Like to shop and dine?

2015 will be a great year!
Sam Zaitz
Denver’s retail and restaurant scene was abuzz during the past year, with scores of openings throughout the metro area.  And 2015 should be just as exciting, as new chefs enter the market with their own unique menus, and creative shops and boutiques continue to fill retail space at a variety of new and existing developments.These smaller operators will be joined by larger brands that want to increase their market presence in Denver, or, enter our strong and growing marketplace for the first time.
Some of the restaurant and retail highlights of the past, present and future include:

New Development
It’s impossible not to notice all of the cranes hovering above the Denver skyline, constructing new office buildings, apartment communities and mixed-use projects.  What you may not be aware of is what’s going on at the ground level of many of these projects.The owners and developers of these massive investments are making retail and restaurant tenants an important part of what they are bringing to market.There’s no denying that all of this new construction will play a significant role in Denver’s future, and smart developers are doing all they can to provide services and amenities that contribute to the surrounding community as a whole.

Net Absorption
With all the new construction, it’s obviously critical to be able to fill the empty spaces. And that has been only a matter of time for the vast majority of new and existing properties.  Occupancy levels continue to climb with vacancy rates below 7 percent and so do rental rates at some of the city’s premier locations. We are seeing the average lease rate surpass $15.50 per square foot and some of the all-time high rental rates in the fifties per square foot.  Some of the historically popular locations include Cherry Creek North, downtown Denver, while new and rapidly emerging sites include River North, the Union Station redevelopment and Belleview Station in the Denver Tech Center. Other locations that have established their own strong stature in recent years include the Highlands and Uptown, where popular trends are finding a strong foothold.

Hot Spots
As reflected in the net absorption numbers, some of Denver’s most significant and new retail and restaurant hot spots include Union Station and River North.  The Union Station redevelopment alone has delivered with 12 new retailers during the past year, including the announcements of Whole Foods and King Soopers coming to the central hub of Denver’s mass transit site, along with exciting new restaurant concepts.  The pioneering River North Neighborhood (affectionately referred to as RiNo), has welcomed the highly popular The Source culinary marketplace, along with the announcement of expansion plans for The Great Divide. These are two of the more publicized areas of town, but creative new concepts continue to pop-up along Colfax, 17^th Street and South Broadway, as well as quieter pockets around town, including Park Hill, Washington Park, LoHi, Jefferson Park, Berkeley and DU.

Mall Construction
While it’s not taking place within Denver city limits, sizeable new retail construction is taking place along the Front Range.  In Fort Collins and Longmont, construction is underway on two large shopping mall redevelopments that will include entertainment users, grocery stores, big box retail and many restaurants to enjoy spending discretionary income.  In Castle Rock, the Shops at Castle Rock will be completed by 2016 and provide shoppers and diners with a great place to enjoy a way to splurge on this popular southern plateau.

Popular and New
The list could go on and on, but some of the most popular new and upcoming entrees to the local restaurant and retail scene include well-known names such as Trader Joes, Dunkin Donuts and Del Frisco’s Grill.  Fast casual restaurants such as Zoe’s, Blaze Pizza, Mod Pizza, Live Basil (from SmashBurger), Pizzeria Locale (from Chipotle), Potbelly, Bad Daddy Burger and several other new entrants are enhancing the Denver dining scene.  New sit down restaurants include STK, Thirsty Lion and Hop Doddy, and the ever-burgeoning microbreweries and brew pubs are providing plenty of options for people to quench their thirst.
As a restaurant and retail destination, Denver is more popular than ever.  The metro area has become a focal point for both the well-established and up-and-coming retail and restaurant concepts to make their presence known.  The key to their success is finding the best location for them, where they can satisfy the growing tastes and demands of the local market.

http://www.cobizmag.com/articles/like-to-shop-and-dine

Sam Zaitz is a partner at Legend Retail Group, the leading retail real estate firm in Denver.  He can be reached at 720-529-2888 or szaitz@legendretailgroup.com.

Media Contact: Paul Suter, Suter Media Relations

303-694-9232 or sutercomm@aol.com

Urban Legend to handle retail leasing efforts at

Belleview Station’s two new apartment communities

The new apartment communities will include nearly 70,000 square feet of retail space

Denver, CO (October 2014) – Holland Partner Group, a leading developer of quality multi-family residences and apartments in the Denver metro area, has announced that Urban Legend will handle retail leasing efforts at Belleview Station’s two new apartment communities: MileHouse, and a second, yet to-be-named community which broke ground in July.  Nearly 70,000 square feet of retail space will also be introduced as part of the projects

Front Range Land & Development is working in partnership with Holland Partner Group on the retail portion of both apartment communities.

 “The Urban Legend team is a leader in the leasing of retail space throughout the Denver metro area, and we’re very pleased to have the company join our team and continue to make MileHouse the preeminent mixed-use community in the south metro area,” said Scott Menefee of Holland Partner Group.  “The addition of retail space is part of a master plan to bring more quality retail to this part of the metro area.  Kelly Greene and Pete Pavlakis are underway locating unique and well-suited restaurants and retail that will enhance the quality of life for our residents, while also adding to the retail mix in this part of town.”

 “Based on our relationships and local market knowledge, we’re able to identify the tenants that are best-suited for unique characteristics and personality of each of the communities and properties we represent,” said Greene.  “MileHouse at Belleview Station will provide a great lifestyle to the people who live here, and the retail component will further enhance the experience.  We’re looking forward to making several exciting retail announcements in the weeks ahead.”

Both properties will provide ample free parking, both within their on-site parking garages, and also adjacent parking lots.

In addition to the retail space, the property includes 678 new residences; 353 residences at MileHouse and 325 at the second development..  Both properties are located along Belleview Avenue, just west of Interstate 25.

More information regarding MileHouse at Belleview Station can be found at www.milehouseapts.com.

More information about Holland Partner Group is available at www.hollandpartnergoup.com.

From general manager to Chipotle's top female executive: a look at Chipotle's Gretchen Selfridge

After almost turning the job down, thinking a concept like Chipotle could never work, Gretchen Selfridge began managing the second Chipotle location in Denver in the early 90's. She has since risen in the ranks and now is responsible for half of locations across the country as Restaurant Support Officer. We think Gretchen is truly one of the best in the business.

From Fortune magazine:

From general manager to Chipotle's top female executive
by  Caroline Fairchild  @CFair1  NOVEMBER 4, 2014, 7:30 AM EST
from: http://fortune.com/2014/11/04/chipotle-top-female-executive/

In 1995, Gretchen Selfridge almost turned down the opportunity to manage the second Chipotle in the country. Now, she runs around 850 of them.

As Chipotle’s restaurant support officer, Selfridge role is similar to that of a co-COO. She is responsible for half of the Chipotle’s across the country while another exec, Mike Duffy, manages the other half. Nearly 20 years ago while visiting on tables at the now-closed restaurant that she worked at in Aurora, Colo., one of her regular customers asked her if she wanted to join the new venture. She said no way. There was no chance a concept like Chipotle’s could survive, she thought.

“Back in 1990s, there wasn’t this category of restaurants. You had fast food and you had full service,” Selfridge said in an interview with Fortune. “I was working at a full-service restaurant. I didn’t want to go work at something like a Taco Bell. I sort of turned my nose down on the opportunity.”

Eventually, Selfridge took a meeting with Steve Ells, Chipotle’s founder and co-CEO, to learn more. It didn’t take her long to change her mind on the company. Calling Ells a “visionary,” Selfridge said she didn’t care what kind of restaurant he was running; she just wanted to work for him. The next year, she became the general manager of the second Chipotle  CMG 0.09%  in the country in Denver.

A 31-year-old Selfridge realized quickly that Chipotle wasn’t like any other restaurant. In her experience in the industry, the only time a customer asked to see the manager at a restaurant was to complain about the food or the experience. But at Chipotle, she had customer after customer asking her how they could open up a franchise and when they planned on opening up a location closer to their home.

Loyal patrons weren’t the only ones who wanted to get a piece of Chipotle’s Mexican-style pie. At the end of 1997 with only a handful of restaurants spread across the Colorado area, the company got a call from an unexpected source: McDonald’s  MCD -0.04%  . The fast-food giant known for its golden arches and greasy French fries wanted to invest. Once McDonald’s agreed to stay out of Chipotle’s business and simply act as a lender, Ells and his team agreed to take them on as a financial partner.

Chipotle eventually dissolved the partnership in 2006, but McDonald’s initial investment allowed the small burrito joint to set its sights on larger growth. When Selfridge came in to run the second Chipotle, Ells and his team thought they could eventually grow to a total of four restaurants. By 1998, the company was opening 13 every year. Last year, Chipotle opened up 185 new restaurants bringing the total to 1,700 stores and raking in $3.21 billion in revenue.

“I remember thinking, ‘McDonald’s is a huge company. What do they see in our just 13 stores?’ That’s when I realized that this could be really big.”

Selfridge, armed with an associate’s degree in business from a junior college, kept up with Chipotle’s exponential growth by focusing on what she knew best: people. Moving up the corporate ladder from the general manager of one store to restaurant support officer also responsible for Chipotle’s compliance department, Selfridge talks about her growth as a leader as if it were as organic as Chipotle’s growth itself.

“When you wear a lot of hats, you tend to figure things out,” she said. “People come to you because you are a resource and you understand how to do things.”

Yet despite Chipotle’s unprecedented success, the company still experiences some growing pains. Namely, Selfridge says the company’s dedication to only hiring the best people has made it difficult to staff restaurants at the same rate as demand for new stores. Chipotle ranks potential new hires on 13 innate characteristics like ambition, presentation and attitude. Finding five managers and 30 employees that fit the bill for each of those stores is a challenge.

“I can teach you how to roll a burrito. I can teach you how to grill chicken. I can teach you how to manage a P&L,” says Selfridge. “I can’t teach you to be happy, and smart and ambitious.”

Personally, Selfridge says her biggest challenge has been believing each time that she could rise to the challenge of her new role. She was never insecure, she said, but she never envisioned that she would rise to the ranks in the food industry that she finds herself in now.

“I was put into a position that I thought I never would be put into,” she said. “Somebody believed in me and gave me the confidence. I have been given a great opportunity.”

Is there enough parking in Cherry Creek North?

Dennis Huspeni Reporter- Denver Business Journal Email | Google+ | Twitter | Real Deals blog

How many times have you heard: “There’s no place to park in Cherry Creek.”

While there’s no doubt construction and street-improvement projects there since the start of the year have removed some of the estimated 555 on-street parking spots in Cherry Creek North, research by the Denver Business Journal shows there are 8,311 parking spots in and around the district.

True, much of that comes from private parking garages that can be more expensive than on-street parking, but the majority of those — 5,000 — come from the Cherry Creek Shopping Center.

By way of comparison, Park Meadows mall in Lone Tree has 6,000 parking spaces.

“There are a host of reasons why the perception [about lack of parking] exists,” said Nick LeMasters, general manager of the Cherry Creek Shopping Center. “But there is ample parking over there.”

LeMasters said Cherry Creek North visitors “are more than welcome to park in our garage.”

“We believe that shoppers who visit the Cherry Creek neighborhood are often our customers as well,” LeMasters said. “We’re not real excited when [Cherry Creek North] employees use our spaces, because employee vehicles stay there all day. We’ll aggressively enforce our rights in that area, but shoppers are welcome to come.”

Julie Underdahl, president of the Cherry Creek North Business Improvement District (BID), said if visitors just used the parking garages more, there’s always plenty of parking.

“Obviously there’s been a loss of on-street parking,” Underdahl said. “But the city did a study recently and even at peak times within the district the parking garages are only half full. ... The BID is working with parking garage operators and the city to see what can be done to increase” parking garage use.

That might include more, or better, signs directing motorists to those parking garages.

The implementation of the “smart meters” by the City of Denver, replacing the parking kiosks, has improved the parking situation, Underdahl said.

Most of the problem comes from shoppers who expect to park right in front of the business they’re patronizing. But that’s becoming harder as more businesses open there and with the advent of at least seven major developments under construction, in addition to the City of Denver’s stormwater drain replacement project on University Boulevard and Josephine Street and street improvements.

“I doubt if it’s going to get better before it gets worse,” said Denver City Councilwoman Jeanne Robb, whose district includes Cherry Creek. “But we’re taking a lot of steps to keep it from being worse.”

Those steps include requiring developers to provide adequate parking for the new residents and workers that will join the district once those apartment, condo and new office developments are complete.

“There will be a critical mass of residents who won’t have to get into their cars to go to restaurants or shopping,” Robb said.

Talks also continue — as they have for years — between the BID, Cherry Creek Shopping Center and the Regional Transportation District for some kind of shuttle or circular between downtown and Cherry Creek North.

“The new Cherry Creek Business Alliance is leading the conversation around this issue,” said LeMasters. “We need a long-term, strategic connection to both downtown and points to the south east. ... We just don’t want to put a Band-Aid on it, we want a long-term solution.”


Dennis Huspeni covers real estate and retail for the Denver Business Journal and writes for the "Real Deals" blog. Phone: 303-803-9232.

New TAG restaurant coming to Denver tower

Brookfield Office Properties Inc. finalized negotiations to bring a signature restaurant to one of Denver’s tallest skyscrapers, 1801 California St., the company announced Monday.

TAG Restaurant Group, owned by chef Troy Guard, will open an American restaurant in 8,687 square feet of ground-level space in early 2014.
It will be the fourth Denver restaurant opened by Guard, who also owns the original TAG in Larimer Square,
TAG Raw and TAG Burger Bar.
Plans call for the largest street-level outdoor patio downtown, according to Brookfield officials, a 2-story glass wall facing 18th Street, an outdoor fireplace and lounge and “a wrap-around, open kitchen.”

The restaurant has not been named.

“Brookfield is thrilled that Chef Guard and his investors have chosen 1801 California for the newest addition to TAG Restaurant Group’s family of renowned restaurants,” said David Sternberg, senior vice president for Brookfield’s Midwest and Mountain Regions. “Chef Guard’s high-quality cuisine is a fitting addition to the other upgrades coming on line here with our $50-million renovation.”

Brookfield (NYSE: BPO), a subsidiary of Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management Inc., paid $215 million for the 54-story former Qwest headquarters in December 2011. It took over the master lease from CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL) almost a year ago and has been renovating the 1.3 million square foot building.

It also recently announced Ink Coffee would be a ground-level retailer.

The new restaurant will “artfully showcase meat, poultry, and game through skillful culinary interpretations that offer house-crafted charcuterie and hand-made cheeses, an ultra-fresh raw bar, an in-kitchen rotisserie and wood fired grill,” according to Brookfield.

“With the exploding culinary scene here, there’s no place better than Denver to be a chef right now,” Guard said. “I’m really looking forward to expanding the restaurant scene downtown with our progressive American grill concept at 1801 California.”

Kelly Greene, president of Urban Legend, a division of Legend Retail Group, represented TAG while Brookfield was represented in-house by Peter Pavlakis and by Caroline Crowther of Legend.

Legend Retail Group
5150 E. Yale Circle, Suite 400 • Denver, CO 80222
720.529.2999 • www.ul-co.com

KING SOOPERS PULLS OUT OF CU HOSPITAL REDEVELOPMENT AT 9th & COLORADO

By Steve Raabeand Anthony Cotton The Denver Post The Denver Post

 

King Soopers is no longer part of the big redevelopment at Ninth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard in Denver.

King Soopers president Russ Dispense said he likes the location of the old University of Colorado Hospital but can't make a grocery store work under the current redevelopment plan from Fuqua Development.

The grocer was expected to be an anchor tenant for the mixed-use development on the 28-acre site of the former hospital.

"We continue to be interested in this site," Dispense said. "But due to the constraints of the current site plan, we didn't feel like we could create a functional store that would meet our customers' expectations and be reflective of this unique Denver neighborhood."

One of the grocer's problems with the site plan was that it proposed to locate the store's parking lot across the street from the store itself, potentially causing conflicts between shoppers and motorists.

The news comes as a blow to neighbors who fought against a proposed Walmart and had been ecstatic with the King Soopers announcement.

Walmart pulled out of the project last year after a campaign by neighborhood activists who were concerned about the impact of having the giant retailer in the area. The development plan proposes a mix of retail, restaurants and housing for the site that has been vacant since the hospital moved to the Fitzsimons Campus in Aurora in 2007.

City officials said in November that Fuqua Development was negotiating with King Soopers to take Walmart's place. It's too soon to tell whether King Soopers' departure will delay or even derail the redevelopment, city and neighborhood officials said.

"There's a certain level of anxiety that exists until the project moves forward," said Laurie Bogue, president of the Bellevue-Hale Neighborhood Association.

But Bogue said she and others are convinced that Atlanta-based Fuqua and its equity partner, Lionstone Group of Houston, are motivated to proceed and will make the development work despite King Soopers' pullout.

Denver City Councilwoman Jeanne Robb said the council is unlikely to approve a proposal for $21 million in
city-sponsored tax-increment financing without more detail on exactly how the project will be built out.

Robb said she would like to see more housing than has been proposed by Fuqua.

A representative for Fuqua did not respond to requests for comment.

"The economics just didn't make sense," University of Colorado president Bruce Benson said of the plan for the King Soopers store.

He said issues included the exposure that King Soopers wanted; a problem with how Albion Street runs through the property; and street-versus-underground parking.

"It's something you're not in control of. You're talking the city, the City Council, neighborhood groups — it's not an easy deal," Benson said. "We're going to get there — it just takes a long time."

Developer plans $160M mixed-used project near Anschutz Medical Campus

 

A development company announced plans Wednesday for a $160 million mixed-use project near Aurora's

Anschutz Medical Campus on East Colfax Avenue.

The complex, dubbed Block 21 and proposed by Waveland Ventures LLC, would include a six-story hotel and conference center as well as a four-story, 100-unit apartment complex; stores; restaurants; and an “urban park.”

Waveland — with offices in the Denver Tech Center; Austin, Texas; and Milwaukee — says the name is a tribute to the old Army Hospital 21 that stood at the nearby Fitzsimons Army Medical Center.

The site is on East Colfax between Potomac and Xanadu streets.
“This project will be extremely catalytic for future development on Colfax Avenue,” Rick Hayes, CEO of Waveland Ventures, said in a statement.

Block 21 will be developed through a partnership with Jackson Street Holdings LLC and Arrival Partners LLC, Waveland said.

It hopes to begin construction by late this year.

Plans call for a 200-room hotel with 30,000 square feet of meeting space and a 500-space covered parking structure. Developers said they expect to announce a franchise deal with a hotel chain next month.

The proposed project is near the site where Corporex Colorado LLC — a unit of Corporex Cos. Inc. of Covington, Ky. — is developing the 32-acre Fitzsimons Village. A 153-room SpringHill Suites by Marriott hotel opened there in 2011, and Fitzsimons Village also features an office complex used by Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Corporex has filed plans with the city of Aurora for another hotel at Colfax and Xanadu.

Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan, noting that the city is in negotiations with Corporex on those plans, declined comment on either proposal late Wednesday.

“I will say it is encouraging to see two companies interested in this part of the city,” Hogan said. “ It is a strong indicator of the changes occurring in Aurora, and is evidence of the urbanization of our community.”

Waveland, funded in 2002, specializes in venture capital and community development finance. It says it manages $800 million in assets.

Its community development arm has received $312 million in credits under the federal New Markets Tax Credit Program since 2007. The program aims to promote spur redevelopment in economically distressed communities.

Mark Harden directs print and digital news content for the Denver Business Journal and writes for the "Broadway & 17th" blog. Email: mharden@bizjournals.com. Phone: 303-803-9227.

Construction starts on Denver Trader Joe's

Workers this week broke ground on the Trader Joe's store at East Eighth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, six months after the grocery chain confirmed its plans to open its first Denver store.

Heavy equipment has been preparing the site, and a spokeswoman for the Monrovia, Calif.-based specialty grocer confirmed Thursday that construction is underway.

“Currently, the tentative Denver store opening is fourth quarter 2013,” Alison Mochizuki said via email.

Plans call for a new 18,000-square-foot building with a separate liquor store. Under Colorado law, it will be the only store in the company’s chain allowed to have a liquor license.

Jimmy Balafas, principal of Kentro Group, a Denver development company specializing in retail that is building the store, declined comment.

Trader Joe’s is also opening a store in Boulder, at 1906 28th St. on the west end of the Twenty Ninth Street mall. Construction on that store has not begun, Mochizuki said.

A company statement said the Denver store “will feature a festive décor that mixes traditional Trader Joe’s elements such as cedar covered walls and Hawaiian motifs, combined with a local flair that includes art celebrating the neighborhood.”

Trader Joe’s is known for stocking its own brands of trendy and affordable foods such as Thai lime-chili cashews, sea salt brownies and Belgium butter waffle cookies.

It’s also known for the inexpensive Charles Shaw brand wine — or Two- or Three-Buck Chuck, as loyalists call it.

Dennis Huspeni covers real estate and retail for the Denver Business Journal and writes for the "Real Deals" blog. Phone: 303-803-9232.

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
5150 East Yale Circle, Suite 400
Denver, Colorado 80222
www.legendretailgroup.com


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.