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Open house another chance to review Marketplace plans

John ColsonAspen Correspondent

Carbondale residents on Friday will get a chance to review the latest plans for the once-divisive Crystal River Marketplace development.Voters killed a plan for the site in 2003, but a new plan from a new developer got a favorable review from residents during an information session June 6. The open house Friday will include refinements to the “rough concepts” on display June 6, Town Planner Doug Dotson said.”I think what they’ll see is about what we plan to submit” to the town government, said Richard Schierburg of the Peregrine Group, which is positioned to take over the site from original developer Brian Huster.Much of the information presented at the earlier session was based on community input from two years of negotiations involving the town, the citizen-based Road Map Group and the developers of the Marketplace project.Schierburg this week said he is not planning to present anything “significantly different” from the earlier information, other than some changes in the size of some of the smaller retail buildings, and further detail about the location of the buildings.Huster’s proposal called for 252,000 square feet of commercial space, anchored by a 125,000-square-foot big-box retailer. Huster bought the 22-acre property, on Highway 133, from Colorado Rocky Mountain School in 1999.The current proposal calls for between 160,000 and 175,000 square feet of retail space, including a 60,000-square-foot anchor store; between 150 and 175 housing units, 15 percent of which must be affordable under town codes; three “junior anchors” of about 20,000 square feet apiece; and a mix of commercial and office space scattered around the site. The Town Council and the planning and zoning commission will begin reviewing the project during a July 19 joint meeting.Schierburg said he has thought a lot about incorporating “green,” or ecologically sustainable, building techniques. He said he has had talks with architects and at least one building contractor in an effort to “learn where the industry is with the state of the art.”He said he is “trying to get a fix on the costs and what the rate of return is” to see if green building is fiscally feasible for such a commercial project.He said he has not yet entered into formal negotiations with prospective tenants of the new shopping center.”We’ve had discussions,” he said.The open house begins at 6 p.m. and is expected to end around 9 p.m.


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