Page 8 - Sentinel May 2018

WORDS Continued from page 7 I don’t expect either to become flourishing malls again – won-
der what is next for these properties?
Colorado Springs’ third OMELETS ETC, a locally owned and
very popular, breakfast/lunch restaurant. Omelets Etc. opened DENVER – It may be a bit of a drive for a hamburger, but Den-
its first store in 2010 at 1616 S. 8th Street, followed by their ver is the benefactor of another
second at 2850 S. Academy last year. The Interquest Commons of the nation’s iconic hamburger
restaurant expects to open the 2,500 square foot restaurant this chains, Shake Shack, that just
June with a menu that includes a dozen omelets, burritos, pan- opened at 30th and Larimer. The
cakes, French toast, crepes and, of course, one of my favorites,
biscuits and gravy. This rapidly expanding commercial core
has a collection of hotels, restaurants, a water park, the rebirth
of the Victory Ridge with the Icon Cinemas and forthcoming
In-N-Out restaurant and production plant, but was lacking a East Coast cult chain is know
good place for breakfast – not for long. Pricing is generally in for its “concretes” (shakes), crinkle-cut fries and its special
the $6 and $7’s for both the breakfasts and their lengthy list of ShackSauce-clad burgers. A second Shack is planned for this
lunch sandwiches.
summer at a to/be/announced location probably in Highlands
Ranch.
The first prop-
erty under con-
struction in the NEWS FROM THE LARKSPUR
new commer- FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT
cial develop- Mike Grill, Board of Directors...
ment adjacent
to I-25, North LFPD Mission Statement
Academy at Dedicated to our community through
Struthers Road, quality services, compassion, and ex-
is a three-story, 64 room MY PLACE ex- cellence.
tended-stay hotel. My Place is a rapidly expanding national
franchise based in Aberdeen, SD. About 60 percent of their av- Decrease in Funding for LFPD May
erage occupancy comes from monthly stays, with the rest split Have Negative Impact on Public
between weekly and nightly visitors. They are pet friendly, Safety
have on-site laundry facilities, complimentary high-speed in-
ternet, a My Kitchen with two-burner cooktop, microwave and Due to a 1982 voter approved amendment to the Colorado con-
a full refrigerator. There are 37 in operation, 32 more in various stitution known as the Gallagher Act, citizens served by the
stages of construction, and commitments for another 40 hotels. LFPD may see decreases in emergency services due to a loss of
Weekly and monthly room rates run in the $60s per night with revenues generated by residential property taxes. Like almost
single nights in the $80s. Also under construction at this de- all fire protection districts, the LFPD relies almost exclusively
velopment is a new Starbucks store and a Peoples National on residential tax revenues to fund operations.
Bank. A 7-Eleven is also planned for the site.
When Colorado voters approved the Gallagher Amendment in
The bankruptcy and Capital 1982, the goal was to protect homeowners from skyrocketing
One foreclosure of Chapel property taxes. The Gallagher Amendment divides the state’s
Hill’s Mall are over with the total property tax burden between residential and nonresidential
purchase by the Namar-Ma- property, requiring that 45 percent of the total amount of state
son-CH Capital group that also property tax come from residential property and 55 percent
purchased the town’s other re- come from commercial/ industrial property. The assessment
gional mall, The Citadel Mall, ratio for commercial/ industrial property is fixed at 29 percent.
in 2015. Both properties are over In comparison, the residential assessment rate (RAR) is cur-
1.2 million square feet. Anchors rently set at 7.20 percent and is not fixed in order to maintain
Sears, Macy’s, Dillards and Bur- the 55 percent/45 percent ratio. Furthermore, due to limitations
lington Coat Factory own their imposed by the 1992 passage of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights
own stores. Both malls continue (TABOR), the RAR may decrease but cannot be increased
to present an uphill survival bat- without voter approval.
tle against the challenging inter-
net of Amazon and all the other In 2017, the RAR self-adjusted from 7.96 percent to its cur-
retailers moving more and more to on-line sales. The Citadel’s rent rate of 7.20 percent. Recent projections indicate the RAR
Macy’s has been vacant since 2009 and the Dillards functions could decrease further to 6.11 percent in 2019, resulting in con-
as a clearance center. Chapel Hills lost Borders in 2011, J. C.
Penny in 2014 and Gordman’s both opened and closed in 2017. Continued on page 10
Page 8 - May 2018 Perry Park Sentinel