King Soopers is exploring a plan to expand its Mayfair supermarket in east Denver — an idea viewed as not so super by some neighbors and nearby businesses.
Plans aren’t final, but they could involve the removal of some small shops next to the grocery store. That’s a point of contention for residents who patronize the retailers.
“It’s a very, very well-used shopping center,” said Lisa Gilford, a Mayfair resident. “There couldn’t be anything more local than this strip center and anything more viable and needed in the community.”
King Soopers is considering a plan to add new space to the store at East 13th Avenue and Krameria Street. The grocer isn’t saying much about the expansion plan, but a store official acknowledged that it could result in the displacement of small-business owners.
“We realize this could potentially reduce the size of the shopping strip,” King Soopers spokeswoman Kelli McGannon said in a letter to Denver City Councilwoman Mary Beth Susman.
Tenants in the strip include a Chinese restaurant, postal and packaging center, nail salon, cellphone store, day-care center, check-cashing shop and hair salon.
King Soopers, which holds a master lease on the strip center, has stopped offering long-term leases to the shops and has notified some that their current leases are good only until April.
The grocer is considering adding a drive-through pharmacy and a larger offering of natural and organic products, prepared meals and a wellness center. King Soopers already has purchased an office building next to the store to accommodate part of the proposed expansion.
Mimi Chan, owner of the Little Dragon restaurant, said she never would have invested $140,000 in the space two years ago if she’d known the lease might be canceled. Chan said she had received verbal assurances from Soopers officials that she could renew the lease annually through at least 2019.
“It’s leaving us in limbo, not knowing what’s going to happen,” said Shambe Abdul, who has operated Postal Centers USA for 19 years. “If they would at least let us know where we stand, then we could make plans.”
The tenants say that except for the nearby Colfax commercial corridor, little available space exists for relocation in the neighborhood.
Chan and Abdul each have collected about 1,000 petition signatures from customers, encouraging King Soopers to keep the retail strip intact.
It’s not the first time the center has become the focus of controversy. Neighbors mobilized in 1989 to fight a proposal for redeveloping the vintage 1951 King Soopers into a three-block retail center. The store subsequently was rebuilt in the early 1990s on a two-block parcel that includes the retail strip, a gas station and a liquor store.
In this round, King Soopers would be required to seek rezoning if it decides to expand the store.
City Councilwoman Susman said that until then, the issue “doesn’t seem like a matter for public action, as it is about the landlord and tenant contract.
“King Soopers mentioned to me that having small shops next to their site is important to their prosperity,” she said, “and if they had had better luck in keeping long-term tenants, they would be happy to have as many as would fit.”
Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948, sraabe@denverpost.com or twitter.com/steveraabedp
