Westminster Mall Gone – Making Way for New Development
I have a lot of memories of Westminster Mall. Cruising “the mall”, watching movies, sitting on the huge steps and watching the fake hot-air balloons go up and down, visiting the Easter Bunny and sitting on Santa’s lap for a photo and a candy cane, shopping for prom dresses and scoping out cute boys…
But I think my favorite memory will be watching 3 huge bulldozers tear it down to make way for a great new development.
From the Westminster Center’s official website…
The goal of the Westminster Center urban reinvestment project is to develop a high-density urban center of regional scope on the 105-acre parcel currently occupied by the Westminster Mall. The property’s central location between Denver and Boulder, along with easy access to U.S. 36, rail and bus service, makes it an ideal candidate for redevelopment.
The project is to be cutting edge with a long-term development vision. The project will facilitate both a vertical and horizontal mixture of uses, including entertainment, office, residential and cultural, along with a strong retail component. The new development is intended to be a sustainable place, one that mixes uses, reuses existing anchor stores where appropriate, capitalizes on and encourages alternate modes of transportation, creates a strong pedestrian-friendly block layout, and will stand the test of time.
Creativity, flexibility and quality
The City of Westminster strives to be creative and flexible in its approach to achieving quality urban redevelopment within the Westminster Center. The city does not desire to replicate a “lifestyle center” nor does it wish to create formulaic development “pads” for sale to “anywhere USA” builders. Instead, the city desires to develop a project that has a strong retail component enhanced by office, residential and other uses. The goal of the city is the creation of a “downtown” type development form, to encourage the best of urban development principles while allowing for a certain amount of creative injection from the design community. This includes the introduction of vertical mixed-use development as appropriate within the project.
See how this might look by viewing the Project Massing Plan – This is a site plan created to determine what kind of uses can be combined on the site and at what density.
This is not a blueprint for what is to be built on the site, but the site plan does visually illustrate very nicely the new vision for development of the site. The city is primarily interested in creating a new gathering space, a unique place that incorporates the best of urbanity with the conveniences of a suburban infrastructure. The city will require that the quality of the built form meet the highest expectations. This includes landscape, architecture and the creation of public amenity space for the residents of the city to enjoy.
Doesn’t that sound fabulous? I am such a nerd about infill. I was also really happy to hear that 80% of the materials from the demolished mall will be recycled or reused.
This development has been a long time coming, and I think it is going to do amazing things for residents and homeowners in both Arvada and Westminster. I think that property values are going to shoot up drastically around this development, but for now you can still get a great deal on a home that will soon be close to one of the best new shopping sites in the Denver Metro area, as well as downtown and Boulder access, excellent schools, soon-to-come light-rail access, etc.
If you have been thinking about making a move, and want to know more, please don’t hesitate to contact me — I love introducing folks to my neck of the woods 
