CENTENNIAL — This fledgling city of 103,000 residents, barely 7 years old, doesn’t have much of a history, but soon it will have a heart.
City officials are purchasing the Safeway Westerra Credit Union building and an adjoining five acres, as well as 11 adjacent acres of open space to create a new civic center on East Arapahoe Road near Potomac Street.
The site is almost in the middle of the Centennial. City offices will be located there with a large park in the center of the property. Officials envision residents coming to the site to attend concerts, fireworks shows and other community events.
“This will be the linchpin to bring folks together and identify that we are Centennial,” Mayor Randy Pye said.
Since its creation in 2001, Centennial has been renting office space nearby, but with the lease up at the end of the year and no room to grow, officials began looking at other sites.
A few months ago, Westerra approached the city about the property and since then, the two sides have been working to close a deal. The City Council recently gave the go-ahead to buy the site.
The entire site will cost about $6.7 million, with $4 million of it coming from the city’s general fund, said project manager Mike Connor.
Because the property had not yet reached the open market, Centennial was able to keep the price low and will pay cash instead of taking out a loan. The price also includes furnishings.
Officials plan to begin moving into the building in April, and city operations will be fully operational there by the end of the year.
While it may have been a good deal for the city, that wasn’t the primary motivation behind the acquisition, the mayor said.
“We have a disadvantage that other cities don’t. We have no history,” Pye said. “We had to do something different to make people feel, ‘Gosh, we’re Centennial and proud of it.’ ”
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com.
