Developer weighs six-story project at downtown Safeway

Tuesday, Nov 29, 2016

Owners of the Safeway plaza at the crossing of Mulberry Street and College Avenue are eyeing options to bring more apartments to downtown Fort Collins.

Eric Holsapple, a principal with LC Real Estate in Loveland, will meet with city staff Monday to review preliminary plans for a two-story addition to Mulberry Max liquor store and an attached six-story building along College Avenue.

The 120,000-square-foot Safeway center at the high-traffic site takes up a full city block and is home to a hair salon and tax preparer, along with the liquor and grocery stores.

Holsapple said he is looking at all options "to make the site the most it can be."

The property, zoned to accommodate up to nine stories, has 120 parking spaces below ground and surface parking. "The property is a little under-parked," Holsapple said. "We are trying to come up with something that will use the excess parking and increase the density for the highest and best use."

Holsapple's company — named Loveland Commercial LLC at the time — purchased the Safeway plaza two years ago from Illinois-based Green Courte Partners for $8.8 million. Calling it "arguably the nicest corner in Fort Collins," Holsapple said redevelopment could happen in the next couple years with city support, but there is no urgent time frame for the project.

Back in the 1980s, the city approved a plan to build eight stories above the Safeway, but the plan never materialized and could not happen now without razing the grocery store, something Holsapple doesn't want to do.

The building was not engineered to accommodate additional stories, he said. "Even though the approval was there, the engineering was not."

LC Real Estate has since invested in upgrades to the site and found new tenants including Mulberry Max Beer Wine Spirits, a liquor store owned by Chuck Carlson with partners Donald Marostica and Tracy Holsapple.

Marostica owns the plaza with Eric Holsapple, Tracy's husband.

The property is a block south of Uncommon, a six-story, 120 apartment and retail center being built at 310 College Ave., the former Perkins site. It sits across the street from the former Sports Authority which will be redeveloped in the short term as a grocery store, but could eventually accommodate a more dense use such as apartments, offices or retail.

The Safeway center is one of the few downtown properties that comes with an abundance of parking.

Safeway opened at the site in 1988.