CENTENNIAL —One of the businesses to open most recently in Centennial is among the city’s most unusual.
It is also, according to city officials like , a testament to how the helps attract quality commercial development.
, a motorcycle parts, apparel and accessories retailer, relocated from its longtime Denver home to the southern suburb this month, opening the doors of its custom-built, 60,000-square-foot building at 7375 S. Fulton St. just in time to accommodate last-minute holiday shoppers.
Don Waddill, who owns and operates the business along with his wife, Bernadette, and their children, Lance and Nichole, says Performance Cycle is the biggest motorcycle parts and accessories retailer in Colorado, if not the country. He wants the store, which operated for 21 years in a 25,000-square-foot former skating rink at 1900 S. Broadway, to be a destination.
“We want people, when they fly in to ski or whatever they’re doing, to say, ‘Hey, let’s visit that Performance Cycle place,’ ” Waddill said.
Centennial officials view the shop the same way, with the city’s economic development manager, Neil Marciniak, calling it “a unique retail experience” that is “unlikely to be replicated in other communities in the south metro area.” He said destination businesses boost the entire local economy by attracting customers from far beyond the city’s borders who may then patronize other local businesses while in town.
Centennial has seen several destination businesses come into the city in recent years. Golf entertainment franchise Topgolf in August near the intersection of East Easter Avenue and South Havana Street. In July 2011, popular Swedish retailer off of South Dayton Street, on the west side of Interstate 25. It is the chain’s in Colorado.
Noon, about to enter her seventh year as mayor, worked with other officials in 2011 to update the city’s to make it more specific, clearing the way for streamlined approval of planning documents for projects that meet the city’s zoning requirements. As an example, she said that when Topgolf turned in plans, the height of the driving range’s poles did not need to be negotiated because the standards were already in the code.
She said the city’s use of contractor . as its building department also helps. As part of its contract, Safebuilt guarantees inspections will be done the day after they are requested for any project, among other guaranteed timelines the city promises in the building process and .
“Even our longest review time is a lot shorter than it used to be and than other areas around us because we’ve provided for a streamlined and predictable process and the criteria are clear,” Noon said. “We hold to those time frames and I think that word is out there among the architects and the engineering firms that people hire to do this work.”
Performance Cycle’s property was in unincorporated Arapahoe County when Waddill bought it. He said the property had an existing zoning attached to it at the time that limited the amount of retail space to a level much lower than he planned to build.
Jason Reynolds, Arapahoe County’s current planning program manager, said the typical rezoning process in the county takes six months and requires two public hearings.
Rather than go through that process, Waddill said he took his real estate agent’s advice and sought annexation into Centennial. According to city officials, his annexation petition was accepted May 5, 2014, approved on June 16, 2014. By Nov. 12, 2014, construction was cleared to proceed.
“They made everything real seamless,” Waddill said, adding the city agreed to a tax share that will grant him 50 percent of his shop’s first-year sales tax revenue.
Centennial principal planner Derek Holcomb, who worked with Waddill, said of Performance Cycle, “It was obvious from the start they wanted to build something special, and Centennial wanted to help them make that happen.”
Joe Rubino: 303-954-2953 or jrubino@denverpost.com
