AURORA — The Aurora Urban Renewal Authority is seeking a developer, or team of developers, willing to take on a complete redevelopment of the Regatta Plaza shopping center — a 20-acre site adjacent to the Nine Mile station that has been in decline for several years.
“Nine Mile and Regatta Plaza is a station area that we believe is absolutely ripe for redevelopment,” said Andrea Amonick, manager of the Aurora Urban Renewal Authority. “We hope to select the preferred, master developer by the end of the year.”
The city put out a Request for Qualifications through a public application site at the end of August with highly specified requirements for conceptual design proposals.
Amonick said that city will close the application process at 3 p.m. Sept. 30 and select the top three applicants to then participate in the next step — a Request for Proposal process.
Regatta Plaza is next to Interstate 225 at Parker Road in southwest Aurora, directly across the street from the existing Nine Mile light-rail station. In April, the for Nine Mile Station and Regatta Plaza, which is the basis for the working design that each applicant must submit.
The urban renewal and transit-oriented development plans detail the city’s dreams for an urban village of mixed use development that includes more than 500 units of high-end apartments and townhomes with elevators and attached parking structures. Last fall, the entire site .
“We’re going to pick based on the criteria built into the TOD plan that we’ve already done,” said Ward 4 Councilwoman Molly Markert. “The goal is to get the best, most compatible developers to work on the most viable piece of property in the entire metro area.”
Amonick said more than 130 developers have pulled the information from the open bid process already. That doesn’t mean all of them will apply, but she said the amount of interest this project is generating is incredible. She said that the city set aside $45,000 to parcel out in three, $15,000 stipends to each of the selected developers once the design process begins.
“The authority recognizes that that is a lot of work for all the teams, and we want to make sure all the teams are compensated for their conceptual work,” Amonick said. “We have a lot of expectations for this … including design concepts, financial feasibility studies and identifying financial gaps.”
The design proposals for Regatta Plaza are due to the city by Nov. 24. A preferred developer should be selected by Dec. 10.
The project poses an interesting challenge for developers, as the city doesn’t actually own any of the property that it is bidding out. Regatta Plaza is jointly owned by four private stakeholders, all of whom have varying priorities and desires for the redevelopment efforts.
“We went forward with this process with the consent of all four property owners,” Amonick said.
Most of the land — about 15 acres — is owned by a local man named John Buckley. King Soopers owns about four acres, and Key Bank and Romesh Sharma each control about an acre.
“We’re excited about the next steps and excited to be part of this redevelopment,” said Kelli McGannon, King Soopers spokeswoman. “We have worked with the city for more than nine years on this project, and we’re willing to be flexible with plans that help to move us forward and serve the needs of the community.”
Amonick said all four property owners are invited to suggest their own preferred developers as well as participate in the selection process in September.
“Each stakeholder has something different that they want out of this deal,” Markert said. “I think a successful responder will be the one that meets most of the owner’s desires for a successful outcome.”
Megan Mitchell: 303-954-2650, mmitchell@denverpost.com or twitter.com/MMitchelldp
