Southlands Adds Main Street

The 620,000 sf of this final phase will include 460,000 sf of retail and 160,000 sf of office space. Designed by Seattle-based Callison Architecture Inc., the all-outdoor center will feature bistro restaurants, outdoor cafés, a collection of top names in retailing and above-the-shop professional offices. Other features include a pop jet fountain, a landmark clock tower, an outdoor fire pit and an area designated for a farmers market.

Tenants already signed up for the Main Street at Southlands include Colorado Cinemas, Barnes & Noble, Banana Republic, the Gap, Baby Gap, Coldwater Creek, Chico's, White House Black Market, Eddie Bauer, Hallmark, Pac Sun, American Eagle, Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works and Zumiez. In addition to shopping, dining and entertainment, the project is designed to be what Greenwood, CO-based Alberta Development calls "an urban downtown, in a suburban setting," where "lifestyle-oriented activities events like holiday tree lightings, Fourth of July fireworks and homecoming parades" will be staged.

The Main Street portion of the development is part of an overall 301-acre Southlands project that has been under development since 2003 at the intersection of route E-470 and Smoky Hill Road in this Denver suburb. The entire project includes elements of a lifestyle entertainment town center and a super regional power center, with the earlier phases already opened and operating.

The first phase included a Wal-Mart Supercenter and a Sam's Club wholesale warehouse. The second includes Bed Bath & Beyond, Babies R Us, Old Navy, Off Broadway, Chili's, On The Boarder, Pier One, Famous Footwear and Petco, Ross, Best Buy, Simply Artrageous, Cost Plus, Party America and Dress Barn.

The Southlands is retail's response to housing growth and job creation in the Denver metro area, where CB Richard Ellis said in its latest report on the market that lease rates and net absorption were both increasing in 2005. The CBRE report said that although big-box retailers continued to lead development in the growth areas, "new concepts such as lifestyle centers, mixed-use and transit-oriented development are becoming more common."

CBRE's report credits at least some of the retail development in the Denver area to the new FasTracks light-rail project, the largest of its kind in the country. "This project, combined with an improving local economy,has refueled interest in the Denver area, drawing new residents and businesses," CBRE said. Besides creating interest in new retail areas, the FasTracks project "will also continue the recent urban renewal trend characterized by infill and redevelopment projects into mixed-use and transit-oriented developments," the report said.

The latest report from the Marcus & Millichap brokerage sounds a similar theme to that of CBRE, pointing out that "The fast-growing populations of Aurora and select cities along I-25 North are attracting a flock of retailers and developers." Marcus & Millichap cites the Southlands development as one of a number of retail projects under way in Aurora, Thornton, Westminster and other communities.

The economic recovery in Denver "is supporting an increase in retail sales, resulting in healthy space demand from national retailers," according to the Marcus & Millichap report. It says that construction remains mostly tenant-driven too, which is allowing vacancy rates to improve, a trend that Marcus & Millichap expect to continue through at least the end of the year.

The Southlands is one of the premier projects of Alberta Development Partners, a development and investment firm that focuses on the Front Range of Colorado, the part of the state that is most developed and most populated. The company specializes in regional retail shopping centers and mixed-use commercial projects, having completed more than 220 projects comprising more than four million sf of retail space.