Grocery store, office project planned for former DTC church

A former church in Greenwood Village may be destined for a different form of conversion.

Alberta Development Partners submitted redevelopment plans last week for 8081 E. Orchard Road, a 9.6-acre site it purchased in 2017, including office and retail space.

The property adjacent to Interstate 25 has a sprawling 249,000-square-foot building on it, which is surrounded by a two-level parking deck. It was built in 1984 as a regional anchorless interior mall, according to a project document, and then was used by a religious ministry after a 1995 remodeling.

Alberta wants to repurpose parts of the existing structure to create 160,000 square feet of office space, according to the plans. The company also wants to build a new 40,000-square-foot structure on the west side of the lot, which the company has earmarked for a grocery store.

Marketing materials for the project available online feature renderings showing Whole Foods as the grocer. Don Provost, a founding principal of Alberta, told BusinessDen the company is in talks with the company; Whole Foods said the store is in development.

Another rendering on LoopNet shows a food hall atop the grocery store building.

“We look forward to working with the city on moving this development forward,” Provost said.

In 2016, Alberta — which is based in Greenwood Village — proposed a much larger 24-acre transit-oriented development in the area called “Orchard Station,” which included the 8081 Orchard lot and multiple other parcels.

But the company withdrew those plans weeks later, mostly due to opposition from residents, said David French, a planner with the city.

Alberta again submitted plans for the 8081 E. Orchard location in 2020, but stopped moving forward on them. The 2020 plan was similar to what’s being proposed now, French said, but the current plans are not a continuation of that application.

Alberta paid $14.8 million when it purchased 8081 E. Orchard Road from Marylin Hickey Ministries in 2017, according to public records.

Rev. Reese Bowling of Orchard Road Christian Center, which used to operate in the building and is now located at Encounter Church in Centennial, said the building has been primarily used for police SWAT training since the church left.

Bowling said the church’s board of directors decided to relocate because the Greenwood Village site no longer met its needs.

“That had been our location for 27 years and the board had been actively looking for relocating or partnering onsite, and it wasn’t realistic,” Bowling said.

French said a development of this size will take staff about four or five months to review and there will be multiple changes during that time.

“We could be looking at a City Council hearing anytime between June and the end of the year,” French said.

Alberta also developed the Streets at SouthGlenn and Promenade at Castle Rock, in addition to other Colorado properties.