CREJ - Land and Development - July 2016
There has been an inordinate amount of obstacles that almost prevented the development of Forest Trace Village in southeast Aurora, just across from Southlands Shopping Center. But two local land development companies came together to solve the issues. Centre Communities and Cooper Development worked with their experienced teams to make Forest Trace become a reality. Forest Trace Village, the 75-acre parcel of land located on the southeast corner of Smoky Hill Road and E-470 in Aurora was under contract to Forest Trace Development Inc. (FTDI, an entity made up of Centre Communities and Cooper Development) in April 2013, but it wasn’t until April 2015 that the deal was closed and the construction began. Almost a year later, 100 percent of the commercial pads were sold and 100 percent of the residential lots were sold and under development. Forest Trace Village’s 75 acres includes 62 acres of residential and open space land, as well as 13 acres of commercial land. FTDI purchased the land for Forest Trace Village from Great Western Bank out of Omaha, Nebraska. T.J. Johnson and Mike Kboudi, both of Cushman & Wakefield, represented the sellers and FTDI represented themselves. FTDI then hired both Johnson and Kboudi to broker the commercial pad sales within Forest Trace Village. Pad sales already have been sold to SCL Health, 7-Eleven, Sherwin-Williams, Panera Bread and Les Schwab Tires. Financing for the entire land sale was handled by Citywide Banks. The loan was paid off within eight months, which was considerably earlier than expected. The developer held a 2-acre parcel for multitenant commercial development, which already is under construction. FTDI worked with John Loss of Miller Real Estate Investments to act as a consultant for the retail development. Sam Zaitz with Legend Retail Group and Dean Insalaco with MREI brokered all the multitenant retail space. More than 16,000 square feet of multitenant space has been leased to retailers, including Smashburger, Jersey Mike’s Subs, Mod Pizza, Costa Vita, European Wax Center, Floyd’s 99 Barbershop as well as others to come. In addition, FTDI also held an additional piece of commercial space next to the multitenant retail and has entered into a ground lease with a major national bank. Richmond American Homes purchased all 72 lots in Phase 1 and a land banker purchased the remaining 63 lots, which eventually will be sold to Richmond American as well. Richmond American already has begun construction and sales of single-family homes priced in the $400,000s. Although other land developers tried in the past to develop this property, they were unsuccessful due to a variety of problems that continued to present themselves, including topographical issues, access issues and the trees in the Black Forest. There were so many obstacles to overcome with this project, almost too many to count. First and foremost, because Forest Trace sits on the north end of the Black Forest, FTDI was required to save over 70 percent of the existing trees. Working the infrastructure around trees was difficult but, in the end, well worth it. Although the city of Aurora required only 2.9 acres to be dedicated to open space, FTDI dedicated over 23 total acres to preserve The Black Forest – almost one-third of the entire development. Another obstacle included importing over 130,000 cubic yards of dirt to correct the massive topographical issues. Norris Design was one of the land planners on Forest Trace Village. “The existing topography was an issue because all of the severe slopes and grading,” said Diana Rael of Norris Design. “This project was one of the most complex projects Norris has worked on due to these issues. We were thrilled that we were able to make it work for the developer, the city and homebuilder.” In addition, there were multiple access issues that required governmental and Xcel Energy cooperation to remedy. After all the obstacles were overcome, FTDI was able to move forward with the project. “Although the entitlement process was lengthy, the speed at which we were able to secure commercial contracts was very quick because everyone saw the enormous potential of this new development given the proximity to the growing population in southeast Aurora and the Southlands Shopping Center,” said Johnson. “Forest Trace Village represents some of the last retail space available east of E-470 on Smoky Hill Road. The demand for this location was high and Forest Trace was able to capitalize on that,” said Johnson. Norris Design was the land planner for the residential area of Forest Trace Village and worked closely with Martin & Martin, who was responsible for engineering the residential land. Galloway Engineering acted as both the land planner and engineer for the commercial pad development. Waner Construction was the general contractor for the commercial pads, while Richmond American Homes managed its own construction. Citywide Bank provided the construction loan for all vertical development of the multitenant building and the commercial pad sites. There is a tremendous amount of construction activity on the property. Commercial and retail sites are in full construction mode, as is the residential infrastructure and construction. The 7-Eleven convenience store and the Sherwin-Williams store are already open. The excitement around this project has been evident since the beginning and we are excited to continue moving forward with the development. All retailers are likely to be open by the end of 2016 or early 2017.