AURORA — Still an eyesore, there is progress being made at the along Havana Street.
The 1960s-era shopping center has been demolished, asbestos was mitigated and storm drainage completed. Now, the Aurora Urban Renewal Authority is reaching out to developers for a grand plan for the 10½-acre site.
A chain-link fence remains wrapped around the area near East Third Avenue and weeds fill up the site. When it rains, water pools in areas, which is what the drainage improvements were supposed to do.
The Aurora URA purchased the site a few blocks from Lowry in April 2014 for , which some were critical of at the time because it didn’t appraise that high. But that price tag also included asbestos removal.
In November, the URA sought requests for qualifications — what conceptually a developer would put on the site and how qualified those developers were to do the project. By January, only two requests were received and neither made the cut.
Ideally, the URA, which has the Aurora City Council as its board, would like to see a mix of housing, commercial and possibly office space on the site.
“The proposals were OK, but not 100 percent what the city is looking at,” said Andrea Amonick, Aurora’s manager of development services.
Amonick envisions groundbreaking at the former Fanfare within three to five years from the original purchase date. Area business owners say the changes can’t come soon enough.
Across from the former Fanfare building, a strip mall houses the World Food Bazaar, which bills itself as an international grocery and halal meat store. Saji Malik, and her husband, Tariq, have owned the store nine years.
She said she hopes the property is converted into something beneficial for the entire community, and ideally, she would like to see something there for children, which the area is lacking.
“For years it was ugly and then they took it out,” she said. “They should put something nice in there.”
The fact that the URA rejected the two requests for qualifications shows it wants a quality project.
“We’d like it to be pedestrian-oriented,” Amonick said.
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175, cillescas@denverpost.com or twitter.com/cillescasdp
