About one year ago, city planners presented the 'AcademyBoulevard Corridor Revitalization Plan Update' to city council.
First conceived during 2007, the report focuses on opportunitiescharacterizing abandoned shopping centers and weed-strewn vacantlots as 'redevelopment opportunities.'
The plan defined the corridor as that portion of Academy andsurrounding neighborhoods that extends from Maizeland to Drennanroads.
But, despite the optimistic calls for revitalization, little haschanged and it remains a picture of commercial decay.
'It happens everywhere,' said former planning commissioner LesGruen, owner and president of Urban Strategies, a commercial realestate consulting firm. 'You can applaud the city's recognition ofthe problem, but (comprehensive area redevelopment) is verydifficult to do because of the demographics you're fighting.'
Academy, like all other deteriorating arterials, once had itsheyday, but it has a peculiar history.
Since 1950, Colorado Springs has had four 'main streets.'
There was Tejon Street, Nevada Avenue and Academy Boulevard, andnow Powers Boulevard has joined them to enjoy a time in the sun asthe city's major commercial artery.
Tejon and Nevada were part of the city's original plat, whilePowers was a planned arterial.
Academy just happened.
The route evolved from a wagon track to a dirt road, from a dirtroad to a paved street, and from a paved street to a six-laneboulevard stretching 15 miles from Cheyenne Mountain to the AirForce Academy.
But as Academy shouldered aside Nevada and Tejon, and waseclipsed by Powers, the once-dominant 'main streets' declined.
Retailers hopped over to the east and north, seeking new markets.
Downtown booms, declines
The automobile created Nevada, the city's first modern commercialboulevard.
U.S. Highway 85-87 connected Colorado Springs with Denver, FortCollins and Cheyenne to the north and with Pueblo, Trinidad, andSanta Fe to the south. By 1950, the neon lights of motels,roadhouses, drive-in burger joints, used car lots, pawnshops andbars lit up the night, beckoning the weary, the hungry, the thirstyand the penniless.
But growth was accelerating and with it, change.
In the city's north end, Cut-a-Corner, one of the earliestsupermarkets in the state opened during 1949 at the intersection ofWeber and Fontanero streets. And two years later the Bon ShoppingCenter opened a few blocks away on Wahsatch Street, servicing thethen-new Bonnyville development.
Downtown, the city's then unrivalled retail center, wasunaffected by such early strip centers. The city's core boasted halfa dozen movie theaters, three sporting goods stores, five shoestores, three department stores and more than a dozen hotels, aswell as the city's leading automobile dealers restaurants,pharmacists, and hardware stores. Nevada fed the city's residentsinto downtown, while businesses to the north and south servedtourists and travelers.
When Interstate 25 opened during 1958, the city entered into anera of swift, irrevocable change. I-25 drained through traffic awayfrom Nevada, and businesses suffered. Downtown began a prolongeddecline as retailers headed for the exits, following the rooftops tothe burgeoning suburbs.
Business explodes
By 1970, Academy Boulevard started its 30-year reign as thecity's chaotic, lively, unplanned and apparently haphazardcollection of big-box retailers, strip centers, auto dealers,apartment complexes and office buildings.
Thanks to Academy's designation as U.S. Highway 83, state andfederal highway construction money was available to build, maintainand improve the route.
During the early 1960s, some city officials embraced the idea ofmaking Academy a limited access throughway which would speed trafficaround the city's eastern perimeter. That idea came to naught,thanks to sustained lobbying from developers who wanted to maximizethe development potential of their properties and the demands ofgrowth, which created a ready market for developable parcels.
At its zenith during the 1980s, Academy was the commercial heartof Colorado Springs. The boulevard was anchored at the north by thenewly opened Chapel Hills mall, at its midpoint by the Citadel mall,and at the south by the Satellite, an iconic 1960s high-risecondominium/hotel. To many, Academy's future seemed as promising asits present.
Powers' popularity
But even as Academy's malls, strip centers, and big boxesdominated Colorado Springs, a rival appeared.
Pursuing the elusive dream of an eastern bypass, a high-speedroute from I-25 to the airport, a city-county task force establishedthe final route of Powers Boulevard.
Powers would be different, according to elected officials andplanners. It wouldn't be the Wild West. Access points would berestricted to designated intersections. It wouldn't be a free-for-all commercial hodge-podge, like Academy, but a useful high-speedarterial that would open up the undeveloped plains on the city'seastern fringe to orderly, planned development.
Financed by a combination of developer-created specialimprovement districts and a 1989 voter-approved bond issue, Powersdrew interest from developers large and small.
During 2000, Norwood Development opened the First and Main TownCenter between Constitution and Carefree on Powers. At its opening,First and Main featured a 16-screen Cineplex and the city's firstiMax theater.
'Retailers chase demographics,' said Norwood Development VicePresident FredVeitch, 'and the demographics of the area that weserve (with First and Main) are very attractive.'
Today's retail leviathan includes 53 merchants, and is anchoredby five major retailers. First and Main caters to the affluentfamilies in the city's northeast quadrant, offering the kind of post-mall retail experience that shoppers now seem to prefer.
Blight overtakes Academy
But as Powers flourished, much of Academy declined. Almostdirectly west of First and Main, shopping centers at the once-vibrant intersection of Academy and Palmer Park are largely vacant,deserted by national retailers such as Longs Drugs, Hobby Lobby, andRoss Dress for Less. Farther north, the decline is less apparent,but visible, as long-established businesses such as Liberty Toyotamoved to the Woodmen/Powers corridor.
As ripe as Academy Boulevard might be for redevelopment, somewarn that such plans should not be approached too hastily.
Veitch noted that even the best-intentioned redevelopment effortsmay have unanticipated side effects.
'Look at the Woodmen/Academy deal,' he said, 'building thatintersection may impact a (nearby) grocery store. To the extent thatyou lose retail, especially a grocery store, the surroundingneighborhood is impacted. For there to be a collaborative effort,you have to have collaboration. I've toured what Dallas and Atlantahave done with revitalization, and have seen how they've succeeded.You get everybody on the same page, and that may not be the casehere -- we're very compartmentalized.'
Will Powers and its now-healthy development meet the same fate asAcademy in years to come?
'There's always that possibility,' Veitch said, 'but we've triedto have a greater degree of sustainability. We've tried to create asense of place, and build a community. When we spend the money toface a Best Buy with brick on four sides, it doesn't necessarilyincrease our rent -- but we hope with that, and things like no-contact parking, and summer concerts in the park, we're making aplace that people will feel comfortable with and have a sense ofownership.'
