More Than a Place to Shop

Alberta Development Partners creates new retail 'lifestyle' centers

By Chryss Cada

A Denver developer is pushing the envelope of new retail concepts in its local outdoor retail centers.

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About five years ago, Alberta Development Partners switched from building places to shop to building places with shops.

After 10 years of building primarily grocery store-anchored strip malls, the Englewood-based company landed the contract for Southlands, a large-scale development south of the Denver Tech Center, and that’s when everything changed.

“We’d seen a trend nationally away from the enclosed mall and toward creating main street-type centers that combine uses,” says Bryan McFarland, a principal with Alberta. “Rather than just shopping centers we want to create a sense of place and community that captures hearts and imagination which is also a shopping center.”

The result of the company’s new approach is Southlands, the town center Aurora never had. Alberta had developed Saddlebrook Marketplace, across the E-470 from the future Southlands site. In 2003 the developer purchased seven parcels from five land owners for a total of $33 million for what would become Southlands, the area’s first large-scale regional shopping and activity center.

Center of Town “With Southlands we were building the center of town, not a town center,” McFarland says. “It’s a place for people to go to watch fireworks, light a community Christmas tree, hear a concert and socialize year round.”

Spanning 301 acres and including 1.7 million sq ft, the development features a main street with a movie theater, retailers, restaurants and unique boutiques. The town square at the north end of Main Street offers a farmer’s market and seasonal entertainment, fully funded by Alberta.

In the past four years, Alberta has closed on more than $162-million worth of land for new development and delivered $460-million worth of completed projects. Previously only in Colorado, the company now has projects under way in Kansas, Texas, Missouri and Calgary. Before Southlands, the company employed five people; now it has 45.

“I think the success of Southlands means that they (Alberta) have their antennae out further than most development firms,” says Richard Foy of the Boulder-based design firm Communication Inc., which has worked on projects with Alberta for the past five years. “They are an entrepreneurial firm that is willing to take risks.”

Alberta has taken creating shopping centers to the next step, Foy says.

“They strive to meet a community needs, including retail, civic and entertainment needs,” he adds. “That is a much more complex undertaking that basically demands creating a mini-city.”

Foy, whose full-service design firm has worked on projects from the Staples Center in Los Angeles to Madison Square Garden in New York to Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall, attributes Alberta’s success to the company’s willingness to continue to take risks.

Not Resting on Retail Laurels “They aren’t just resting on past successes,” he adds. “Just because one type of development was a success is no excuse to do it again, especially in the same market.”

For example, the Streets of SouthGlenn development will be on E-470 in Centennial and on Denver’s Southern edge, but it will be a much different development.

Construction is under way at The Streets at SouthGlenn, with the first phase scheduled to open this fall. The balance of the center will open in the spring of 2009. Construction costs are estimated at $310 Million.

“It’s a different community with different needs,” McFarland says. “In this business, you have to look at what is already available in the area and differentiate what you are offering.”

Just down the road from Park Meadows Mall, the Streets of SouthGlenn will be an outdoor shopping area with upscale retail and restaurants. The 77-acre project, with 1 million sq ft of retail space, will feature a gourmet natural foods market, movie theater, bookstore, bistros, sidewalk cafes and unique women and men’s apparel. There will also be 202 luxury apartment homes built as part of the project.

“This project will have a more urban sense of place,” Foy says. “Picture a smaller version of Gramercy Park (in New York), with a classic fountain and an outdoor fireplace. There isn’t anything like it in Colorado.”

Foy says Alberta “creates places of pride for people. People don’t take pictures of themselves in front of buildings. They take pictures of themselves in front of a piece of sculpture or a pop-jet fountain the kind of elements that are a part of Alberta’s projects.” 

Also in the Works from Alberta Development

• Alberta Development Partners also has these projects under way in Colorado:
  Located at Interstate 225 and E-470, Cornerstar is a 750,000-sq-ft regional shopping destination. The new development, currently under construction, will be home to a gourmet market, large-format retailers, small shops and several restaurants. There will also be 400 for-rent residential units. Cornerstar will open this fall, and construction costs are estimated at $105 million.


• Located in Broomfield at Interstate 25 and Highway 7, Northlands will be a Colorado village-inspired regional retail destination. Upon the project’s completion. Groundwork at Northlands is complete. Initial construction will begin later this year and the first phase of retail will open in 2009. Northlands will be home to 1.1 million sq ft of retail space and 50,000 sq ft of office space.

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