After receiving pushback from nearby homeowners, the local firm slated to buy a retail site along Colorado Boulevard says it won’t seek to have the site rezoned.
Denver-based Kentro Group, led by the Balafas brothers, says it hasn’t fully determined what it will do with the 7-acre site at 825 S. Colorado Blvd. but will work within the existing three-story zoning.
“We’re still going to try to do something great here,” said Kentro co-founder Jimmy Balafas.
King Soopers has had a store at the site for a half century but is moving a mile south to a building Kentro is developing. The 825 S. Colorado property also includes three smaller retail buildings, plus a host of retail units connected to the grocery store.
Kentro will buy the property from King Soopers’ parent company, Kroger, when the store moves, Balafas said.
Kentro drew up plans several years ago to redevelop the 825 S. Colorado property under the existing zoning. Balafas said it can likely fit 500 apartments.
At the time, Balafas said, then-Mayor Michael Hancock’s administration encouraged him to think bigger.
“They believed at the time, the old administration’s [Community Planning and Development Department], that this is where density belongs,” Balafas said.
So Kentro began talking to neighbors about potentially requesting a rezoning of the site. The idea was to do 12 stories at the north end of the property, where it’s the widest, and step down to eight and then five stories on the southern end.
That might not seem that drastic compared with the other side of Colorado Boulevard, in Glendale city limits, where the Galleria Towers office complex rises 13 stories.
But behind the property are the streets of the Belcaro neighborhood, which are lined with single-family homes. It’s Denver’s priciest neighborhood, according to the county assessor.
“There is irony and pain here,” Belcaro Park Homeowners Association President Susan Livingston told the Denver Gazette after a meeting with Kentro last fall.
Balafas said he expected pushback from those along Harrison Street, which is closest to the property. But he was surprised to see that even neighbors farther west, deeper into the neighborhood, were staunchly opposed.
“We didn’t have one person raise their hand to support us at 12 stories,” he said.
Balafas said he’d likely have gotten 700 units on the site with 12 stories. But the bigger change, he said, is that the rezoning would have allowed him to add 50,000 or 60,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and create a more unique project with open space — something akin to the 9+Co development farther north on Colorado.
Working within the existing zoning will mean a more standard apartment project, Balafas said. While the zoning is three stories, he noted that it’s possible to get four if he takes advantage of Denver’s affordable housing incentives.
And apartments aren’t a sure thing. Balafas said Kentro is also considering keeping the existing shopping center and finding new tenants to replace King Soopers and fill the vacant units.
Belcaro neighbors didn’t just attend meetings. The homeowners association even hired a lobbyist and land-use lawyer, Livingston said in an email this week obtained by BusinessDen.
Balafas, who has done numerous projects in Denver, said he’s never had that happen before. But he said he didn’t mind it, and even found it beneficial.
Overall, the monthslong process was hard, Balafas said.
“I’m a part of the community. When you have no support from the community, it’s hard to go against that,” he said.
But with the decision made not to pursue a rezoning, Balafas said, Kentro can push forward on determining a plan for the property.
“Now we know what box we’re working with.”