Littleton narrowly OKS plan

Redevelopment plans for the Aspen Grove mall narrowly were approved Tuesday night by the Littleton City Council, allowing the owner to apply to build residences and significantly cut back on commercial retail space.

The council voted 4-3 to approve the plans for the 32.7-acre mall property at 7301 S. Santa Fe Drive, which is owned by California-based Gerrity Group. The plans allow for up to 2,000 residential units to be built and for existing retail space to be trimmed to as little as 125,000 square feet from the current 270,000 square feet.

Mayor Jerry Valdes and council members Kelly Milliman, Patrick Driscoll and Mark Rudnicki voted in favor of the plans. Council members Scott Melin, Pam Grove and Carol Fey voted no.

One key was the amount of retail space. Gerrity Group Managing Director Kevin Gerrity said about 150,000 square feet of the existing space is occupied by tenants, and that some of them do not have a long-term lease.

Although the plans set 125,000 square feet as the minimum, he said the company expects to keep more than that.

“Our goal and our priority is to maintain as much retail as possible, as much high-quality retail as possible into the future,” Gerrity said. “One of the main goals of the plan is to introduce alternate uses in order to bolster the quality of the retail that we have on the property and, as we’ve articulated over the past several years, that quality has been decreasing.”

Melin said he was not comfortable with allowing more than half the retail space to be cut. He said he is in favor of projects that blend retail and residential buildings but that what Aspen Grove had proposed could be detrimental to the city’s sales taxes.

“I don’t want this property converted from commercial to residential, and with 125,000 square feet as the proposed minimum, well, I’m a ‘no’ vote at that point,” Melin said. “I need some assurance that there’s going to be more commercial square footage on this property.”

In response, Kevin Gerrity said the company would be willing to set the minimum at 200,000.

“We could raise that amount, but it means we’re focused on that minimum amount for the longterm,” he said.

When Melin asked why Gerrity was hesitant in raising the requirement when the company expects to exceed 125,000, Gerrity responded: “We’re talking about setting requirements for us. Currently there are no requirements for square feet on the property. It’s us getting into a position where we don’t have the flexibility to make changes for a very long time.”

Melin made a motion to require Aspen Grove to keep 125,000