Just two decades ago, the South Sheridan Commercial Corridor was a robust commercial center. Residents could catch a movie at the twin cinema, take their children for an afternoon at the skating rink or shop and dine at one of several retail establishments.

Even with Denver’s booming economy, much of the 64-acre site off of South Sheridan Boulevard is a ghost town. The cinema, skating rink and nearly all of the retail has fled. The Target, once a retail anchor for the site, left for greener pastures in developing Belmar in Lakewood in 2011.

“People in Harvey Park, Bear Valley, Mar Lee and Green Meadows are all very anxious to see a place where they can once again walk to and enjoy a day out and meet their neighbors,” Councilman Kevin Flynn, who represents the district, said by phone.

Flynn and the community are hungry for change. They would like to see redevelopment of the area to include retail, restaurants and much-needed housing. But without a neighborhood plan from the city, redevelopment options for the area are limited.

This far southwest corner of Denver was annexed into the city in the early 1960s and has never had a neighborhood plan. Flynn hoped his district would have been selected in the first or second round of the new Neighborhood Planning Initiative. But two rounds in, and the region is still waiting. It will be two to three years before planning could commence, and an additional 18 months to complete.

City planning officials won’t arguing a neighborhood doesn’t need a plan, but limited resources have slowed the process. The Neighborhood Planning Initiative uses data-driven metrics to select three regions every 18-24 months.

In the case of Flynn’s Far Southwest region, his scores were good enough to earn a second-round bid. But the East and East Central regions were bumped up on the list because of grant money the area received.

“It just made too much sense to leverage that money to do planning for the neighborhoods around Colfax instead of doing detailed planning just for the corridor,” Courtland Hyser, principal city planner for the city and county of Denver said by phone.

Hyser added geographic equity is one of the criteria for selecting planning areas. With much of the selected regions in the northern part of Denver, the Far Southwest region could see elevated prominence in future rounds.

“I don’t blame anyone in the city for purposely ignoring Southwest Denver, I really don’t,” Flynn said. “But it is time now.”

Flynn and the community are not going to wait around. In December he worked with the Urban Land Institute of Colorado, city planning officials, and multiple community groups to conduct a study of the South Sheridan site.

They released a report envisioning an area with experiential retail, housing on the 13-acre Target site, and a transportation hub that could draw in visitors from other parts of Denver.

“It’d be nice to have a place where people from both the East side of Sheridan and the West side can meet and get to know each other, Shelley Fitzmaurice, a member of the South Sheridan Steering Committee said in a phone interview. “It would give me, and the people in this neighborhood, a lot of pride to see something like that.”

But the report also outlined the challenges including aging infrastructure, connectivity issues, as well as multiple owners. The site has 33 separate parcels with 29 different owners and 54 separate businesses.

“We are not kidding ourselves, it’s going to be very difficult,” Flynn said.

Ray of Hope

There is, however, hope for the site. VASA Fitness, which opened late 2017, has provided a spark for retailers on the north side of the site. Flynn said the parking lot where the old Safeway once stood is once again packed with cars. Retailers reported an uptick in business, something Flynn thinks could increase if further development is made.

The Urban Land Institute also sees the potential and has elected the site for their Real Estate Diversity Initiative. They will select 27 women or people of color for three months of weekly classes to develop three case study projects for the site. The class is $250 per person and Council Member Flynn is providing 10 scholarships from his office’s budget.

He hopes one of the projects can add to the success of VASA Fitness and show developers that investing in the area can be profitable.

“I’m looking for the next one-off project that can stoke a fire and keep it going,” Flynn said. “In the absence of a neighborhood plan, if some of this can get done with current zoning, that really makes things a lot easier.”