Westminster, Colorado, a rapidly growing suburban municipality halfway

Westminster, Colorado, a rapidly growing suburban municipality halfway between Boulder and Denver, will soon have a wealth of new urban developments. Bradburn, a traditional neighborhood development (TND) focused more on residential than commercial, is already under construction. The developer, Continuum Partners, reports that 83 lots have been sold to homebuilders, seven commercial spaces have been leased, and apartment leasing is strong. Now Forest City, probably the nation’s largest developer of New Urbanism, has announced a regional town center in Westminster with upwards of 900,000 square feet of retail plus office space and residential in the form of townhouses and apartments. The two projects, three miles apart, “should be complementary as opposed to competing with one another,” says Bent McFall, Westminster city manager. “Bradburn is really a new urban residential development with retail serving the neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods. The Forest City project is regional retail and office with some residential.” The Forest City development is not named and is not approved. Yet the city, which owns some of the land, is working in partnership with Forest City, and joined in an announcement that the town center’s first anchor, a 12-screen AMC megaplex, has been signed. Westminster selected Forest City to develop the site. “When we started the process, we didn’t identify a new urban type regional center as what we wanted, but that is how it has evolved, and we are pleased with that,” explains McFall. When the city realized the site, at the interchange of Interstate 25 and 144th Street, could be a regional retail destination, “The question became how do you do it distinctively and attractively and make people want to shop there as opposed to a traditional mall,” McFall says. “Forest City, with the projects they have taken on, seemed able to do that.”