each. An Oklahoma company, L&J Associates operates six Papa John’s restaurants in Colorado, including in Castle Rock and Brighton.

PJCOMN noted in court documents that the four stores are unprofitable and should be closed “as their continued operation will not maximize a recovery to creditors in this case.”

PJCOMN said the four locations would be closed if the judge doesn’t approve the sale.
The $88,000 L&J Associates is offering will go to an affiliate of General Electric Capital Corp., which lent the owners of PJCOMN $8.96 million to finance the 2007 purchase of the restaurants.

The General Electric affiliate, known as GECPAC Investments I LLC, holds the senior secured claim against PJCOMN, which still owes the company $7.69 million.

Brian Q. Mills of Castle Rock and H. Clifford Harris, who lives in Maryland, each own half of PJCOMN. They also borrowed $1.25 million from Capital Delivery Ltd., a subsidiary of Papa John’s International that provides financial help to franchisees.

Capital Delivery sued PJCOMN in federal court in Kentucky last August, claiming the franchisee had defaulted on its loan. The lawsuit demanded the repayment of $1 million in principal and $441,382 in interest.

GECPAC Investments I in September sued PJCOMN in Baltimore, also claiming default on a loan, and convinced a judge to appoint a receiver for PJCOMN.

PJCOMN filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Maryland the day after the receivership order, and later blamed “financial problems caused primarily by the franchisor” for the bankruptcy filing.

Before making the filing, PJCOMN sued Papa John’s International in state court in Kentucky, claiming the purchase left them indebted for millions of dollars that they wouldn’t have borrowed had Mills and Harris had a more accurate financial picture of the restaurants.

Mills and Harris bought PJCOMN from Blackstreet Capital Management LLC, a private equity fund in Chevy Chase, Md., for $11.2 million. Their lawsuit claims neither Blackstreet nor Papa John’s International disclosed more than $1.9 million in liabilities, including unpaid taxes. PJCOMN later dropped Blackstreet as a defendant.

Papa John’s International admits to introducing buyer and seller, but not to withholding any financial information.

Papa John’s International counted 3,010 restaurants in North America at the end of last year; all but 597 are company-owned.

Mills and Harris also say they weren’t aware of potential legal trouble over how delivery drivers were paid. Rival Pizza Hut Inc. — a subsidiary of Yum Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) — was sued in California in 2004 over allegations the company failed to reimburse drivers for using their personal vehicles to deliver pizzas and failed to pay wages. The case was settled two years later for $5.1 million.

Shane Bass, a former delivery driver for PJCOMN in Denver and Aurora, filed a suit in federal court in Denver in 2009 and made allegations similar to those in the Pizza Hut case. The lawsuit was later certified as a class action involving more than 1,000 current and former employees. Drivers in Minnesota filed their own class-action lawsuit.

PJCOMN has agreed to settle the two lawsuits for a combined $300,000. The proposed settlement requires the approval of the bankruptcy court.

Grocery centers and outlets lead development

Real Estate Snapshot - Grocery centers and outlets lead development

New York City -- A retail real estate market report, issued by Savills US retail group, found that, even as recovery remains slow, a few formats are progressing at a faster clip than others.

According to Gerry Mason, head of Savills, the majority of recent and planned retail development is in the grocery-anchored and outlet center category. CBL & Associates and Tanger Outlets are among the most active developers scheduled to break ground in 2012.

The largest U.S. retail real estate investors, according to the report are Blackstone, New York City, which transacted $10.73 billion in 2011; DDR, Beachwood, Ohio, which transacted $1.66 billion; and Cole RE Investments, which transacted $1.52 billion in 2011.

The report provided a general overview of the U.S. market as it stands, which showed that marginal vimprovements in the second half of 2011 are leaving most cautiously optimistic about 2012.

However, it still suggested more retailers will fail in 2012. “The retail market is still purging tired concepts and inefficient business models,” said Mason. He suggested Talbots could be a victim, as it is accepting bids to be purchased and will likely file for bankruptcy protection if a deal can’t be reached. Sears Holdings Corp. is another, as it recently announced plans to close 100-120 of its total 2,200 full-line stores in 2012.

“Also, in fourth quarter 2011, Gap announced plans to close 189 stores in the U.S. and downsize numerous Old Navy locations. More closings could follow as the company shifts its focus overseas,” Mason said.

Retailers expected to lead the expansion charge are discount retailers such as Dollar General, Ross Dress for Less and Big Lots). These retailers can fill large footprints and generate strong sales volumes in a recessionary environment, said the report. Other notable movers will be Nordstrom, J.C. Penney, Starbucks and Apple, said the report.

A SMASH HIT

Smashburger’s varied menu has put it on a sizzling growth pace

By Steve Raabe The Denver Post

 
Smashed ground beef is proving to be a winning concept for Denver-based Smashburger.

With 143 locations opened nationwide since its inception in 2007, Smashburger is one of the fastest-growing restaurant chains in the U.S.

Commitments from newly signed franchisees will bring the store total to 450 by 2014.

But that number is small fries to Smashburger chief executive Dave Prokupek, who said the business “easily” could reach 2,000 to 3,000 outlets in the next 20 years.

“No one has ever really grown this fast in the first five years,” he said during a recent lunchtime interview at the Tabor Center Smashburger, gripping a napkin in one hand and in the other a grilled chicken sandwich with goat cheese and spinach.

Gourmet grilled chicken in a joint named after a burger? That’s part of the Smashburger appeal, analysts say. In what the industry defines as the “better burger” niche within the hamburger hierarchy, Smashburger is wooing customers with a diverse menu ranging from customizable burgers to chicken sandwiches and salads to innovative sides such as flash-fried mixed vegetables.

Its largest competitor in the “fast casual” subset of the better-burger category is Five Guys Burger and Fries, a national chain with six times as many U.S. restaurants.

“But Smashburger is different because they have a broader menu. They don’t just have burgers and fries and hot dogs,” said Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Chicago-based restaurant consulting firm Technomic.    Recently, Forbes magazine listed Smashburger as No. 1 among its top 100 “Most Promising Companies.

The Smashburger name derives from the cooking process, in which raw Angus beef meatballs are placed on a grill and smashed into patties by a cook wielding a hand-held steel paddle.

The cook keeps pressure on the patty for 10 seconds, causing it to sear and lock in juices while it continues cooking for another three minutes. According to Prokupek, starting with a loosely packed meatball instead of a preformed patty makes the burger less dense and allows it to better express flavor.

“I eat a lot of burgers, and I would describe this as a very good burger,” said customer David Jasper at the downtown Denver outlet. “They’re juicy and they’re tasty. And you can get in and out of here pretty quick." 

Customers order at the counter, then are served tableside within about five minutes.    The average check is $8. A typical restaurant grosses $959,000 a year.

Although Smashburger is privately owned and not required to report financial information, it recently disclosed to analysts that 2011 sales were $118.7 million, a 72 percent increase from $69 million in 2010. Most of the growth was from opening new outlets. Same-store sales increased 3 percent in 2011.    Smashburger was founded by Denver-based private equity firm Consumer Capital Partners — that same company that until last month was a principal owner of the struggling Quiznos chain. Consumer Capital ceded its Quiznos ownership in a financial restructuring that gave control to New York hedge fund Avenue Capital Group.     

Analysts and Smashburger insiders say the hamburger chain is entirely unaffected by the Quiznos financial problems and restructuring.    “Smashburger is growing much smarter than (Consumer Capital) did with Quiznos,” said restaurant analyst John Gordon of San Diego-based Pacific Management Consulting Group.

While many of Quiznos’ franchisees are one-store mom-and-pop operators, Smashburger is focused on high-volume, multi-store franchise investors, Gordon said.

Initial franchise fees are $40,000 per store, plus royalty payments of 5 percent to 6 percent of gross sales and a marketing fee of 2 percent.    The current mix of Smashburger restaurants is 58 percent owned by franchisees and 42 percent corporate-owned.

Prokupek said that going forward, growth will come primarily from new franchises. Smashburger projects that by 2014, 72 percent of its 464 units will be owned by franchisees.

The chain recently announced an international expansion plan with proposed franchise locations in Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta; Costa Rica and undisclosed countries in South America and the Caribbean; and Middle East locations, including Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Franchisee David Whisenhunt opened his first San Diego restaurant in 2010. He now has eight in operation and has the rights for an additional 18 in the area.

“It’s a brand-new brand that’s still catching on,” he said, “but I think the potential is huge.”

Transit-oriented developments springing up in metro Denver

Premium content from Denver Business Journal by Dennis Huspeni

 January 27, 2012
In the last 10 years, “transit-oriented development (TOD)” has gone from a new buzz phrase to reality for Denverites.

The mixed-use developments, which are next to bus and/or light-rail stations, are springing up along the Regional Transportation District’s light and commuter rail lines.

There’s likely a TOD coming soon to a neighborhood near you.
Now that Denver appears to be on the other end of the recession, several stalled TODs are moving forward.
“The good news here is I think people are starting to realize the new normal in the real estate world and the development world,” said Marilee Utter, executive vice president for Colorado Urban Land Institute’s district councils and TOD expert. “All the trends support TODs more than they’ve ever supported them here before. Demand from the consumer is high. Understanding from the regulatory and financial institutions are high — higher than it’s ever been.”

A closer look at two TODs, in different stages of development, reveals the challenges and benefits of having retail, office and residential developments near public transportation.

  Belleview Station

Development on the 51-acre “donut hole” of a site near Interstate 25 and Belleview Avenue in Denver was set to start in 2008, before the economy imploded.

“The construction crew was literally on site when Lehman Brothers collapsed,” said Louis “Dutch” Bansbach III, president of Front Range Land and Development Co. “It probably delayed our development four years.”
The Bansbach family has owned land along the I-25 corridor since the late 1880s.

The Belleview Station development area used to house the Paradise Valley Country Club, which later became the public Mountain View Golf Course. It’s affectionately known as the “donut hole” because the Denver Tech Center grew up around it, on much of the land that Bansbach sold.

Development now is starting in earnest, following the advent of RTD’s Belleview light-rail station.
Also, Denver in 2002 approved a new zone to accommodate denser, multi-use development.
And a tax increment financing (TIF) district, the Madre Metropolitan District, was formed to finance infrastructure improvements.

“It’s a stronger market for them now, and a simpler deal,” Utter said.
The first construction project is a five-story, 352-apartment/retail complex on the west side of the development area near Newport Street and Belleview Avenue. Holland Partners Group is building the complex and plans to break ground in coming months.

A company official said of the area, “Belleview Station will certainly be the premier mixed-use community for the Denver Tech Center and all of south Denver.”
Plans call for the residential developments to be on that west side and office buildings to be located closer to the interstate, where they can climb up to 22 stories — though the market likely will sustain only 12 to 15 stories, Bansbach said.

There’ll also likely be a hotel, to go with the retail component. In all, there could be up to 5 million square feet of vertical development, Bansbach said.

“We’ve got very attractive zones there that will allow for a higher density ... much denser than anything you could build in the suburbs,” Bansbach said. “We can build anywhere on this piece at any time.
“And the uses? We’re not limited to just one or two. We can adjust as the market adjusts ... Since we envision this taking 20 to 25 years, that flexibility is very helpful. What’s hot today might not be in demand in 10 years.”
As master developers, the Bansbachs can be patient because they own the land and have no debt against it.
“We know every project affects the other piece,” Bansbach said. “We’re not in this to sell the land as quick as we can. We must sell to people who will add value.”

  Lakewood Federal Center

The City of Lakewood, RTD and the U.S. General Services Administration have a 65-acre site, a light-rail station coming soon and an opportunity to create a TOD from the ground up.
The site is south of Sixth Avenue, between Union Boulevard and Routt Street. To the east is the Federal Center, where almost 1,000 people work. The new St. Anthony West Hospital campus is to the south, and there’s already an RTD park-and-ride bus station at Second Place and Routt Street. The light-rail station there is expected to be open in 2013.

City officials have set the stage for a TOD by changing the zoning there to allow for mixed-use development.
“This type of development, with multimodel transportation, is more the future of development,” said Travis Parker, Lakewood’s planning director. “Right now we’ve got a lot of office parks, residential and retail areas. The transit areas are going to be more holistically designed, not big swaths of land dedicated to a single use. The uses will be integrated.”

That zoning change is key to prime the area for growth.
“One of the things we did early on was have a lot of public involvement in the development plans, then moving forward to implement the zoning,” said Roger Wadnal, Lakewood’s comprehensive planning manager. “We resolved a lot of issues out front and now that’s something the developer will not have to do.”
Parker said, “It’s flexible and developer-friendly. It allows for more density and encourages a pedestrian-friendly environment.”

But there are still challenges to overcome before development can begin:
• City officials are mulling whether to form a TIF district.
• The city must choose a master developer.
• The federal land there still needs to go through a “federal disposition process” before it can be sold or developed.
“There are big infrastructure costs that are not paid for yet,” Utter said, adding Lakewood has “great vision, but implementation is going to be the hard part.”

A master developer might be harder to find, but that’s not all bad, Utter said.
“More developers are in the TOD business ... and the local guys are smaller and it will allow for people who are more specialized to projects — they don’t have to be a mixed-use expert, and it brings more people into play,” she said.