By Rich Laden, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Feb. 16--New restaurants, nightclubs and a smattering of residential lofts are testament to downtown Colorado Springs' evolution over the past decade.
But downtown has room to grow, especially if it wants to position itself as a distinctive retail and housing hub competing with other parts of town.
How about adding a multiscreen movie theater downtown? Several more restaurants? Large office supply, sporting goods and electronics stores, such as those found along the Powers and Academy boulevard shopping corridors? And how about a couple of hundred apartments and lofts each year?
Preliminary findings in a pair of new studies on downtown's retail and housing potential suggest the area is ripe for all of those uses -- and more -- over the next several years.
While none of those new uses is envisioned anytime soon, the studies nevertheless have some downtown advocates talking about the need to look ahead and not just rest on accomplishments of the past several years.
'We're a regional center. We need to stay a regional center,' said Beth Spokas, executive director of the Downtown Partnership. 'There are ways to enhance that position within the community and the Front Range. If we don't take advantage of the opportunity ... we're going to be remiss.'
The partnership, downtown's leading advocacy group, helped fund the studies, which cost about $60,000. The city's Urban Renewal Authority, and Springs developers Classic Cos. and Nor'wood Development Group also chipped in; Classic and Nor'wood were chosen by the authority to redevelop much of southwest downtown.
The retail portion, performed by nationally recognized consultant Gregory Stoffel & Associates of Irvine, Calif., contained some of the more intriguing possibilities for downtown.
Stoffel analyzed population mixes and income levels in neighborhoods surrounding downtown and as far as 15 miles away. He obtained sales tax data from the city of Colorado Springs and pinpointed sales generated over the past four years at downtown restaurants, bars and stores.
Based on those demographics, Stoffel suggests the area north of Colorado Avenue could support a movie theater of eight to 12 screens; four to five additional full-service restaurants; another three to four quick-serve restaurants and cafes; 50,000 to 75,000 square feet of additional ground-floor retail space for stores that sell books and music, sporting goods and the like.
Beyond downtown's core, there's room for a speciality grocery; more retailers selling clothing, office supplies, home furnishings, discount apparel and electronics; and service-oriented businesses.
Then, there's the proposed Palmer Village -- roughly 100 acres of southwest downtown that Classic and Nor'wood plan to redevelop. Now mostly light industrial, the area would become offices, stores, restaurants, apartments and other things. Palmer Village could accommodate 125,000 square feet of retail space on its own, Stoffel suggests.
But Stoffel's report is hardly all good news for downtown.
In it, he notes a disturbing trend: Downtown's share of citywide taxable retail and dining sales has declined gradually since 1999 -- and possibly even earlier.
The challenge for downtown, then, is to 'either become more significant to Colorado Springs residents or continue to experience long-term market capture declines,' Stoffel says in his preliminary findings.
Despite Stoffel's warning, the Downtown Partnership's Spokas says she's not concerned about lost retail sales; downtowns nationwide constantly battle suburban areas for consumer dollars.
Chris Jenkins, a Nor'wood Development Group executive whose company has several downtown interests, said even as the area loses retail sales, it benefits when storefronts convert to restaurants.
Still, as Stoffel suggests, downtown must position itself to capture more store and restaurant sales, Spokas concedes.
How to accomplish that remains an unknown. Downtown boosters want Stoffel to expand on his initial findings and provide a strategy on how downtown can realize the opportunities he says exist, Spokas said.
What's more, downtown advocates want more input from Stoffel on what happens if the area gets a convention center or a baseball stadium for the minor-league Colorado Springs Sky Sox, Spokas said. There's no timetable on when Stoffel will provide additional information, she added.
Something else still unknown: where to put some of the major retail and entertainment uses Stoffel suggests.
For example, a multiscreen movie complex north of Colorado Avenue would require lots of land -- for parking as well as theaters.
'Good question,' said Jenkins, when asked where a theater could be built. Land and construction costs would be huge factors, he added.
When it comes to some of the big boxes Stoffel discussed, southwest downtown would be a logical location.
But Ron Butlin, vice president of commercial development for Classic Cos., said he doubts Classic and Nor'wood would tie up huge parcels in southwest downtown with big boxes.
In any case, since retailers follow rooftops, both large and small stores will want more evidence of apartments, lofts, condominiums and the like in downtown Colorado Springs.
And they might be on their way.
A study by the Meyers Group, a Costa Mesa, Calif., real estate research firm, estimates demand will total about 300 housing units each year in downtown -- about 60 percent of which would be for sale and the rest rentals.
Just about every demographic, except for families with children, would show interest in housing, the report suggests.
A mix of housing -- from apartments to townhomes to lofts -- are envisioned, with entry-level and move-up units likely to be the most popular. Several price ranges would be offered, but the biggest demand would come for units from $150,000 to $200,000, the Meyers Group says.
Like Stoffel's report, the Meyers report leaves some unanswered questions, and Spokas said the company also will be asked to provide strategies on achieving downtown housing.
Developers already are anticipating demand; a couple of loft projects have been completed, and a few other housing projects are on the drawing board. Nor'wood, for example, is considering construction of 100 apartments at Pikes Peak Avenue and Weber Street, although the project still is only an idea, Jenkins said.
But producing downtown lofts or townhomes that can sell for as low as $150,000 is a huge challenge, said developer Dan Robertson. He remodeled the upper floors of two downtown buildings into lofts and is launching his third project -- conversion of the upper floors of the Giddings building at Tejon and Kiowa streets.
In the Giddings building, lofts will sell from about $285,000 to $500,000, Robertson said.
'I don't know how anybody can build in that price range ($150,000 to $200,000), other than closets,' Robertson said.
And, the housing market is soft for pricier products in today's economy. Robertson had a waiting list for lofts in his first two buildings; today, nobody's waiting and he's sold only two of the initial six lofts he plans in the Giddings building.
But the economy will improve eventually, and housing demand will return, downtown boosters say. Once strictly a place for employers, downtown continues to evolve into a round-the-clock area where people live, shop and enjoy leisure time, said Jenkins.
'Certainly as our city and downtown continue to progress,' Jenkins said, 'you will see more and more housing. Then retailers. I think that's a natural progression of downtown and one we're trying to promote and participate in.'
Contact the writer: 636-0228 or rladen@gazette.com
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(c) 2003, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
