Multi-use development plan rises

Clear Creek Crossing, at Interstate 70 and Colorado 58, gets a viable plan.

wheat ridge» The real estate market has never much liked Clear Creek Crossing. Until now.

Developers have flirted with the prime 80-acre site on the metro area’s west side for years, most notably when outdoorgoods chain Cabela’s — recently acquired by Bass Pro — announced more than a decade ago that it would build a 185,000square-foot store there. That plan blew up in 2011 in the wake of the Great Recession.

After a series of starts and stops at the highly visible parcel at the intersection of Interstate 70 and Colorado 58, the most viable plan in five years has emerged. Phoenixbased real estate firm Evergreen Devco Inc. wants to build a multi-use project that would include up to 250 multifamily apartments, entertainment facilities, restaurants, a pair of hotels, a 35-acre office complex and a Super Walmart at the Wheat Ridge site.

The city last week held an initial information meeting for residents of adjoining neighborhoods to learn about the project. Evergreen is scheduled to close on the property, still owned by Cabela’s, at the end of December.

Ken Johnstone, community development director for Wheat Ridge, said the latest plan, which includes around 300,000 square feet of retail space, is a better use of the site than Cabela’s more ambitious blueprint that exceeded 1 million square feet of retail space.

“Mixed-use is a much more suitable way to use the property,” Johnstone said. “People want to experience genuine, wellthought-out places.”

Tom Clark, chief executive officer of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation, said recent population growth in the metro area has made the Clear Creek Crossing site more attractive

to developers. Where Colorado Mills in Lakewood once posed a sizable competitive threat to Wheat Ridge’s west side, population increases in Arvada and other Jefferson County communities have changed that dynamic.

“The market’s a lot bigger now — Wheat Ridge needs a project of this size to stay in its financial profile,” Clark said.

Councilman George Pond said it’s time to turn the long-vacant site — a “rare opportunity for greenfield development within the inner ring of the metro area” — into something that “represents the awakening of Wheat Ridge itself, as a vital community and a jewel in the Front Range.”

“From the distant past as a gravel pit, or more recently as a partially prepared but stalled development, this site has begged for something more,” he said. “This site sits at ‘the turn’ on I-70, so the area is not only important to Wheat Ridge, but to the entire Front Range as a gateway between metro and mountains.”

The incentives that will be extended to Evergreen are less than those included in Cabela’s plan, Johnstone said. And Wheat Ridge will collect sales tax proceeds from the site sooner than if Cabela’s had opened its doors there.

“It’s much more attractive to the city in terms of how much (tax) shareback there is,” he said.

The city projects it will collect $600,000 in sales tax from Clear Creek Crossing in 2018, the first year buildings would rise on the site assuming the approvals process goes smoothly; close to $1 million in 2019; and $1.3 million in 2020, when full build-out at the site is expected.

Poor access to the site has been a long-standing problem for Clear Creek Crossing. The expense associated with adding infrastructure — which now includes an underpass at I-70 and a flyover ramp to Colorado 58 — has been the major hindrance to getting developers to commit to the site, city manager Patrick Goff said.

“Even though it’s off of an interstate, it’s very hard to get to,” Goff said. “There’s a lot of costs there still.”

The Clear Creek Crossing project requires construction of “hook ramps” off I-70, which the city plans to pay for with money it will collect from a sales tax increase voters passed last month. Ramp work could begin as early as next year.

Wheat Ridge Councilman Tim Fitzgerald said it’s likely that a revived Clear Creek Crossing “will have a cascading effect on the shopping center (Applewood Village) just across I-70, causing a renewal there as well.” It would also complement the city’s efforts to emphasize its outdoor-oriented amenities, Fitzgerald said.

“One aspect of the project that benefits Wheat Ridge citizens as well as the area is that the Clear Creek Crossing community will connect to the bike/walking trail along Clear Creek,” he said. “I can imagine riding a bike along the trail to reach a restaurant in Clear Creek Crossing for a patio breakfast on a warm summer Saturday morning.”

The site is one of five areas in the city that have been identified for revitalization. This past fall, Wheat Ridge City Council heard a presentation from a consultant concerning development opportunities around the Ward Station commuter rail station. The consultants laid out a vision of a “base camp” of outdoor recreation companies working at a coworking space near the station.

Goff said Wheat Ridge has struggled to sell itself as anything more than an aging suburban bedroom community. He wants that image to change.

“We want to show that Wheat Ridge can get a deal done,” he said. “This goes a long way to show that Wheat Ridge is on the map.”