West Colfax Avenue / US 40 and Miller Street
Jefferson County (Lakewood), Colorado
Plans for Greater Denver's fifth mall-type shopping center were originally proposed in December 1953. A group of investors acquired land for a prospective COLFAX-LAKEWOOD TRADING CENTER, but their plans eventually fell through.
By the late 1950s, Los Angeles' May Shopping Centers, Incorporated had taken over the project. They broke ground for WESTLAND CENTER on January 5, 1959. Attending the groundbreaking were Morton D. May (president of May Company), David May II (Executive vice president of May Company), David S. Touff (general manager of May D & F) and T.W. Henritze (Denver Division manager of Safeway Stores).
The complex was developed on 41 acres, located 9.3 miles west of the Colorado Capitol, in an unincorporated section of Jefferson County. WESTLAND CENTER was designed by Welton Becket & Associates, of Los Angeles, and Raymond Harry Ervin & Associates, of Denver. The open-air complex, originally encompassing approximately 302,000 leasable square feet, consisted of a main retail level and service basement.
Flower beds along the mall were laid out by John Ratekin, renowned Beverly Hills landscape architect. Flora and fauna included pinon pine, Colorado blue spruce, hackberry, juniper, weeping birch, cut leaf poplar and several varieties of flowering shrubs. In addition, 80 tons of Colorado red rock were used as accents. Mallways were named after the landscaping in their particular garden spots, i.e., Red Rock Gardens, Juniper Court, Birch Way and Lilac Walk. To add ambience, Parisian-style street lamps were installed along the shopping concourse.
The first operational WESTLAND store was a 3-level (155,000 square foot), Denver-based May-D & F, which began business on July 27, 1960. Inline stores were dedicated on August 1, 1960. These included Capital Dry Cleaners, Thom McAn Shoes, Lerner Shops, Rexall Drugs, a (15,000 square foot) Bond Clothes, (24,700 square foot) Safeway supermarket and (25,000 square foot) S.S. Kresge 5 & 10; the latter being the chain's first Centennial State store.
A 2-level (142,700 square foot) Sears was designed by the Piel, Slater, Small & Spenst firm, of Denver. Built on the west end of the complex, Sears opened, along with a freestanding Sears Auto Center, on February 28, 1963. Stores in two additional store blocks, on the south side of the mall, welcomed shoppers on March 6, 1963. Among these were Zale's Jewelers, Fashion Bar and Luby's Cafeteria. WESTLAND CENTER now encompassed approximately 434,500 leasable square feet and contained thirty-seven stores beneath its canopies.
A single-screen motion picture venue was built across Colfax Avenue from the mall. The General Cinema Corporation Westland Cinema premiered on July 26, 1967. The concourse at WESTLAND CENTER was enclosed and climate-controlled in 1968. The mall site became part of the newly-formed municipality of Jefferson City in June 1969. In November, a voter referendum changed the name of the newly-formed city to Lakewood.
Major shopping hubs in the vicinity included LAKESIDE CENTER (1956) {2.4 miles northeast, in Lakeside} and VILLA ITALIA (1966) {2.1 miles southwest, in Jefferson County (Lakewood)}.
The Westland Cinema was twinned in the early 1980s and sold to Mann Theatres in June 1984. May D & F shuttered their WESTLAND store in February 1989. By this time, the shopping complex was in a downward spiral. A 38 million dollar wrecking ball renovation commenced in late 1992. The mall structure, save for Sears and two peripheral buildings, was bulldozed.
WESTLAND CENTER was one of nineteen CentreMark properties sold to a joint venture in November 1993. The group included Australia's Westfield, Des Moines' General Growth Properties and New York City's Whitehall Street Real Estate Limited Partnership. The joint venture divided up management of the malls, with Westfield's share including WESTLAND.
A new power center was constructed at the cleared mall site. The complex encompassed 471,000 leasable square feet and contained fifteen store spaces. WESTLAND TOWNE CENTER was anchored by the existing Sears and a 1-level (146,700 square foot) Kmart SuperCenter. This store was dedicated on October 16, 1994. A (71,800 square foot), Omaha-based Gordmans discount outlet began business on October 20th. Inline stores included Alpha Graphics, Dress Barn, GNC, MacFrugal's, Payless ShoeSource and Half Price.
The Oz-based mall owner rebranded the complex as WESTFIELD SHOPPINGTOWN WESTLAND, in November 1998. This was shortened to WESTFIELD WESTLAND in June 2005. The center became a holding of Australia's Centro Property Group in June 2006, with its name reverting back to WESTLAND TOWN CENTER.
By this time, various WESTLAND stores had been rebranded. The Big Kmart was shuttered in 2003, with a Lowe's home improvement center moving in. New inline stores included Dollar Tree and Big Lots.
The United States holdings of Centro were acquired by New York City-based Blackstone Realty Partners in June 2011. An entity known as the Brixmor Property Group was created in September 2011 to manage the company's retail real estate. Atlanta's RCG Ventures acquired the WESTLAND property in October 2017. Denver-based Argosy Real Estate Partners bought the power center in November 2022.
Meanwhile, WESTLAND had become transit train accessible. On April 26, 2013, revenue service commenced on the Denver RTD's 12.1 route mile Auraria West-to-JeffCo Government Center-Golden "W Line" extension.
Sources:
The Denver Post
The Denver Post
The Colorado Transcript (Golden, Colorado)
The Rocky Mountain News (Denver, Colorado)
Cervi's Rocky Mountain Journal (Denver, Colorado)
preservenet.cornell.edu/publications/Longstreth Branch Store.doc
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
https://digital.denverlibrary.org
Centro Westland, Limited Liability Company
Adams County, Colorado tax assessor website
"Lakewood" / Robert and Kristen Autobee
Centro Westland, Limited Liability Company
Adams County, Colorado tax assessor website
"Lakewood" / Robert and Kristen Autobee
www.cinematreasures.com
https://movie-theatre.org / Mike Rivest
http://www.costar.com/News/Article/Australian-Firm-To-Buy-a-Half-Billion-in-Westfield-Malls/78314
http://madisonmarquette.com (Madison Marquette)
http://www.costar.com/News/Article/Blackstone-Closes-$9-Billion-Purchase-of-Centro-Properties-US-Assets/130075
https://historicjeffco.files.wordpress.com / "Historically JeffCo" / Issue 33, 2012 / Jefferson County Historical Commission
http://www.rtd-denver.com / Regional Transportation District
http://madisonmarquette.com (Madison Marquette)
http://www.costar.com/News/Article/Blackstone-Closes-$9-Billion-Purchase-of-Centro-Properties-US-Assets/130075
https://historicjeffco.files.wordpress.com / "Historically JeffCo" / Issue 33, 2012 / Jefferson County Historical Commission
http://www.rtd-denver.com / Regional Transportation District
https://argosyrep.com / Argosy Real Estate Partners
"Regional Transportation District" article on Wikipedia
FAIR USE OF WESTLAND CENTER IMAGES:
The photos from the Jefferson County Historical Commission illustrate a key moment in the mall's history that is described in the article. The images are of lower resolution than the original (copies made would be of inferior quality). The images are not replaceable with free-use or public-domain images. The use of the images does not limit the copyright owners' rights to distribute them in any way. The images are being used for non-profit, informational purposes only and their use is not believed to detract from the original images in any way.
"Regional Transportation District" article on Wikipedia
FAIR USE OF WESTLAND CENTER IMAGES:
The photos from the Jefferson County Historical Commission illustrate a key moment in the mall's history that is described in the article. The images are of lower resolution than the original (copies made would be of inferior quality). The images are not replaceable with free-use or public-domain images. The use of the images does not limit the copyright owners' rights to distribute them in any way. The images are being used for non-profit, informational purposes only and their use is not believed to detract from the original images in any way.
