Its pink, fountain-fronted anchor is the same, but much else has changed at the shopping center at the northeast corner of West Colfax Avenue and Pierce Street since 2014.
That year, Broad Street Realty bought the Lakewood shopping center that for . At the time, the 190,000-square-foot center sported 30 percent vacancy, a pockmarked parking lot and a reputation for being a place you didn’t want to be at night.
In three years since, the center has been renamed Lamar Station Plaza, building facades and the parking lot have been upgraded and the tenant list has grown longer and longer.
Last week, Ross Dress for Less announced it will open a 23,800-square-foot discount apparel and home décor store in the center Oct. 7, dropping the center’s vacancy rate to 10 percent.
Business owners feel the tide of public opinion turning as storefronts fill.
“Especially new customers who maybe haven’t been to the center in a couple years, they come in and they talk about the last time they were here their car almost got swallowed by a pothole,” said Anthony Martuscello, owner of . “Just the refacing of the center and parking lot has been huge.”
Ross isn’t a dream neighbor for a taproom, but Martuscello expects the retailer to attract plenty of traffic to the strip center, which should be a good thing for the tenants already there. He said his business has grown steadily since opening last spring.
“We’re trying to drive people over here so they can see for the themselves the center is changing and this whole area on Colfax from Federal (Boulevard) on down is changing,” he said.
When Broad Street took the $8 million cliff dive to purchase the property, it was the Maryland-based company’s first venture west of the Mississippi River. So far, so good, CEO Mike Jacoby said of the purchase.
“We’re very happy with that asset,” Jacoby said. “We’ve had tremendous validation from national organizations as well as a couple larger organizations that cater to the community.”
Among the success stories, Jacoby includes WestFax, a Planet Fitness gym, the Arc Thrift store location there and Dollar Tree, which recently renewed its lease but moved a few store fronts to the east, clearing the way for Ross.
The goal is to bring in a restaurant to help fill out the final 10 percent of the complex, Jacoby said. Lamar Station Plaza does not include the entire shopping center at Colfax and Pierce. Everything east of the Cricket Wireless store and all but one of the stand-alone buildings in the parking lot belong to other owners, according to Jacoby.
Lamar Station Plaza is at the center of some big things in Lakewood. T It is part of the and a hub on the city’s . Itap two blocks from the Lamar Station light-rail stop and is a focal point of the city’s aimed at activating the area between the train station and the western portion of the iconic street, officials say. Broad Street also added a shaded, outdoor seating area to the property, which is now often used to accommodate a stage during public events.
“I would say it means a lot to the city of Lakewood,” city economic development manager Robert Smith said of the center. “All of our commercial areas, we value greatly. But this is a unique part of the metro area. We’re very enthused that this renaissance is coming around for that part of the city.”
