Editor’s note: Business writer Margaret Jackson will be filing regular reports from the Fitzsimons redevelopment, which is emerging as a major economic engine that brings together health care, research, new development and job creation.
Aurora city planners are looking at ways to improve the Montview corridor that connects the Fitzsimons campus with Stapleton, two of the region’s major redevelopment projects.
Last year, Aurora received a $115,000 brownfield planning grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a feasibility study of the corridor, establish a vision for the area and implement the vision over time.
“The point is to give us more of a master plan that will help guide us in redevelopment,” said Aurora City Councilwoman Melissa Miller, who chairs the steering committee formed to lead the effort. “Part of this process is to hear what people want. They want more diversity in the housing stock, and they’re excited to see revitalized neighborhoods.”
The total daily population on the Anschutz Medical Campus is 22,000 people, including employees, students, patients and visitors.
Montview Boulevard connects the campus, on the former Fitzsimons army base, to Stapleton, another of the region’s redevelopment success stories that at full buildout is expected to support 30,000 jobs and 25,000 residents.
The fabric of the neighborhood on the eastern edge of the Montview corridor is likely to change, as doctors and nurses who need to be near campus start buying homes, Miller said.
“Right now, even though the lots are very good size, in order to build something with a bigger footprint, you’d have to buy two lots,” Miller said.
The committee plans to wrap up the planning process this fall after a series of meetings aimed at gathering public input, said Andrea Amonick, manager of planning and development services for the city of Aurora.
A workshop to gather public input is slated for 6 p.m. April 13 at The Reception @ Kamsy Event Center, 10190 E. Montview Blvd. in Aurora.
“The Montview area has been an area of significant disinvestment for some time now,” Amonick said. “This area has been sitting out there and has long been recognized as an area that needs attention.”
The Montview corridor is characterized by aging single-family homes, multifamily sites and commercial properties. About 26 percent of the 60 commercial properties were vacant when a feasibility study was completed in July. Tenants occupying the properties range from restaurants, barber and beauty shops to gas stations and liquor stores.
Jan King, a bartender at the Montview Bar & Grill, said redeveloping of the corridor may help attract more customers to the establishment.
“We’d love to see the people from Fitzsimons and the hospital over here,” she said. “Once in a while we have some people come in for lunch but not often.”
Vicki Jenings, director of business relations for the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority and a member of the steering committee, said improvements to the corridor will make the Colorado Science and Technology Park, also on the Fitzsimons campus, more attractive to bioscience companies.
“In marketing and leasing the commercial space here on site, I want to have amenities and a pleasant environment around Fitzsimons that makes it attractive for companies to come and have their bioscience headquarters here,” Jenings said.
Margaret Jackson: 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com
