By Greg Avery
Camera Staff Writer

Boulder City Council members signaled support Tuesday for a recommendation for redeveloping Crossroads Mall, though the idea of sharing a potential $80 million in tax revenue with the developer gave some members pause.

The idea, formed by a city negotiating team, was unveiled last week but faced public examination for the first time at the meeting.

"This is something I think we're gonna have to go with," said Councilman Tom Eldridge.

The longtime business owner likened expressing support for sharing tax revenue from a $200 million redevelopment of the 60-acre mall site to being fed castor oil by his mother — sometimes you just have to swallow it. He still got behind the idea, though he wondered whether the time for a successful redevelopment had passed.

The proposal that the city hopes the mall's primary owner, California-based Macerich Co., agrees to would see the mall company rebuild the late 1970s mall into a mixture of shops, apartments, public spaces and a grid of streets where none exists today.

Council members told city officials to pursue the idea with the company.

If the mall rebounded enough to once again generate $3.43 million a year in city sales tax — what Crossroads produced in 2000, before the opening of Broomfield's FlatIron Crossing mall — the plan proposes that the company that redevelops the site would keep between 80 percent and 90 percent of the city sales tax revenue beyond that level for the next 25 years.

Open space taxes would not be included in the proposed tax revenue diverted to the developer, which could be Macerich or some other company.

Last year, shoppers paid $1.5 million in city sales taxes there.

Macerich officials have yet to publicly respond to the plan, though it is reputed to be close to what the company would accept.

In return, however, the city would seek the power to veto any store of more than 100,000 square feet proposed as the major tenant of the "urban village."

For months, city and Macerich negotiators have been discussing a redevelopment plan that would revive the struggling 22-year-old shopping center.

The negotiating team's plan envisions adding 450 apartments near the corner of 28th Street and Arapahoe Avenue, up to 270,000 square feet in big-box stores, a 50,000-square-foot movie theater complex, 17,000 square feet of restaurant space and 10,000 square feet for a bank.

The city also envisions 29th Street running north-south through the property, built on a multi-story "Main Street" theme with about 142 units of residential and office space for nonprofit groups placed above street-level stores.

The complicated ownership of the mall has been a major hurdle to its revival.

Macerich owns the northern half of the land, while three family trusts own the remaining 38 acres and have not been willing to sell but are locked into a lease with Macerich for the next 58 years.

To speed up redevelopment of the mall, the city would unify ownership of the property by condemning the land trusts and buy the land from them with money put up by Macerich.

Councilwoman Lisa Morzel said she had doubts about the wisdom of the tax-sharing idea, considering that the city did something similar with Macerich to redevelop the mall in 1979 and the company apparently let it degrade to where it is today.

"I have real concern about their commitment to this community," she said.

May 22, 2002

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