AURORA | The dilapidated, old market with the bulbous roof, cratered parking lot and piles of asbestos is long gone at East Third Avenue and Havana Street.
But just what will replace the old Fan Fare building is still unclear.
In late 2014, after the land was purchased through Aurora Urban Renewal Authority — the city’s de facto organ for urban renewal projects — and the building had been demolished, AURA put out a request to developers for plans to redevelop the area. Just two developers presented projects, and neither fit the city’s requirements for the sort of mixed-use development that could revitalize the neighborhood.
Now, city staff are gearing up to try again.
Andrea Amonick, the city’s manager of development services, said she hoped that first request for proposals would have landed a project that fit the city’s requirements. But, Amonick said, while the redevelopment could take longer than initially planned, the delay could actually be a benefit.
“In the meantime the market has gotten very good,” she said.
Planning and development staff are scheduled to present the market study to city council’s Housing, Neighborhood Services and Redevelopment Policy Committee at a meeting April 8.
One of the proposals the city received for the parcel was primarily housing, Amonick said, and it was mostly low and moderate-income housing.
The city is aiming for a mixed-use project on the site, she said, and that project was too focused on just the lower-income end of housing.
“We wanted more mix of incomes on the site,” she said.
The other proposal was for a large grocery store, but that sort of 100,000-square-foot project is too weighted toward retail, she said.
Ideally, the project that eventually replaces Fan Fare — and at the earliest it could be winter 2018 — would include some smaller retail spots and a mix of housing, she said.
The market study to be presented this week largely echoes what staff have long said — that the site can attract some retail but it needs to be a mix.
“It confirmed our initial thoughts, in that there is some room for retail on the Havana side,” she said.
Amonick said that with the site situated between the Anschutz Medical Campus to the northeast, Gardens on Havana to the south, Lowry to the east and Stapleton to the northwest, the ideal project will eventually come through.
But At-Large Councilman Bob LeGare said he isn’t convinced the site can attract the sort of high-end retailer or marquee project many would like to see.
“We are likely to end up with just a standard, run-of-the-mill apartment complex, albeit new and shiny. But its going to be nothing special,” he said.
The area isn’t on the radar for high-end retail developers, he said, and even the apartment market could be slowing after years of break-neck growth across the metro area.
Gayle Jetchick, executive director of the Havana Business Improvement District, said she is still hopeful the site can land the sort of game-changing project many have long hoped for.
“We really want something special, something that is going to provide something unique to the community,” she said.
Jetchick said the neighbors have been clear they don’t want more low-income housing on the site, in part because there is already plenty in the area.
Part of the problem, Jetchick said, is that developers unfamiliar with the area aren’t aware of the rapid growth along Havana, which has seen a 90-percent spike in sales tax revenue since 2010 and a 70-percent spike in restaurant business in the same stretch.
All many see is the ZIP code, which hasn’t been one that has drawn much development in recent years, she said.