Sam's, Whole Foods headed for Longmont
Beth Potter
LONGMONT - Sam's Club and Whole Foods have signed on as anchors of the $80 million redevelopment of the Twin Peaks Mall in Longmont, which has been renamed Village at the Peaks.

Sam's Club's signing was confirmed Wednesday by Brad Power, Longmont's economic development director. The membership discount store plans to occupy 100,000 square feet in the new shopping center. A Sam's Club in Louisville closed in 2010 after owner Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said the store was losing money.

A 30,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market grocery store will help draw other new retailers to the site, Allen Ginsborg, principal managing director of NewMark Merrill Mountain States, the mall's redeveloper, said Wednesday. Whole Foods Market Inc. (Nasdaq: WFM) announced the store in Longmont in its quarterly earnings report Tuesday.

"This is the momentum builder that gets the concept going," Ginsborg said of the Whole Foods store. "I couldn't be happier. It has taken six or seven months to bring this about, but it always has been the community's desire."

Ginsborg had not named Sam's Club previously because of a nondisclosure agreement he signed with the tenant.

Ginsborg and his team are stepping up efforts to sign other retailers and restaurants as tenants, based on a marketing flyer posted recently on the NewMark Merrill website. The flyer says "It may be the hottest redevelopment in Colorado in over 5 years (but we still have space for you)."

The flyer touts Regal Entertainment Group's 12-screen, 2,500-seat movie theater and says "restaurant pads with mountain views" are available.

The Village at the Peaks will be a "super-regional destination for shopping, great restaurants and state-of-the-art entertainment," according to the flyer.

"Our goal is to bring best-of-class retailers here," Ginsborg said Wednesday.

The two new anchor tenant announcements come just before the International Council of Shopping Centers RECon industry event set for May 19-22 in Las Vegas. Ginsborg said he has meetings scheduled with retailer representatives at the conference but declined to name them for market competitiveness reasons.

Ginsborg said he is on track with plans to open the redeveloped shopping center in fall 2014. NewMark Merrill paid $8.5 million for the existing 550,000-square-foot mall in February 2012. It is slated for demolition this fall.