South Nevada Avenue's makeover has taken hold -- but only on one side of the street

Oct. 31—South Nevada Avenue, targeted for redevelopment seven years ago, has an identity crisis.

In 2015, at the recommendation of the city's Urban Renewal Authority and area real estate developers, the Colorado Springs City Council declared roughly 100 acres on the east and west sides of Nevada — about 1 1/2 miles south of downtown — as an urban renewal site. The decision followed years of frustration by previous council members, who had targeted Nevada for upgrades.

The goal: bring new restaurants, stores, hotels and residences into a blighted area that stretched roughly from Interstate 25 on the north, Cheyenne Road on the south, Wahsatch Avenue on the east and Tejon Street and Cascade Avenue on the west.

In particular, city officials and developers sought to revitalize Nevada, the highly visible roadway that links downtown with Colorado Springs' affluent southwest side. Its pawnshops, used-car lots and motels that dated to the 1940s, '50s and '60s made it one of the most unappealing parts of town; in the past, police also say Nevada was a haven for drug dealers and prostitutes.

Today, South Nevada's makeover has taken hold — but primarily on just one side of the street.

Its west side is brimming with new stores, restaurants and service-oriented businesses; a national grocery chain, an upscale apartment project and a Marriott-branded hotel also are on their way.

Several factors, however, have left Nevada's east side little changed since 2015, and ongoing obstacles mean revitalization on that side of the corridor could lag for years and pose financial problems for the rest of the redevelopment project, said Jariah Walker, executive director of the Colorado Springs Urban Renewal Authority.

"It has come a very long way from what was over there," Walker said of South Nevada improvements up to this point.

Still, he added: "We should really be doing better. We should really have more of the east side in development."

West-side successes

On South Nevada Avenue's west side, the seedy Chief and Cheyenne motels — onetime magnets for crime — have been bulldozed, along with a small apartment building, an auto repair business and a handful of retail buildings.

In their place: The Shoppes on South Nevada, a small shopping center built southwest of Nevada and Navajo Street by a group headed by Salida and Colorado Springs developer Walt Harder; the center houses Natural Grocers, Chick-fil-A, Five Guys Burgers & Fries and Parry's Sliceria & Taps.

Just south of that retail center, Springs businessman Sam Guadagnoli, who died last month, and local developer Ray O'Sullivan built a multi-tenant building northwest of Nevada and Ramona that's home to Smashburger, Tokyo Joe's, European Wax Center and an AT&T Store.

The newest addition to Nevada's west side: the five-building, 52,000-square-foot Creekwalk shopping center between St. Elmo Avenue on the north and Cheyenne Road on the south. It's been built by local real estate developer Danny Mientka, a driving force behind South Nevada's redevelopment.

Mientka envisioned Creekwalk as a higher-end, neighborhood retail center with a variety of food, retail and service offerings to shoppers and area residents. In keeping with the neighborhood theme, the shopping center has no drive-thrus.

Creekwalk is 70% occupied, including Fuzzy's Tacos, Nékter Juice Bar, Capriotti's Sandwich Shop, Crumbl Cookies, Veda Salon & Spa, Orange Theory Fitness, Club Pilates and The Oak Barrel Wine + Spirits store.

Popular apparel store Lululemon opened this month, bringing a trendy addition to Creekwalk, Mientka said.

"That's a big deal," he said. "Everyone wants them in their shopping center. It's a gorgeous store. It really is kind of filling this lifestyle piece within Creekwalk."

Next month, Mod Pizza and Just Love Coffee are scheduled to open. Creekwalk also has four restaurant spaces available for lease, including a two-story unit with a west-facing, rooftop patio; Mientka said he's talking with at least one well-known Denver restaurant and hopes to have announcements in the next 1 1/2 months.

Creekwalk's centerpiece is its namesake amenity — a reclaimed portion of Cheyenne Creek that runs along the shopping center's west edge, stretching from Cheyenne Road to St. Elmo Avenue.

A concrete creek channel was rebuilt, and water now flows past heavily landscaped banks of trees, grassy areas and decorative rocks and boulders.

Shoppers, neighborhood residents and visitors can stroll along a new sidewalk that parallels the creek, while a mini band shell area stands at the base of one of five refurbished kinetic sculptures in Creekwalk by renowned local artist Starr Kempf. A collage of Starr Kempf photos also decorates a side of one of the retail buildings.

The mix of tenants, neighborhood shopping center design, creek amenity and sculptures were intended to change "deep-rooted perceptions" about the South Nevada corridor, Mientka said.

"It's more than putting up a new building," he said. "It's really about changing the image that people have and really making it placemaking. The creek gave us this opportunity to bring a waterway that was in a concrete channel that nobody knew about to the street, to a very urban South Nevada Avenue. It's just this huge contrast between a transportation corridor that's very intense, that's very blighted, to something you'd see in Breckenridge or up in one of the mountain towns."

Mientka also has launched a second phase of Creekwalk's development to the north of the five-building shopping center.

A 23,000-square-foot Sprouts Farmers Market, which is under construction southwest of Nevada and Ramona and scheduled to open in spring 2023, will anchor the second phase, Mientka said.

He also envisions a 300-unit, luxury apartment project west of Sprouts. At least four national apartment developers have toured the site and shown interest in developing the project, Mientka said.

The apartments would inject more residents into the area, who'd be expected to shop at stores, eat at restaurants and pump money into the South Nevada corridor, he said.

Additional amenities would include closing the bridge over Cheyenne Creek at St. Elmo Avenue and creation of a small pedestrian plaza at that point, Mientka said.

The closure would prevent vehicles from cutting across Creekwalk's north side on St. Elmo, where Mientka envisions the street being used for farmers markets, car shows and other events. He's also eying a rebuilding of Cheyenne Creek north of St. Elmo to match what's been done on Creekwalk's west edge.

To the west of Creekwalk, and along Cheyenne Boulevard, Guadagnoli and O'Sullivan developed the 19-unit Canyon Creek Townhomes as part of the larger South Nevada redevelopment project.

Their plans for a high-end hotel along South Tejon Street are moving forward, with site preparation work underway for a 160-room Marriott Tribute that's expected to open in July 2024, O'Sullivan said. The hotel will be built south of the Prime 25 Steakhouse that Guadagnoli opened in 2017.

Marriott describes its Tribute brand as "a family of independent, boutique hotels." O'Sullivan said hotel developers have greater leeway in designing a Tribute to fit a neighborhood and surrounding community, as long as it meets Marriott standards.

In the case of the Tribute on South Tejon, the four-story hotel will border Cheyenne Creek, with a deck overlooking the waterway and views of Pikes Peak and downtown Colorado Springs, O'Sullivan said.

"It's the kind of a brand that people go to just to go to," he said. "We expect people to drive down from Denver and spend a couple of days. It's just got that vibe."

Walker, of the Urban Renewal Authority, said the proposed Creekwalk apartments and the Tribute hotel would be welcome additions to the South Nevada redevelopment area.

"When you add residents down there, you're building housing, and you've got new commercial, and now you add that visitors component to it as well, that's kind of the secret sauce to make it work really well," Walker said. "Visitors spend a lot of money, right? Hopefully, they're eating and doing activities in that area."

East-side troubles

That kind of progress made along South Nevada's west side, however, has been slow going along the corridor's east side.

The City Council's urban renewal designation allows incremental increases in sales and property tax revenues generated by new stores, restaurants and other businesses in the redevelopment area — money that exceeds a pre-calculated annual base of revenue collected in the area — to be captured and used to pay for sidewalk, road and utility upgrades within its boundaries. Setting aside that money for public improvements serves as an incentive to encourage developers to invest in blighted areas.

In the case of South Nevada, the increased sales tax revenues generated by stores, restaurants and the like are being counted on as a primary funding source for public improvements. New sales tax-generating retail projects, however, have been few and far between on South Nevada's east side, Walker said.

A Starbucks opened in 2017 and a Dunkin' debuted the following year on the east side. But Starbucks closed this month; the Seattle-based chain cited safety concerns in the area for its employees. An east-side Big O Tires store also shuttered this year; it's been torn down and will be replaced by a new Bank of America branch.

Those closings are a blow to sales tax collections for the South Nevada urban renewal district, Walker said.

"Banks don't generate sales tax," Walker said. "That one kind of stung."

Bill Kenline, whose family has owned the Rodeway Inn & Suites on South Nevada's east side for nearly 20 years, had a deal in place with a developer that planned to tear down the motel and build a new restaurant — expected to be a Shake Shack — and a self-storage facility.

That deal fell through, Kenline said, and he's now contracted to sell his property to a Denver-area buyer that has indicated he wants to continue to operate it as a motel. The deal is supposed to be finalized soon, he said.

A motel might bring visitors to the area, but a Shake Shack would have boosted sales tax revenue collections for the redevelopment project, Walker said.

Streetscape upgrades and the burial of power lines are some of the improvements needed on South Nevada's east side, while the broader corridor itself needs modernized traffic signals, said Mientka. He estimates those costs at $5 million to $7 million.

On Nevada's west side over the last several years, Mientka funded more than $4 million worth of upgrades that benefit the entire corridor. Under his development agreement with the Urban Renewal Authority, he's supposed to be reimbursed from revenues generated largely by new development on the corridor's east side. He's yet to receive any of that payback, however.

"We'd love to see some other ideas besides more fast-food places, all up and down the street," Walker said. "We need some other uses as well. From a planning standpoint, we'd like to see some different stuff.

"But regardless, first and foremost, we need sales tax," he said. "We need things that are going to generate that to continue to fund these widespread public improvements. And the more that we lose, especially on the east side of the street, or the west side of the street, any of it, the more that we lose or doesn't come forward, we're going to struggle getting everything built out. They're critical."

Mientka is eying at least one new project on Nevada's east side.

Encouraged that Bank of America chose to plant its flag along the corridor and on Nevada's east side, Mientka said he's purchased two parcels southeast of Nevada and Arvada Street, one of which is occupied by the Car Hop used car lot. He's also under contract to purchase the Sun Springs Motel.

His plans would be to demolish buildings on those parcels, which total 1.5 acres, and redevelop the property into a service-oriented project that might include businesses such as a quick-serve restaurant, car wash and tire store, Mientka said.

Still, hurdles remain for extensive redevelopment on Nevada's east side.

It can be difficult and expensive to purchase land for large-scale projects. Mientka, as well as Guadagnoli and his partners, spent years assembling land for their projects on Nevada's west side. In Mientka's case, he said he brought together 26 parcels in a complex set of deals involving multiple property owners.

On the east side, large chunks of property continue to be occupied by the aging, inexpensive motels — the Rodeway Inn, the TravelStar Inn & Suites and the Circle S. Another motel, the Stage Coach, was leased two years ago to the New Promise Family Shelter for homeless families; the shelter, however, closed in July.

Mientka, for one, feels time has passed by those motels and they need to go.

"I think the motels are generally no longer appropriate in this corridor," he said. "They served a purpose in the past, but they have outlived their appropriateness in this location."

Perhaps, but Walker said the motels apparently perform well financially and might be expensive to purchase and redevelop.

In fact, Kenline, of the Rodeway Inn, said his 52-room motel has enjoyed strong business the past two years.

"The summer before this one, it seemed as if the whole town was full and people were just desperate to find rooms, not just once in a while, but every night," Kenline said.

"We would be full by 2 o'clock in the afternoon, which is highly unusual," he said. "Usually, you might sell your last room at 8 or 9 or 10 o'clock at night. But being booked like that, we were able to eliminate a lot of the discounts that normally you would have, just because there was so demand. This year, the summer was following suit. Not quite as strong. But we still filled up every night by 6 or 7."

Another east-side problem: an ongoing dispute over the disposition of future tax revenues generated by new development on that side of Nevada.

Harder, who developed The Shoppes on South Nevada on the corridor's west side, owns the Stage Coach motel and a free-standing building that houses the Metro by T-Mobile store. Harder said he also has an option to buy the Circle S.

Harder said he'd like to redevelop the three properties, which stand next to each other along Nevada and would create a combined 1.7-acre parcel. National restaurants and retailers already have shown interest in the site, he said.

But under Mientka's redevelopment agreement with the Urban Renewal Authority, new tax revenues generated largely by east side projects — like the one Harder is eying — are pledged to Mientka to fund common-corridor improvements. As a result, Harder wouldn't receive monies to help him pay for public improvements at his project site.

Harder says he never knew that east-side tax revenues were committed to Mientka; Walker, of the Urban Renewal Authority, disagreed and said Harder knew of the arrangement.

In any case, without tax revenues, Harder said he can't make his project work financially and the city will lose the opportunity for a significant redevelopment piece along Nevada's east side. Harder also said he's now re-leased the Stage Coach to a nonprofit that provides respite care for the poor. At year's end, Harder said he'll consider selling the property to the nonprofit, which would kill his project for sure and take the motel off the property tax rolls.

Nevada Avenue's east and west sides also continue to be plagued by transients and panhandling, who create problems for business people and their customers. The South Nevada corridor is a few blocks south of the Springs Rescue Mission, while downtown Colorado Springs to the north is home to the Marian House Soup Kitchen and other social services.

In January, at the request of the Colorado Springs Police Department, the City Council extended extended the city's sit-lie ordinance — which bans sitting, lying, kneeling or reclining on sidewalks and other rights of way — to South Nevada's west side.

Nevada's east side, however, wasn't included in the extension; at the time, some merchants complained that sit-lie violators would simply move from Nevada's west side to its east side and create problems for their businesses.

Walker said the Urban Renewal Authority hopes to get the Police Department to ask the City Council to again extend the sit-lie ordinance boundaries and cover Nevada's east side.

Some of the area's merchants, however, question if that extension will do much.

The problem with panhandling and vagrants seems to have worsened over the last few years with the addition of new businesses on Nevada's west side, Kenline said. He sees vagrants sleeping on benches installed along the wider sidewalks on Nevada's west side, and nobody seems to care about the sit-lie ordinance.

"We've always had that problem," Kenline said of transients and panhandling. "But it seems like it's even magnified and increased with the commerce that goes on across the street. It's not uncommon to pull into an intersection and see three corners occupied by panhandling."

The Chick-fil-A on Nevada's west side has a steady stream of cars waiting to get into its parking lot and its drive-thru, he said. With so many cars, panhandlers see an inviting target.

"There's always somebody right there on the entrance to Chick-fil-A and those restaurants over there," Kenline said. "Which was never (like that) before, nobody was ever there. Why are they there now? Because there's a lot of traffic going in, and most people are reaching for their wallet already."

Lt. Mark Chacon, who oversees the Police Department's Downtown Area Response Teams and the Homeless Outreach Team that operates out of the Gold Hill Division, said members of the homeless community have frequented the South Nevada area for years.

Police regularly respond to trespassing calls, narcotics violations and other problems in the area, but Chacon said he can't say if conditions have worsened since redevelopment efforts began along South Nevada.

Despite problems with transients and panhandling, which plague other parts of town, and challenges to redevelopment on Nevada's east side, Mientka remains confident that new sales tax-generating businesses will land on both sides of South Nevada.

It will take time, however.

"I'm not encouraged by the status quo," Mientka said. "But I have to look at this plan in a transformational mindset as opposed to a transactional. These sort of sea changes that we're looking to do on South Nevada may ultimately generate the (sales tax) revenue that was forecast and that typically would be realized from this type of redevelopment. I have to look at the long game and understand that, so far, we're in the third or fourth inning and we're behind by a few points, but we just have to keep focused on winning.

"It is underperforming without a doubt," he added of a lack of redevelopment on South Nevada's east side. "But the response to our focused investments and developments (on the west side) is outstanding. It's going to build momentum. People see it as real change and not a fresh coat of paint. That's what I'm committed to see it through and I think the revenue will follow."