AURORA — Adjacent to the Anschutz Medical Campus are the Fitzsimons Golf Course and a collection of older buildings — relics of when the medical campus was an Army base.
But in a few years, up to 150 acres there could be filled with biotech and other high-tech companies, student housing and perhaps some restaurants, a hotel and other retail outlets.
The property — bound by East Montview Boulevard to the south, Peoria Street to the west, and Fitzsimons Parkway to the north and east — is primed for development, the last parcel owned by the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority. It is outside the actual boundaries of the medical campus.
The FRA was created by the city of Aurora and the University of Colorado to monitor the development of the property and adjacent parcels of land.
Now, real estate developer John Shaw is charged with overseeing the final development, which will include the elimination of the golf course. Shaw was, among other things, a major player in the development of the Denver Tech Center.
Steve VanNurden, CEO of the FRA, envisions three segments of development: places to live, work and play. And the entire parcel may be developed in phases.
“All the great things going on at the (University of Colorado) and hospitals lend themselves to working with industry, and that’s what we’re all about,” VanNurden said.
Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan, who sits on the FRA board, said work is being done on a campus master-plan review that should be finished by the end of the year. Studies on student housing and transit-oriented development also are ongoing.
Those will give campus officials better insight into what should be built on the property.
Hogan initially said it was believed that the entire property should be bioscience-related, but that vision has since changed among the stakeholders.
A light-rail stop coming to Fitzsimons Parkway also will make that property an enticing place for companies, officials said.
“We need to complement what’s happening on the medical campus,” Hogan said.
Shaw, who has been in Mongolia, could not be reached for comment.
When the city of Aurora secured tenants for the new medical campus more than eight years ago, it waived property taxes to lure the University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital Colorado.
But that isn’t likely to happen this time around.
Those who buy property there probably will pay property taxes, said Aurora City Councilwoman Sally Mounier, whose council district includes the medical campus.
The only real tax revenue from the campus is a nominal fee for working in Aurora, a little more than $2 a day. About 22,000 people currently work on the campus, and that is only going to increase when the Veterans Affairs hospital is completed.
Whatever goes up on the 150 acres probably will be agreed upon by all parties involved.
“It certainly will be a shared vision,” Mounier said. “All of us are on the same page.”
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175, cillescas@denverpost.com or twitter.com/cillescasdp
