AURORA | The end is near for the bulbous eyesore that is the Fan Fare building.
Aurora City Council members voted Nov. 19 to purchase the dilapidated building on Havana Street, demolish it and resell the cleaned property to a potential land developer.
Council members approved the contract as commissioners of the Aurora Urban Renewal Authority on a vote of 9 to 2 with Councilwomen Molly Markert and Renie Peterson opposing the deal.
The building, which is plagued with asbestos and bird droppings, was blighted in 2011, a legal designation to begin the urban renewal process. The city could purchase the site through the Aurora Urban Renewal Authority uncleaned for $2.7 million, or cleaned and demolished for $4 million. The building will be demolished either way.
Council members will decide Dec. 10 which route to take, after a few more environmental studies that are slated for completion by Nov. 30. The money to purchase the building will come in the form of a loan from Aurora Water reserves or another city fund, said Andrea Amonick, the city’s manager of development services. The loan will be paid back in full with a negotiated interest rate.
The city has to pay the developer a $60,000 non-refundable deposit up front.
The city and the land owner group, Capital Financial Ventures LLC, have been working for more than a year to come up with a plan for the asbestos-ridden building, said Councilwoman Marsha Berzins. The Fan Fare building is in Berzins’ ward, and she said there is overwhelming support from constituents to demolish it.
“I can’t go anywhere without somebody asking about Fan Fare,” she said. “Everyone asks about it. There’s so much citizen input and only one resolution they want to see happen, and that is for the building to go.”
As of now, there are no concrete plans for development after the building has been razed, but Markert said she’d like to see it become a recreation center. “I could get excited if it were dedicated to a public purpose,” she said.
Markert opposed the Fan Fare deal Nov. 19, calling it a “bailout” by the city. She said the building should be the property owner’s responsibility, and the city is taking a risk in purchasing the site without any guarantee that a private developer will buy the land after the building is razed and the site is cleaned.
“It’s completely irresponsible and it shows what a huge liability we’re buying,” she said. “The city should not be gambling.”
Mayor Steve Hogan said the city has been waiting for more than two decades for a developer to do something with the building, and it’s time the city took initiative.
“This building is an eyesore,” he said. “It’s a problem for our community, and it inhibits future development.”
Eventually, he’d like to see mixed-use development on that site, with a combination of retail, residential and office space. “I think that’s possible,” he said, “but I think we have to wait for developers to come say ‘here’s what we really think works.’”
The Fan Fare building near East First Avenue and Havana Street used to be a sprawling discount shopping center in the early 1960s. The building is supported largely by exterior supports that jut out at an angle from the walls, so the space inside the building is largely uninterrupted by support columns. The building sits on a 10.5-acre property. Western Electric used the building for training purposes for several years until the mid-1980s. That was the last time Fan Fare had a tenant. In 2011, the building was found to have 10 out of 11 possible blight factors.
Gayle Jetchick, president of the Havana Business Improvement District, said she heard the building was full of bird droppings waist-deep, and she has seen crews going in and out of the building wearing Hazmat suits. She’s also seen pieces of the roof fall off during rainstorms.
“It’s come to the point where I think the building is beyond saving,” she said. She, like many other city officials, are uncertain what else lies within the crevices of the abandoned building.
Jetchick said the city and Aurora Public Schools have lost millions of dollars worth of property tax revenue because the building has been vacant for so long. She’d like to see the building be replaced with a recreation center or a community gathering place for international festivals.
“There’s a lot of potential if we can get that property cleaned up and (the building) out of there,” she said.
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurorasentinel.com.
Very nice, Aurora still has a budget deficit but is willing to find 4 million dollars to clean up Fanfair.
Where is the money to come from? Could the proposed sale of Aurora’s water, up to 10,000 acre feet per year, to Douglas County developers be the revenue source? Is there another revenue source available to this city council that does not require a vote of Aurora’s citizens? Can’t think of one, so maybe increased water rates along with the revenue from selling Aurora’s water will get the Fanfair building site in pristine condition. A building site that will certainly be worth 4 million dollars in a generation or two.
What a great deal for Capital Financial Ventures and the future developer that will receive all of the urban renewal incentives necessary to develop the site. Tell your grandkids to expect this site to be developed about the same time as the Lend Lease project.
Thank you to Council Members Renie Peterson and Molly Markert for your NO votes. I agree: Markert opposed the Fan Fare deal Nov. 19, calling it a “bailout” by the city. She said the building should be the property owner’s responsibility, and the city is taking a risk in purchasing the site without any guarantee that a private developer will buy the land after the building is razed and the site is cleaned. “It’s completely irresponsible and it shows what a huge liability we’re buying,” she said. “The city should not be gambling.”
Left vacant, 10.5 acres would be a super size for oil & gas development, including horizontal hydraulic fracturing underground with its pollution underground and withdrawal of even more pollution for the surface and air of thermogenic (only found deep underground) methane at 30 times worse than carbon dioxide, radon/radio activity, perhaps deadly hydrogen sulfide, etc. Who will want to shop on Havana Street or live nearby then? THE POSSIBILITY OF LEAVING THIS LAND VACANT SHOULD BE CRIMINAL.
To say that Randee Webb’s comments are idiotic is an insult to idiots. Where are you going with your rambling nonsense? Run out of meds today?
The owner/owners of the Fan Fare building have been waiting for years for the city to take over cleaning the abestos out of the building. Owners held out and the city finally caved.
Thankfully this won’t impact Aurora Water’s budget negatively. They’ve got the money and the city doesn’t. The city should not be gambling on such a venture and risking our finances in such a clearly stupid move. We risk higher taxes because now the city is in more debt (with interest) and then we will hear about how they need to close the libraries because they are out of money next year.
I’m with Molly on this one.
You have got to be kidding. This from the city that wanted us to extend property taxes that expire with capital bonds so they can have money to improve the roads in Aurora, to the city that can justify spending $2.7 million dollars in purchasing blighted property. Does this $2.7 million include the cost of cleaning up the property? If I am not mistaken asbestos removal can be quite expensive, especially on a project this large.
If a developer really thought developing the land was worth it they would pay the $2.7 million and clean up the site themselves but obviously no one out there deems this to be a prime site to have any residential or retail developments.
If the city wants this property for city purposes then just say so and stop trying to say they will recoup the cost of the property and the cleanup of the property.
Capital financial partners is owned by Herbert Buchwald, the chairman of MDC corporation; with Larry Mizel. He has less than $200,000 invested in it through an illegal sweetheart deal with the Arapahoe County Assessor. After he received the property he was able to convince the assessor a office to lower the value of the property from $8.1 million to under $100,000 because of the asbestos issue with the building. It is so ironic; that before he took control of the building, the building was under constant survey lance by the Colorado health department who determined then that the asbestos on the underside of the roof was non-fry able. As soon as he took control of the building; he tried to remove the asbestos without a permit and was issued a cease and desist order from the health department. I have been told that one of the reasons that he couldn’t sell it; is because he can’t title insurance because the county did not follow state statutes in issuing him a treasurer’s deed. (Which by statute has no statute of limitations.) You would surely think that one of the largest developers would not sell it to the city of Aurora if it was worth anything. They either found a bigger pigeon than inside the building; or someone is taking a payoff.
W OW – Unbelievable and amazing — the Aurora City Council decided this without giving the citizens the courtesy of the details.
Looks like the City is on the hook for at least $60,000, the non refundable
deposit up front.
Also looks like the investment will likely be 4 million dollars. Our debt is piling up
greatly when you learn how much Aurora owes on the Prarie Water Project, and
now this.
I’m sure the citizens were interested in developing the Fan Fair site, but sure
wasn’t aware that the City was going in the real estate business — a very
risky venture at that.
Sad to see the detractors. Getting rid of this POS (quite literally) is the right thing to do. Aurora has an image problem. Why is the Denver side of Lowry so fly and the Aurora side so janky? The world may never know for certain, but we do know that Fanfair wasn’t helping the image. $4M is a lot of money, there’s no doubt about it. But the value of leveling this beast exceeds the immediate monetary value…call it Blue Sky, goodwill, whatever.
As always, Markert has it wrong. Who keeps electing her? I don’t get it.