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Natural-Foods Grocery Chooses Site for Third Colorado Franchise

Posted on: Friday, 8 July 2005, 18:00 CDT

Jul. 8--A Longmont natural-foods retailer will open a third Colorado store in a northwest Denver development once targeted for a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market.

Sunflower Market's plans were greeted with enthusiasm by neighbors who opposed the grocery-only Wal-Mart, which is smaller than a typical Wal-Mart. But it would have been 50 percent bigger than the proposed Sunflower.

"We knew all along when we were fighting the Wal-Mart that our neighborhood could get a more responsible grocer," said resident Carmen Atilano.

Sunflower will put a 28,000- square-foot store at the corner of West 38th Avenue and Wolff Street in Highlands Garden Village. By contrast, Wal-Mart proposed a 42,000-square-foot grocery. It eventually scuttled the plan, citing a desire to build more supercenters in the state before opening Neighborhood Markets here.

The Sunflower store will be an anchor in an 8-acre commercial development spread over four city blocks.

The project -- expected to include as many as five buildings with retail and office space -- will serve as a commercial center for the village, a neighborhood constructed on the site of the former Elitch's amusement park.

No other tenants have been signed to the $12.5 million project, although developer Chuck Perry said he is talking to several interested parties.

"We're talking to some really quality tenants representing a real diversity of uses," Perry said. "They'll make a real contribution to the neighborhood and the revitalization of the area." Sunflower was launched by Wild Oats co-founder Mike Gilliland and is led by a handful of former Wild Oats executives.

The proposed store must undergo a design review process. It is expected to open in mid to late 2006.

Sunflower has stores in Fort Collins and on South Colorado Boulevard in Denver. The company also operates six stores in Arizona, one in Albuquerque and one in Las Vegas.

Bennett Bertoli, vice president of real estate for Sunflower, said the company plans to continue growing in Colorado.

"We're not intent on growing this thing as fast as we can. We want to do it very logically and very methodically," Bertoli said. "As far as additional stores in Colorado -- you bet. It's just a matter of making sure we're in the right areas."

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WMT, OATS,

Source: The Denver Post

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