The owners of Southwest Plaza Mall have suspended efforts to be annexed into Bow Mar, meaning the town will not vote on initiating a sales tax in 2015.
General Growth Properties senior manager Greg Sims said the company will first seek to finish the ongoing by October before deciding on moving forward.
“Our decision right now is to focus on getting the project done on time for holiday season,” Sims said. “As other opportunites arise, maybe we’ll get something worked out.”
Bow Mar Mayor Rick Pilgrim said he was informed by GGP of their decision to suspend efforts and confirmed there would not be a sales tax election in connection to an annexation of the mall this November.
He said the issue is not dead, but there is no timetable to circle back on the matter.
“GGP has said they want to continue to stay connected to us and figure out an appropriate time in the future,” Pilgrim said.
The idea of a mall annexation into Bow Mar — which has a population of just under 1,000 and is split between Arapahoe and Jefferson counties — came up last summer and was met with for shoppers.
The annexation would have required an election to — likely 3 percent — that would be split between Bow Mar and General Growth Properties. GGP would have used the revenue to create an improvement district, similar to what it has with Park Meadows and the city of Lone Tree.
Bow Mar also would have had to annex the portion of Bowles Avenue between the town and the mall as part of a “flagpole annexation.”
In August 2014, and gather feedback before the town could put the question on the November ballot.
Pilgrim said the town board has not yet met to discuss the most recent development and that the board can either decide to accept the suspension or that GGP would need to start over if representatives decide to revisit the issue.
“There’s a lot of moving parts,” Pilgrim said. “We can focus on our community and they can focus on their redevelopment.”
Joe Vaccarelli: 303-954-2396, jvaccarelli@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joe_vacc
