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.
May Stores Shopping Centers, Incorporated, of Los Angeles, took over the project and announced plans for a WESTLAND CENTER mall in June 1955. Development of the complex was delayed by the merger of the May Company Colorado and Daniels & Fisher chains, in November 1957, and by the completion of the first May-D & F store, in Denver's Courthouse Square. This mercantile opened for business on August 4, 1958.
Ground was finally broken for WESTLAND CENTER on January 5, 1959. Attending the ceremony 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).
WESTLAND CENTER was developed on 41 acres, located 9.3 miles west of the Colorado Capitol, in an unincorporated section of Jefferson County. The complex was designed by Welton Becket & Associates, of Los Angeles, and Raymond Harry Ervin & Associates, of Denver. The open-air mall, originally encompassing approximately 302,000 leasable square feet, consisted of a main retail level and service basement.
A (25,000 square foot) Safeway supermarket became the first operational WESTLAND store on May 4, 1960. A (25,000 square foot) S.S. Kresge 5 & 10 debuted on July 14th. It was the Michigan-based chain's first Centennial State store. A 3-level (155,000 square foot), Denver-based May-D & F was dedicated, along with the mall, on August 1, 1960.
The new May-D & F, the chain's fifth location, presented an image of "casually dramatic western beauty." The interior was done in shades of brown, yellow, green and white and was illuminated by a combination of flourescent and incandescent lighting. The store's Victorian-motif Lookout Room restaurant extended from the second floor and straddled the open-air mall below.
Twenty-one stores and services made their debut as part of the August 1st grand opening. These included Capital Dry Cleaners, Thom McAn Shoes, Lerner Shops, Key Rexall Drugs, Fontius Shoes and Babyland Children's Shops.
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.
Ground was broken for a Sears department store and freestanding Auto Center on March 14, 1962. Work got underway on two western store blocks on August 16th. The new Sears and store blocks were designed by the Piel, Slater, Small & Spenst firm, of Denver. The first tenants opened for business on March 7, 1963. The 2-level (86,000 square foot) Sears and (14,000 square foot) Auto Center were dedicated at this time. New inline stores included Zale's Jewelers, Fashion Bar and Luby's Cafeteria.
Now fully-realized, WESTLAND CENTER 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.
Soon after, the concourse at WESTLAND CENTER was enclosed and climate-controlled. A 4-day grand opening celebration for the air-conditioned complex commenced on November 20, 1968. Dedication festivities included hourly turkey give-aways, fashion shows, puppet shows, clown performances and band concerts. Music was provided by the Jack Laetch Trio and Brass Menagerie.
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)
"Dual Anchor Shopping Centers 1952-1965" / Richard Longstreth
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
https://adcogov.org / Adams County, Colorado
"Lakewood" / Robert and Kristen Autobee
Centro Westland, Limited Liability Company
https://adcogov.org / Adams County, Colorado
"Lakewood" / Robert and Kristen Autobee
https://www.cinematreasures.com
https://archives.denverlibrary.org
https://movie-theatre.org / Mike Rivest
http://www.costar.com/ News Article / "Australian Firm To Buy a Half Billion in Westfield Malls"
http://madisonmarquette.com / Madison Marquette
http://www.costar.com / News Article / "Blackstone Closes $9 Billion Purchase of Centro Properties US Assets"
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"
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.
