Tattered Cover Opening Highlands Ranch Store

The new Tattered Cover will be in Highlands Ranch along the southeast corridor. And contrary to rumors, she plans to keep stores in Cherry Creek and in her LoDo locations in Denver.

The Tattered Cover had plump, cushy chairs long before the national chains offered them. Its staff has always been knowledgeable and will go great lengths to find out-of-print and obscure books for customers. When top authors tour the country, including former President Bill Clinton earlier this month, the Tattered Cover is always a stop for book signings.

The new 21,754-sf store will open in mid-November in the Highlands Ranch Town Center between Broadway and Lucent Boulevard. The 23,000-acre Highlands Ranch has about 80,000 residents, with tens of thousands of more people in nearby affluent suburbs. Meskis says people along the south, southwest and southeast corridors have been asking her for years to open a store closer to them. "Some people make the trek Downtown, but not as many as we would like," Meskis tells GlobeSt.com.

Chetter Latcham, president of Shea Homes-Colorado Division, calls it a coup to land Tattered Cover, which had been looking at other sites in the metro area. "It's really a feather in our cap," Latcham tells GlobeSt.com. "It certainly gives further justification to our Town Center. And it's going to be a huge catalyst for bringing other high quality retailers there."

Charlie Woolley, principal of the St. Charles Town Co., is a long-time friend of Meskis and represented her in the deal. "We started by considering all of the possibilities, such as stand-alone stores or going into an existing center, but we narrowed it down to the town center, urban village-type of locations," Woolley tells GlobeSt.com. "We decided that would be a better fit for us."

The Town Center will include about 200,000 sf of retail space, which includes a 135,000-sf Home Depot. Bed, Bath and Beyond also will open, as well as a Darcy's Irish Bistro, Egg & I Breakfast Care, Fat Burger Diner, and Pick-up Stix, an Asian eatery, as well as national tenants such as Qdoba, Jamba Juice and Cold Stone Creamery.

John Kilrow, vice president of Shea Properties, says they are describing the center as "New Suburbanism," as opposed to New Urbanism. While it will be pedestrian friendly and have parks, it also will have free parking. Parking has always been an issue and challenge for the Tattered Covers in Cherry Creek and LoDo. Meskis says it will be a welcome change to eliminate the parking issue when she opens her third store.