New business headed to Fort Collins' North College Marketplace

Construction heats up on North College Avenue: Two years after King Soopers opened on North College Avenue, activity is once again underway on new retailers.

Written by

Pat Ferrier

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• Business

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A new Discount Tire store, seen here Thursday, is under construction in the North College Marketplace in Fort Collins. / Dawn Madura/The Coloradoan

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Two years after King Soopers opened a sprawling store on North College Avenue, construction is in high gear for two new businesses at North College Marketplace in Fort Collins.

Pushing an ambitious time frame, Discount Tire hopes to open its doors in late October just north of Pobre Pancho’s Mexican restaurant and developers broke ground earlier this month on a 5,500-square-foot building that will house Perfect Teeth, a national chain of dentists, and a tenant to be named later.

It’s the first new activity at the marketplace since Great Clips opened in mid-2011. In addition to King Soopers, the marketplace houses Bullfrog Liquor — owned by Loveland Commercial LLC, which also owns the marketplace —— Serious Texas BBQ and Chase Bank.

Loveland Commercial’s Nathan Klein said the activity is a tribute to investments made by the city and the Urban Renewal Authority in the corridor that has typically been of little interest to national tenants.

The URA, which is also the City Council, kicked in $8 million in tax increment financing to help developers with road improvements and wetland mitigation.

“It makes a big difference when you drive up there and the streetscape is done and you see what the Engines Lab (CSU Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory) is doing,” Klein said. “It doesn’t feel as disconnected as it once did.”

Klein said Perfect Teeth shrugged off Loveland Commercial early in the project. “Once they saw the whole thing mature and saw the traffic at King Soopers they came back around,” he said. Loveland Commercial is also negotiating with another national tenant who said no “half a dozen times,” Klein said. “They finally said they wanted to revisit it and it has progressed to active negotiations.”

Neil McCaffrey, a member of the North College Citizen’s Advisory Group and North Fort Collins Business Association that have long pushed for redevelopment of North College Avenue, said the activity is good for everyone. “It’s getting to be a real shopping center and that’s nice. We’ve got more activity up here, we’ll soon have student housing (Aspen Grove) and that will bring in some retail money for the guys in the King Soopers and Albertsons shopping centers.”

New King Soopers Prototype to Open June 1st at North College Marketplace

Loveland Commercial is pleased to share that the grand opening of King Soopers at North College Marketplace is set for June 1st, 2011. This will be the second King Soopers in Northern Colorado to open with the new 123,000 square foot 'Marketplace' prototype competing with Super Wal-Mart and Super Target by offering customers a more complete one stop shopping experience. Below is an article by the Coloradoan offering insight into this new store.

King Soopers gears up for its grand opening
Furniture, clinic among features in 123,000-square-foot North College store

Written By
Pat Ferrier, Coloradoan

Workers fill a row of freezers at the new King Soopers at the North College Marketplace in Fort Collins on Wednesday to get ready for this week's grand opening. / v. Richard Haro/The Coloradoan

The interior perimeter of the new King Soopers store on North College Avenue is a quarter-mile walk.
It's a fun fact that shows the sheer size of this store that opens Wednesday at the city's northern gateway. It's big. Really big. With 123,000 square feet, it is twice as big as any other King Soopers in the city.

Here you can get a physical exam, buy an engagement ring, test drive a vacuum cleaner, furnish your living room, replace your bathroom towels, splurge on a live lobster, grab a cup of coffee and even do your grocery shopping.

King Soopers spokeswoman Kelli McGannon said the brand, owned by Kroger, wants to deliver one-stop shopping to its time-starved customers.

“The grocery marketplace is very competitive,” McGannon said. “We have to work hard every day to do something different and give customers what they want. We provide a one-stop solution to earn their loyalty. If we don’t work hard at that, we lose.”

The grocery store is located at 1842 N. College Ave. on 10 acres within the North College Marketplace. But it’s not likely to boost city sales tax revenue, said Jessica Ping-Small, the city’s sales-tax manager. “We’re not expecting a lot of net new sales tax,” she said. “We’re expecting sales would be shifting from other locations.”

King Soopers is expecting some of that shift, as well, but McGannon said the store will welcome shoppers no matter which King Soopers they previously patronized. “No matter where we earn customer loyalty, the consumer will find which solution works for them. This side of town has not been served by King Soopers, which has four other stores in Fort Collins.”

Located within the North College Urban Renewal Area, or URA, the City Council, which acts as the Urban Renewal Authority board, approved using $8 million in tax funding for the North College Marketplace, which is expected to generate about $16.4 million during about 20 years.

King Soopers declined to disclose its expected annual revenue.

Marketplace developer Eric Holsapple of Loveland Commercial LLC said Wednesday’s opening “feels great. It’s been a long haul. Our group pulled together and got it done. King Soopers has gotten what it needed to get done and it feels great.”

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To find out more information about available space for lease or available pad sites for sale at North College Marketplace, contact Nathan Klein at Loveland Commercial. (970) 667-7000 x 106, nklein@lovelandcommercial.com, www.lovelandcommercial.com