NORTH VALLEY CENTER
West 84th Avenue and Washington Street
Adams County (Thornton), Colorado

The first shopping mall in Denver's northern suburbs was developed by Seattle's Winmar Realty Development Company. This concern was employed by New York City's Eastman-Dillon Union Securities & Company, who owned the prospective shopping complex. NORTH VALLEY CENTER was designed by Robert Ewing & Associates.

Ground was broken on a freeway-adjacent, 37-acre plot on August 18, 1966. The land parcel was located 8.8 miles north of the Colorado State House, in -what was- an unincorporated section of Adams County. 

Fully-enclosed, the mall was anchored by a 2-level (141,000 square foot), Denver-based May-D & F. It was dedicated, as the first operational store, on August 24, 1967. The adjoining mall opened -with an initial twenty stores- on October 18, 1967. Charter tenants included Bond Clothes, Barrrricini Candy and a (12,000 square foot) Dave Cook Sporting Goods.   

Predominantly a single-level structure, NORTH VALLEY CENTER included an Upper Floor office mezzanine. There were three court areas. On the east (facing May-D & F) was the Fine Feather Court, with a large aviary. This housed 103 birds, including finces, canaries and pearl doves. 

At the center of the center was the Quaking Aspen Court; a sunken garden with seven sculpted trees made of brass. Rain-like droplets fell from their bronze leaves. The west end of the mall centered on the Merry Maker Court (facing Montgomery Ward). Here, children could play an brightly-painted wooden animals.    

Mall common area was decorated and landscaped by John T. Ratekin Associates, of Los Angeles, and Brewster, New York's  Rosti Workshop for Architecture. The main shopping concourse featured tropical plantings and 1890-style street lamps. The exterior of the complex was landscaped with locust, hackberry pine and Colorado spruce trees. 

Additional stores and services opened over the next 2 years. The General Cinema Corporation North Valley Cinema showed its first feature on July 2, 1968. A 2-level (139,200 square foot) Montgomery Ward opened its doors on January 30, 1969. With its completion, NORTH VALLEY CENTER encompassed approximately 550,00 leasable square feet and contained forty-one stores and services.

The shopping hub was sold to Cleveland, Ohio's First Union Realty in December 1969. It  was annexed into the City of Thornton in 1970. By this time, a major competitor was in its midst. NORTHGLENN MALL (1968) {2.6 miles northwest, in Adams County / Northglenn} was one of the largest shopping centers in Greater Denver, dwarfing NORTH VALLEY CENTER in comparison.

To add insult to injury, another competing facility was dedicated. WESTMINSTER MALL {4 miles northwest, in Westminster} opened its first phase in 1977. In 1989, yet another potential rival made its debut. Fortunately for NORTH VALLEY MALL, the new THORNTON TOWN CENTER {1.9 miles northwest, in Thornton} failed to live up to expectations.

However, competition from the NORTHGLENN and WESTMINSTER malls was sufficient to undermine NORTH VALLEY MALL. May-D & F was shuttered in 1985 and replaced, by a Burlington Coat Factory, on November 7, 1986.  An $800,000 face lift was completed in September 1987. This renovation failed to halt the mall's downward spiral. By the early 1990s, it was virtually vacant. Ward's closed its doors soon after.

A plan to reinvent the moribund mall as an office center was announced in May 1995. A 13 million dollar renovation was done between 1996 and 1998. By 1999, the new NORTH VALLEY TECH CENTER had become something of a model for dead mall retail-to-office center conversions.

Tenants such as TeleTech, Voice Stream Wireless, Inflow, ITT Technical Institute and Denver Career College came and went. By the early 21st century, NORTH VALLEY TECH CENTER had declined into dead office center status. In early 2014, 250,000 square feet were vacant.

Centennial, Colorado's Global Pacific Properties bought the complex, as well as the land it stood on, in May 2014. They performed a renovation of the Main Entrance and interior common area and installed new signage, skylights and interior landscaping. New tenants were also signed, including Regis University, Sonder Corporation, Zenith Education Group, Sungard Availability Services, Avanza Training and an Allied Global call center.  

Sources:

The Westminster Journal (Westminster, Colorado)

The Colorado Real Estate Journal (Denver, Colorado)
http://www.mallhistory.com/malls/north-valley-mall-thornton-colorado
https://adcogov.org / Adams County, Colorado
http://flyer.colliersb-k.com/northvalleytechcenter.pdf
http://www.businessthornton.com

https://digital.denverlibrary.org

National Registry of Historic Places / Multiple Property Documentation Forum / United States Department of the Interior / National Park Service / "Historic Residential Subdivisions of Denver, 1940-1965" / Revised March 1992 and October 2010
http://www.cinematour.com

https://gpproperties.com (Global Pacific Properties)

https://businessden.com

https://alliedglobalbpo.com

https://www.officespace.com