Buckingham Square Mall

Buckingham Square was first announced in 1965 when The Denver Business Journal announced that the Joslins Department store chain planned to build a two million dollar store in a fifteen-acre site at Mississippi and Havana streets in Aurora Colorado. The developer Robert Hayutin proposed that the development would include major department stores as well as other retail, offices and restaurants. In late 1970 plans were also announced for The Aurora Mall on East Alameda and Exposition Avenue, which would soon become Buckingham Square's lifetime competitor. The Rocky Mountain News warned that Buckingham may eventually displace Aurora East Colfax and become Aurora's new downtown. Buckingham Square was sold as a 24-hour a day community where Aurora would live, work and shop. In November 1970 the first of two office buildings was started. Called Camelot I it was eight stories tall and was Aurora's first high rise. The buildings twin was finished in 1973 called Camelot II during this time the Sherwood Apartments were built on the north west side of the mall site. The mall itself opened on August 5, 1971 The building, designed by architects Kenneth Boyle and William Wilson of Overland Park, Kansas was expected to provide over 1,500 jobs for the community. The mall had the latest technology and elegances available at its opening including 4,000 parking places, living and artificial plants, fountains and acoustical plaster ceilings accented by walnut inlay. Additionally, the mall was climate controlled, allowing shoppers to browse the stores in seventy-two degree comfort. 
 The Lancelot Restaurant was in operation a full four months before the mall opened because Hayutin felt a fine restaurant to serve the residents of Village East should be a priority. The building itself, which stood in the parking lot west of the mall, featured a main dining room with seating for 200 people and a large fireplace as well as a separate lounge with leather furnishings and a second fireplace. This building went through several changes through the years including becoming a part of the Broker chain of fine restaurants in the 1980s and a Beau Jo's pizza in the 1990s. Eventually, the building was razed to make way for a McDonald's.
http://deadmalls.com/malls/buckingham_square_mall.html

The area southeast of Havana & Mississippi once had ambitions of being Aurora's downtown.  It was elegant and futuristic and climate-controlled. It was British-themed and you could listen to Scottish bagpipes and pretend you were in an English village shopping for a kilt before you stop off in The Lancelot for a spot of tea.

Today?  You could shop at Toys'R'Us or Petco, or pay your bill at Comcast before eating at McDonald's  The high-rise buildings are mostly empty, but just scored by getting the Guatemalan consulate to locate there.  The most exciting thing going on there today may be yogurt shop.  I'm sure people living 50 years ago thought the future would be more exciting than it is today.

Out with the old

This old folks home at , called the Lowry Park Independent Assisted Living Center, is being demolished to build upscale apartments.  Here is an article from March 2016:

DENVER -- Elderly residents living at Lowry Park Independent Assisted Living Center have until the end of June to find a new place to live. They were notified a few days ago that their building had been sold to a developer who plans to demolish it and create new, upscale apartments. A New Jersey-based company owns Lowry Park. According to the group that manages the building, Vivage Senior Living Solutions, the owners received an offer they couldn’t refuse.
http://kdvr.com/2016/03/30/106-elderly-residents-in-denver-forced-to-find-new-homes/

The A-Line will never be fixed

After more than a year of trying to address problems at crossing gates along RTD's A, B, and G commuter-rail lines, the systems that control the timing of the gates are the best they can be, even though that may not satisfy federal and state regulators, the contractor operating the trains has told the transit agency.  And with Denver Transit Partners (DTP) saying there is no improvement in sight, or even possible "with available technology," the contractor told the Regional Transportation District in a May 26 letter to quit levying fines against it for problems beyond the contractor’s control.   http://www.9news.com/money/business/disagreement-emerges-between-rtd-contractor-over-rail-line-problems/446631294

I think the problem is that they got entranced with technology that is too complicated.  Instead of having sensors in the track that are connected to the crossing arms, they have GPS systems on the trains that go up to satellites, then to a command center, then internet over radio to the crossing arms.  I think they should scrap the whole system and do it the old way.  Yea it will cost more, but RTD is spending $6 million per year just on extra crossing guards and police protection.  This is ridiculous.

Cursed

I think this empty church at the corner of Leetsdale and Colorado Blvd (50 S Colorado Blvd) is cursed.

It once housed Denver Temple Baptist Church.  A 1995 article said that it was Denver's oldest Southern Baptist Church and it was debt-free.  And the property was shared by 4 congregations - Anglo, Hispanic, Korean, and black.  A cellular phone company rented the steeple to house an antenna.  Then something happened to make them sell the debt-free property to the Universal Church.  The Universal Church evidently had trouble spreading their message (since if you don't believe in hell, why go to church) and it folded sometime around 2011, I think.

Then in 2014 it was purchased by McKinnon & Associates who had plans to build either 40 or 54 condos/townhouses on the 1 acre site.  However, the neighborhood association would not agree because they said it was too dense and because of the awkward entrances and exits.  The developer would not agree to less units because of the cost of building an underground parking garage.  So the city council denied the re-zoning request.

So now it sits empty with a fence around it as you can see.  There aren't any broken windows or graffiti, but it is just a matter of time.  Unless either the city or the developer changes their minds, the property will sit abandoned, while hundreds of thousands of cars zoom by every day, only 1/2 mile from one of the most booming areas in the country (Cherry Creek).

Update 7/8/17:  I was wrong about no graffiti.  The side facing Colorado Blvd has a lot of graffiti on it.

Wasted Away

This is a screenshot from Google in Nov. 2016 of a very tired retail center just south of Evans on Colorado Blvd.  Now there is a fence around it and demolition is imminent.

I have no word on what is next, but maybe we can hope for a high-rise.  It is very close to the Colorado Center which has several tall buildings.

Closed Kmart

This Kmart at 363 S Broadway in Denver closed in March 2017.  Previous Kmarts closed at Evans & Federal, and of course the wasteland at Evans & Monaco.

There are still 3 Kmarts left in the Denver area: 9881 W 58th Ave in Arvada; 200 W Belleview in Englewood; and 15200 E Colfax in Aurora.  I think they will hold on to the bitter end, which may be in early 2018.

Walmart closed two grocery stores

Wal-Mart Stores closed its Neighborhood Market store at 3615 W Bowles Ave on April 7. Earlier this month, Wal-Mart Stores closed a neighborhood market store at 3125 S. Sheridan Blvd.
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2017/03/14/walmart-closing-a-neighborhood-market-in-littleton.html

Walmart earlier in 2016 closed two other grocery stores at 8196 W. Bowles Ave and 2253 S Monaco Parkway. http://www.denverpost.com/2016/01/15/walmart-will-close-two-metro-denver-neighborhood-markets/

Its not looking good for that location at Bowles & Lowell in Littleton.  The Albertson's that used to be there closed in 2011.  So that location could be open for long time.  The location at 2253 S Monaco used to be a King Soopers.  The one at 3125 S Sheridan was built in 2014 and it is already vacant - sad.

I'm not necessarily trying to keep track of every closed grocery store in the Denver area, but I do have an interest in them because they are so big and the spaces are so hard to fill.

Update on Amazon and Gaylord

NASCAR speedway to be built near Watkins

BACK ON TRACK? Aurora will again ask voters for permission to pursue racetrack, entertainment complex. The measure would quarantine a potential entertainment hub to the tract of land north of Interstate 70 and east of Hudson Road, according to proposed language. A development would also be prohibited from breaking ground within a half mile of any property in a residential zone.

[Mayor Steve] Hogan pointed to a 1,700-acre parcel of city-owned land, located roughly near the intersection of 26th Avenue and Hudson Road, about five miles west of Front Range Airport, as a possible home for a recreation multiplex.

More than just a potential Nascar-style motor speedway, that entertainment district could include concert venues, retail strips or even a minor league baseball stadium, Mounier said. Both she and Mitchell pointed to the Kansas Speedway development in Kansas City as a potential blueprint for Aurora’s vision. That venue is hugged by an outlet mall, a baseball stadium, a water park, a casino and other developments.
http://www.aurorasentinel.com/news/back-track-aurora-will-ask-voters-permission-pursue-racetrack-entertainment-complex/

Commentary:  In the Obama era, Aurora proposed to build a laboratory and testbed for renewable energy on the land.   See: Aurora Center for Renewable Energy (ACRE) .  In the Trump era, the plan for a renewable energy laboratory will be scrapped, and a motor speedway built instead.

Aurora has had two speedways in the past - the Century 21 speedway near Picadilly and Tower, and the Second Creek Raceway near 88th and Buckley.

DIA terminal renovation