WESTMINSTER — City leaders on Monday pushed hard to find a piece of the puzzle that has been missing from a prominent retail and entertainment district for nearly 20 years.
The Westminster City Council gave initial approval to an ordinance granting $4.1 million in developer incentives for a 300-unit apartment complex on a 5-acre parcel wedged between the Westin Westminster Hotel and the Ice Centre at the Promenade, near the Church Ranch Road exit of U.S. 36.
The vote was 6-1. A final reading of the ordinance will be heard Jan. 11.
The package is being offered to developer Legacy Partners Residential LLC after ongoing difficulty — 16 years and counting — that the city has faced in getting something built on the site.
Deputy City Manager Stephen Smithers said the longtime vacancy is contributing to the overall lackluster performance of The Westminster Promenade, a high-profile commercial complex with an open-air pedestrian zone, restaurants and the AMC Westminster Promenade 24 cineplex.
The Promenade suffers from a number of empty storefronts.
“When you have a parcel that has been vacant for 16 years, this is the reason we’re doing this,” Smithers said. “It’s a dead zone.”
Dead for so long that the Westin began complaining to the city. It’s not for lack of trying that the parcel remains lifeless.
Smithers said two projects gained traction in the past, the first a large office building and parking garage approved by the city in 2001. The dot-com crash, which jacked up office vacancy rates throughout the area, killed the project.
A few years later, . The Great Recession quickly dried up financing for the project.
Smithers said the city would like to see The Promenade rise from a middling sales tax revenue generator for Westminster — $1.9 million through November, or 5.6 percent of the city’s sales tax take — to the top five.
“There’s a lot of activity there, but there’s not a lot of activity there in the daytime,” said Mayor Herb Atchison.
He blamed that in part on the lack of a residential component.
But Councilman Bruce Baker sounded a warning Monday about extending the incentive package to Legacy Partners. He called it a fundamental issue of fairness.
What about other developers in Westminster who don’t get such assistance? What about the companies involved just a couple of miles down U.S. 36 at Sheridan Boulevard?
“What about the precedent this sets?” Baker asked. “Developers will ask: ‘If they got it there, why don’t we get a bonus?’ “
He also questioned why the city would provide incentives to a builder of multi family housing .
“It’s a cash cow,” Baker said. “Perhaps it’s a flawed plan. Perhaps it’s a plan the marketplace doesn’t want. If there’s no payback period for the city, I don’t see how this is a prudent use of taxpayer money.”
But Councilwoman Anita Seitz said inactivity at the site for a decade and a half has shown the market needs a prod.
“Without an incentive package, the market is not going to build what we need to invest in the future of Westminster,” she said.
Atchison said the incentive package — made up largely of tax rebates and reduced payments in lieu of setting aside land for open space — will not jeopardize taxpayer money because no money is paid out unless or until the project moves forward.
John Aguilar: 303-954-1695, jaguilar@denverpost.com or @abuvthefold
