Larry Robinson / The Daily Sentinel
The Canyon View Marketplace at 632 Market St., which houses Ulta, Shoe Carnival and other stores, was recently purchased by Powderhorn Mountain Resort owners.
In 2011, Denver-based real estate investment company Gart Properties purchased the Powderhorn Mountain Resort, giving the company a prominent entity on the Western Slope.
Gart now has even more investment in the area, announcing this week that it has acquired Canyon View Marketplace at 632 Market St. in Grand Junction, located across the street from Mesa Mall and City Market. Tenants in the 42,783-square-foot property now under Gart ownership include ULTA, Dollar Tree, Shoe Carnival, T-Mobile, Carter鈥檚, Spectrum and Raise the Barre Fitness.
Gart Properties Executive Vice President Evan Gart spoke to The Daily Sentinel about how the Grand Junction market has changed since the Powderhorn acquisition 14 years ago in terms of population growth and economic expansion.
鈥淕rand Junction has evolved very drastically since that acquisition. The market dynamics weren鈥檛 necessarily compelling enough at the time for additional commercial real estate acquisitions in Grand Junction. So much has changed for the better from our perspective in that market through today. I think, for all the challenges Denver is having, Grand Junction has the opposite. Relatively speaking... it鈥檚 much more affordable,鈥 Gart said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a great 69传媒 for the outdoors, the economy has done a great job in diversifying into new industries, and as far as market dynamics go within the commercial real estate world, the market vacancy in Grand Junction is at an all-time low, possibly below 2% for retail. It鈥檚 a great place to acquire stabilized retail. It鈥檚 still somewhat of a tertiary market as far as institutional real estate investing goes, so we can get essentially a 20-30% reduction in value, comparatively speaking, if we were to buy the same asset in Denver.鈥
FILE PHOTO - The Flat Top Flyer lift at Powderhorn Mountain as seen in Oct. 2022.
This acquisition is the first for Gart through its Stabilized Asset Fund, the company鈥檚 new income-focused real estate strategy. Through this fund, Gart aims to acquire long-term ownership of well-located, stabilized retail assets.
鈥淕rand Junction鈥檚 still a small market, so there鈥檚 not a lot of great retail out there relatively speaking, but this came to the market several months ago and, right out of the gate, it fit the criteria that we were looking for,鈥 Gart said. 鈥淕iven the location across from the mall, the national tenancy is attractive too, and we believe all those tenants are performing especially well, which is super crucial for the long-term ownership of a retail shopping center.鈥
Per Mesa County records, Gart acquired the property for $7,979,667.
Since acquiring Powderhorn, the ownership has made a number of investments in the resort. Many of the improvements centered around a $5 million capital improvement.
The main improvement was adding the Flat Top Flyer, a high-speed quad chairlift, which opened in December of 2015.
The resort has also added snowmaking and downhill mountain bike trails. The mountain bike trails were opened in June 2016.
