Stanley Marketplace has, for the first time, traded on the marketplace.
Local investor and developer Magnetic Capital on Monday purchased the 140,000-square-foot Aurora market hall and the 20 acres it sits on at 2501 N. Dallas St. for $40.9 million.
Flightline Ventures and Westfield Co., the 50/50 partnership that launched the marketplace in 2016, were the sellers in the deal.
“Stanley Marketplace, it really is a critical retail hub for this market. There’s nothing else like this, and if you want that level of authenticity, you have to go to Denver to get it,” said Chris Carroll, managing partner at Magnetic.
Magnetic doesn’t have any big, immediate changes planned.
“Our job isn’t to reinvent the marketplace, itap to protect it. We’re really focused on thoughtful investments in the building and the guest experience,” said Dan Huml, Magnetic’s other managing partner.
The main focus will be on connecting the marketplace with the recently improved Westerly Creek on the western edge of the Stanley’s property, Huml and Carroll said. The area received a $14 million facelift that rerouted the waterway to give way to more open space and walking paths.
Another priority will be getting the marketplace active at Denver International Airport. Stanley is expecting to take spaces in both the Jeppesen Terminal and Concourse A.
Axios reported in May that a JLL financing memo stated that Magnetic was interested in building a hotel and more apartments on the property.
“There’s a lot of noise around that. Some true, a lot not true,” Carroll said. “Our focus right now is to take over Stanley Marketplace and continue creating it as Westfield has done for the foreseeable future. … There is no focus on development today.”
Magnetic recently completed a Cherry Creek office building and opened an F1 Arcade in RiNo. It owns three apartment complexes in Denver. Carroll said the firm looks for opportunities all along the Front Range, and approached Westfield about making a deal for Stanley.
“We have a long-standing relationship with the Westfield guys, and we’ve been looking at the marketplace for many years, and it now felt like the time to press forward on the acquisition, given the 10-year anniversary of the marketplace,” Carroll said.
Westfield principal Jonathan Alpert sat for an interview with BusinessDen at 3:30 p.m. Monday, shortly after the deal closed. “I don’t know how I feel,” he first said.
“Inside of me, in my body, in my blood, is Stanley,” Alpert said. “And so not being an owner moving forward, it is sad, right? It is emotional. Itap kind of like my baby is heading off to college.”
But in the long term, Alpert said, the deal will be good for Stanley.
“Itap ready for a new vision. Itap ready for new leadership. Itap ready for new capital. … We now have a fresh investment out there with brand new debt, brand new equity, and a vision for opportunity,” he said.
Alpert said Westfield’s debt was coming due on the property. The tax increment financing it received from Aurora is beginning to dry up, with $7.45 million paid out of a maximum $13 million as of April. The incentive expires in 2040.
Stanley got its start in the 1950s as an aircraft ejection seat manufacturer. The plant closed in 2007, and a group of local Denver residents called Flightline Ventures stepped in a few years later with plans to create a marketplace out of the old factory.
Westfield bought into the project and created a 50/50 partnership with Flightline in 2015, and the marketplace opened the following year. The Denver developer built Mission Ballroom and is working toward breaking ground on apartment projects in LoDo and Cap Hill.
Westfield later built Stanley House, two 4-story apartment buildings to the south of the property, which it continues to own.
Today, the marketplace is 98% occupied and is home to 57 tenants, from a Pilates studio to restaurants to a dentist and the offices for Aurora’s tourist information center, Visit Aurora. Over half the tenants that opened with the Stanley in 2016 are still around, Alpert said.
“We have so many different drivers and so many different reasons to show up and experience Stanley,” Alpert said, “and I know that will continue in the future — and it only gets better.”
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