AURORA | Six years after crews toppled the old Buckingham Square Mall, the shiny new development that cropped up in its place is running low on space. And the business leaders behind the old mall’s rebirth couldn’t be happier about that.
“It’s unprecedented, we are very, very pleased with the results,” said Scott Goldammer, the director of property management at Miller Real Estate Investments, managers and developers of the Gardens on Havana.
Property development has seen record-lows in recent years because of the recession, but Goldammer said Gardens has still managed to attract new businesses to the area.
The Gardens on Havana last week welcomed a new Toys R Us and Babies R Us store to the development at East Mississippi Avenue and South Havana Street. The store, a combination of the two brands under one roof, means there is room for just one more anchor store remaining in the Gardens.
Since a Kohl’s department store moved in back in 2009, other anchors including a Dick’s Sporting Goods and Sprouts Farmer’s Market have opened massive new locations at the Gardens.
Goldammer said the developers are in negotiations with another retailer to open a store on the last remaining anchor pad of land, but wouldn’t say what retailer would be opening or when because of ongoing negotiations.
“But that’s the last one,” he said.
Beyond that, property managers are negotiating with a few restaurants interested in opening locations on smaller tracts of land, as well as other retailers interested in some of the few empty storefronts on the development’s main street, East Garden Drive.
The outlook at Gardens wasn’t always so bright.
In 2007, when crews knocked down the last pieces of the old Buckingham Square Mall, the hope was that the $110-million development with retail shops and restaurants on the 50-acre parcel would rejuvenate the area.
But the following year, the economy tanked.
“I’m surprised we got through, we were able to still keep getting retailers in through the recession,” said Gayle Jetchick, president of the Havana Business Improvement District.
While retail saw only a few hiccups when it came to attracting smaller retailers to East Garden Drive, a central piece of the original idea — townhomes and apartments above the retail shops on its main street — dried up in a brutal residential real estate market. Now, even that piece of the project is back on as construction crews are working on 10 townhouses and 217 apartments on the east side of the development.
As for the new Toys R Us, the 47,000 square-foot store at 1150 S. Ironton St. is part of that chain’s new effort aimed at putting its two brands under one roof. “Our customers nationwide have been responding favorably to the convenience and breadth of selection these stores offer,” Troy Rice, executive vice president for stores and services at Toys R Us, Inc. said in a statement.
“Whether guests are shopping for must-have toys for the kids in their lives or products for the more than 7,600 babies born in Arapahoe County each year, this new side-by-side store will provide parents with both a convenient shopping experience and great values.”
The store is replacing a 23-year-old Toys R Us location at 13790 E. Mississippi Ave. The company said 33 employees from the old location will move to the new one, which will also add 65 new staffers.
Goldammer said seeing the new store come in and watching continued growth at the development has been a welcome sight.
Last year, city data said the development was the top shopping destination in town, a remarkable turnaround considering how bleak things had become at Buckingham.
“Clearly the Havana corridor has been a major influence in Aurora,” he said.