The town of Parker packs a lot into its two-block downtown.
Locally owned shops, art galleries and eateries line the streets. Audiences gather for an evening of theater at Parker Arts, Culture & Events Center. Weekends rarely go by without a town event taking place, like the Parker Farmer’s Market or the annual Fall Fest at O’Brien Park.
Leaders in the growing suburban community 25 miles southeast of Denver hope an extensive new project will expand the historic downtown while maintaining the area’s close-knit community energy.
The project, called My Mainstreet, is expected to bring 155,285 square feet of commercial space, 530 dwelling units, 1,049 parking spaces and seven restaurants to downtown Parker.
At its conclusion, the $309 million My Mainstreet will double the two-block downtown area by connecting Mainstreet from Parker Road to Pine Curve.
The first phase is expected to break ground this October, kicking off construction on a vision more than 20 years in the making.“We think it’s the most important development project for the town in the next 10 years and the one that will only strengthen the town’s advantages as a place to live, work and invest,” Parker Community Development Director John Fussa said.
The road to a new downtown
The town of Parker has seen steady growth since it was incorporated in 1981, Fussa said.
Approximately 75% of the town has already been developed. But most of that work has occurred outside the downtown core.
As a result, downtown Parker has historically seen low vacancy rates, preventing new businesses from setting up shop. For more than a decade, the vacancy rate has typically landed at 1%, according to Weldy Feazell, the director of urban renewal agency Partnering for Parker’s Progress, known as P3.
“The demand for space in downtown is extremely high,” Feazell said. “There just wasn’t any active development going on.”
Leaders in Parker have long eyed six vacant parcels of land — five owned by the town and one by the urban renewal authority, according to previous Denver Business Journal reporting — in and near downtown as candidates for further development. The town has attempted to get those sites sold off to a commercial developer several times before.
“I started in 2012 and [the town] had been working on it before I started here,” Feazell said.
The current My Mainstreet project kicked off in 2018 with a public outreach campaign after members of the community voiced displeasure with previous plans.
That led to public hearings where residents could voice their concerns and provide input on what they wanted to see in future developments. The town discovered that people primarily wanted more restaurants and shopping opportunities.
Following the public hearings, Feazell said she and her team spoke with developers to try to find a plan that shared the town’s vision for what’s to come.
“We really had to work hard to find the right partner who wanted to work with the town on what they wanted and to make it a financially viable project for the development,” she said. “That was a challenge.”
Confluence Companies steps in
The right partner finally emerged in Confluence Companies, a Golden-based real estate developer.
Confluence Companies has worked on other projects similar to what Parker hopes to accomplish. That includes a project in downtown Castle Rock, which features a mixed-use condo project called Encore and a mixed-use apartment community known as Riverwalk Castle Rock.
“We really focus on being place-makers as a company,” said Tony DeSimone, CEO and partner with Confluence Companies. “We are able to put our investment into the quality of the project and really try to create a place that people want to be at.”
The My Mainstreet project demands a mix of uses, including residential and commercial spaces that are both for sale and for rent. That’s something many developers aren’t willing to do, DeSimone said, but Confluence Companies was up to the task.
DeSimone’s team put together a complete master plan that incorporated all six parcels of land and submitted it to Parker Town Council and P3. The two groups approved the plan in 2022 and sold the six parcels to Confluence the same year.
“As you do six different lots, you have to wonder, how do they work together in a master plan approach where they are complimentary to each other and not competing,” he said. “That was our approach when we took [the project.]”
The My Mainstreet nitty gritty
The first project to break ground in downtown Parker is a public parking garage located next to the existing Parker Arts, Culture & Events Center.
The $13 million project should be completed nine months after Confluence breaks ground in October, DeSimone said. It will bring 296 parking spaces to downtown. P3 is funding the structure.
The construction of the garage will allow the town to relocate the existing parking lot next to the PACE center to free up the area for another construction project, DeSimone said.
Then, in the second quarter of 2025, construction is expected to begin on East Main, a mixed-use project with a price tag of over $111.6 million. It will deliver 283 apartment units and around 18,000 gross square feet of commercial space. The commercial space will include two new restaurants, DeSimone said.
The East Main project will also include a retail parking structure with 352 spaces. The construction timeframe spans two years.
Confluence Companies plans to break ground on a new My Mainstreet project annually for the next six years. Full build-out of the My Mainstreet project is likely eight to 10 years out, DeSimone said.
The Juniper on Mainstreet
My Mainstreet is bolstered by a separate project that will bring 264 apartments and 13,900 square feet of pedestrian-friendly retail and restaurant space to downtown.
The Juniper on Mainstreet, a $107 million luxury apartment community, is currently under construction at the intersection of Mainstreet and South Pine Drive. The two buildings are expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2025.
“Aside from The Juniper … it’s been about 20 years since any buildings have been developed in downtown Parker,” P3’s Feazell said.
While separate from the town’s My Mainstreet project, The Juniper on Mainstreet complements the overall vision of what both Feazell and DeSimone hope to create downtown, they said.
“It’s going to be a really nice transition into seeing more mixes of uses downtown with slightly bigger buildings with more density,” Feazell said of The Juniper. “It isn’t what everyone wants, but I think it will start kind of ramping up that increase in activity. … The Juniper really just kicked off what will be a lot of vibrancy being added downtown.”
The overall goal of the projects is to maintain the feel of Parker’s current downtown, while expanding it to connect Mainstreet from Parker Road to Pine Curve. That will create walkability that will bring more business and foot traffic to what is already a quaint and authentic destination, Feazell said.
“We wanted to make sure we didn’t lose that in the process,” Feazell said. “We want to make sure we were respecting the history and what was already in place as we expand it and make sure it stays cute and a nice place to hang out.”
– Justyna Tomtas, Reporter, Denver Business Journal