3 New Developments coming to Harmony Corridor - Northern Colorado Growing fast

 Harmony Road's emergence as a gateway to Fort Collins has long made it an attractive spot for developers.
Now it could be the key to stopping the bleed of sales-tax revenue to neighboring cities.


Three new developments with 1.2 million square feet of retail and commercial space are slated for the mile-long stretch on Harmony between Ziegler and Timberline roads.
After many years of planning and a number of changes, the end is in sight for the 800,000-square-foot big box development known as Front Range Village at the corner of Harmony and Ziegler roads.
It's been 4½ years since Fort Collins officials began talking with Alabama-based developer Bayer Properties and construction is expected to begin on Front Range Village in the next few weeks.
"This is a regionally significant project," said Mike Freeman, economic adviser for the city of Fort Collins.
The development is expected to be an economic boon for the city, which is trying to staunch the flow of tax dollars leaving the city for other shopping areas in Northern Colorado, such as the 700,000-square-foot Promenade Shops at Centerra at the Interstate 25/U.S. Highway 34 interchange in Loveland.
Front Range Village is expected to bring about $2.2 million in new sales tax to the city beginning in 2008, Freeman said.
The development, which will be anchored by a Super Target and Lowe's, will also include retail shops, restaurants and possibly a branch of the Fort Collins library.
A few final details are being worked out with Bayer, said Cameron Gloss, director of current planning with the city, but that is not expected to cause any delays.
The city hasn't done specific models on the expected economic impact of a couple of other development projects going up in the area because they're not as large, Freeman said.
Other plans on the map
Fort Collins-based Bellisimo Inc. is ready to move forward with its 75,000-square-foot The Pads at Harmony, which will be built on both sides of the intersection of Harmony and Snow Mesa Drive.
The project is approved, has tenants and is ready to go, said owner Gino Campana. All they're waiting on is approval for some utility work from Front Range Village.
The site will include retail, office and restaurant space as well as two banks, Campana said. Construction on the project is expected to be completed by late this year.
Most of the tenants slated for the development have asked to not be named yet, Campana said. Campana said he's hoping his center will become a place to which families could ride their bikes on weekends and enjoy a treat, much as families near Old Town are able to do.
Groundbreaking at The Pads at Harmony is contingent on storm drainage and other utility improvements at Front Range Village, Gloss said.
Construction has also begun on the Harmony School Shops at the corner of Harmony and Timberline.
The development, which had been in the works for more than eight years, would include retail and restaurant space, including a Walgreens and is expected to be completed later this year.
John Mountjoy, the lead developer with Omaha, Neb.,-based CFR Realty Advisors, said the company is going to submit a "major" amendment to the city this week.
The proposal, which had included a grocery store, will now be a "smaller, more friendly neighborhood center," Mountjoy said. The center is expected to open early spring 2008.
The Pads at Harmony, located between Foothills Village and the Harmony School Shops, will tie together all three developments, Campana said, with a roundabout planned to disperse the traffic.
Development along Harmony has crawled east from College Avenue for close to 10 years with grocery stores, shopping centers, movie theater, restaurants and lodging, as well as commercial space, sprouting up along the corridor.
The recent boom along the corridor speaks to the city's economic development activities, City Manager Darin Atteberry said.
"The Harmony Corridor is a priority corridor for the city of Fort Collins," he said. "The practical indication of that is the work we've done with Intel, AMD and Bayer."
When completed, these three projects will occupy the entire stretch on the north side of Harmony from Timberline to Ziegler, said Gloss.
Additional retail and commercial space isn't the only development planned for this stretch on Harmony.
Poudre Valley Health Systems is currently building a 72,000-square-foot office building adjacent to system's Harmony Campus on the southwest corner of Timberline.
The Redstone Professional Office Building, which is slated for completion in September, will house the system's headquarters, as well as Front Range Cancer Specialists and The Urology Center, said spokesman Gary Kimsey
The area is expected to see an additional 8,000 cars a day after the projects are completed, said Eric Bracke, a Fort Collins traffic engineer.
The area currently sees around 40,000 cars a day, Bracke said.
Harmony has had a larger increase in traffic than any other arterial in town over the last five years, Bracke said.
"You can expect a 2 to 4 percent increase per year on any arterial," he said. "Harmony Road has seen around a 7 to 8 percent increase each year for the last five years."
But this increase has little to do with the development along Harmony over the past 10 years or so, Bracke said.
Rather, the increase is due to development and growth throughout and around the city, he said.
People who commute to or from Fort Collins for work use Harmony as a way to get to Interstate 25, Bracke said.
"It's a roadway of significant regional importance," he said