Fan Fare: Tearing into the possibilities to replace Aurora’s worst eyesore

AURORA | The demolished site on Havana Street near East Fourth Avenue is a new field with an old problem: What will replace Fan Fare?

When demolition crews armed with bulldozers and wrecking balls razed the old building this past winter, the party was for the building coming down, but little was mentioned about anything to take its place. This week, city officials are headed to a trade show in Las Vegas hoping to lure a new tenant for the site.

Andrea Amonick, the city’s manager of development services for the city’s Planning & Development Services department, said the International Council of Shopping Center’s annual conference is the largest retail trade show in the country and the ideal place for city staff to recruit businesses for the Fan Fare site as well as other transit-oriented developments around town.

But just because city officials are looking to woo retailers doesn’t mean that is their only hope for the old Fan Fare site.

Amonick said the plan for the area, and the entire Havana North redevelopment area that surrounds it, is for a “mixed-use” project. That means some residential properties, some retail and likely some office space.

Because of its close proximity to the already-booming Gardens on Havana shopping district a few blocks south, officials have long said Fan Fare wasn’t the ideal site for a major retail development. 

Amonick said that is still the case, and officials don’t want a sprawling shopping center similar to Gardens at the site. “It’s not going to be a regional shopping district,” she said.

One idea for the area in the past is an affordable housing development, but Amonick said that isn’t something officials are pursuing. Instead, they are looking for a condominium or apartment project that is more high-end than affordable.

The city owns the entire 10-acre property where Fan Fare stood after purchasing it for $4 million last year.

Amonick said the current timeframe for redevelopment calls for the city to ask developers for proposals later this summer, and to narrow down the projects by the fall. 

When a groundbreaking could occur will all depend on the scope of the project and the details a developer presents, she said.

Amonick said that with the property’s location — just a few blocks east of Lowry, a short drive from the Anschutz Medical Campus and a mile north of Gardens — she expects it to be a sought-after project.

“Getting 10 acres in the middle of the city is a good thing, there are lots of opportunity there,” she said.

And now that the old building and its battered parking lot are just a memory, Amonick said developers will find it particularly attractive.

“It is easier to imagine something new, exciting and different on that site now that the building is gone,” she said. “But the location is what makes that site attractive.”

Gayle Jetchick, executive director of the Havana Business Improvement District, said she envisions a multi-family housing development with a smaller shops aimed at serving the people who live there. That could mean coffee shops, an upscale restaurant and possibly some other small businesses like
cleaners.

Jetchick said some have mentioned a cultural center at the site, possibly with artists, but she isn’t confident that kind of project would work.

For now, Jetchick said it’s nice not to be worrying about what to do with the ugly building, and instead focus on adding something new and useful to the neighborhood.

Already, Jetchick said, the building’s removal has lead to Havana BID to relocate the annual Cruis’n Havana car show to the neighborhood.

“They can finally be up there and not have that ugly-looking building,” she said.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Andrea Amonick’s position with the City of Aurora. She is manager of development services in the Planning & Development Services department.