A new sales tax at Southwest Plaza Mall is fulfilling what the mall would have made from a partnership with the town of Bow Mar, effectively halting the possibility of an annexation.
The Southwest Plaza Metropolitan District passed a 1.5 percent sales tax that would send money directly to the district. The new tax — which went into effect Jan. 1 — brings the total sales tax shoppers pay at the mall up to 6.5 percent.
The mall was previously engaged in talks to be annexed into to be split between the town and the metro district. Mall general manager and district board member Greg Sims said the annexation is off the table.
“We got the impression that Bow Mar didn’t want to partner and we needed to move forward,” he said.
For the annexation to occur, Bow Mar would have had to hold an election to approve a sales tax for the town. to study the matter and a
Sims said the money from the new tax would go to the district to pay to maintain the mall’s common areas. He also noted that the overall sales tax at the mall is still less than many of its competitors.
Bow Mar Mayor Rick Pilgrim said the town has not had any discussions with mall owner General Growth Properties since the . Pilgrim said the tax implementation made sense to him, however.
“They haven’t been back to pick (annexation talks) up again,” he said. “We figure it’s on hold or not coming back.”
Joe Vaccarelli: 303-954-2396, jvaccarelli@denverpost.com or @joe_vacc
