Today’s News + Insights from Kentro Group

Residents in a portion of central Denver have a new King Soopers today. The division of Cincinnati-based Kroger closed its store at 825 S. Colorado Blvd. in Denver’s Belcaro neighborhood at the end of the day Tuesday. The store had operated for more than 50 years. King Soopers debuts a new $37 million store at 4201 E. Arkansas Ave. in the Virginia Village neighborhood on Wednesday. It’s about a mile south of the Belcaro store. The new store was developed by Denver-based Kentro Group, which broke ground on it in early 2025. The site was formerly the headquarters of the Colorado Department of Transportation. Kentro is poised to purchase the Belcaro site that King Soopers has vacated. The development firm already agreed, after pushback from neighbors, not to seek to rezone it.

One of Colorado Boulevard’s longtime grocery anchors is packing up for bigger digs just down the road. King Soopers is closing its Belcaro store at 825 S. Colorado Blvd. on Tuesday, June 2, and opening a much larger Virginia Village location about a mile south at 4201 E. Arkansas Ave. the very next day, Wednesday, June 3.

A retail property in Denver’s Belcaro neighborhood is expected to become a four-story apartment building. Developers Kentro Group and Embrey plan to demolish the Belcaro Shopping Center, a largely vacant retail strip with a King Soopers at 825 S. Colorado Blvd., and replace it with a four-story, 347-unit apartment building.

Plans for a four-story apartment building off Colorado Boulevard are moving ahead. Last December, the team behind the Belcaro Shopping Center redevelopment submitted a scaled-back concept for a 347-unit building in place of what had once been contemplated to include several structures including one standing 12 stories tall. Now, the smaller plan has cleared its first hurdle with the city’s permitting system, receiving concept approval and moving into the site development plan phase, which dives deeper into infrastructure, transportation and design details.

A new King Soopers is likely coming to Pueblo West as soon as fall 2028, according to the Pueblo West Metropolitan District. The Pueblo West Metro Board recently approved the sale of a property on approximately 23 acres of land on the northwest corner of U.S. Highway 50 and McCulloch Boulevard, clearing the way for the planned development anchored by the new grocery store.

Plans to bring more commercial and mixed-use components to a master planned community north of Denver have taken a step forward. The Thornton City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a conceptual site plan for 72 acres in the master planned development called Parterre. The 19 vacant lots sit at the southwest corner of E-470 and Quebec Street.

After sitting vacant for nearly two years, the fate of a large slice of busy Midtown Fort Collins intersection is shaking out. The city of Fort Collins recently purchased land at the southwest intersection of Drake Road and College Avenue for a future electric substation, Fort Collins Light and Power Director Travis Walker confirmed to the Coloradoan on Feb 19. The sale consisted of the two westernmost lots at the former Spradley Barr Mazda car dealership site, 2601 S. College Ave. The city purchased the nearly 4-acre slice Feb 17 for $9 million from KRF Drake, LLC according to county property records. KRF Drake, LLC is registered to Kentro Group, a Denver-based real estate investment company.

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The Colorado Housing and Finance Authority has awarded tens of millions of dollars in housing tax credits to nine projects planned to build a total of 840 affordable rental units in the state, seven of which are in the Denver-metro area. The developments will be awarded a reservation of federal and state housing tax credits, according to CHFA. Five of the developments were also awarded a Transit-Oriented Communities (TOC) credit.

A 194-unit apartment complex that rose in 1972 in Denver has changed hands for the first time since just after the properties were built. An LLC tied to Kentro Group Real Estate purchased the Korsakov Apartments at 1625 and 1675 South Birch St. on Sept. 30 from the Littleton-based LLC that had owned the property since at least 1975, according to public records. Kentro Group spent $33.3 million buying the apartments, which are located close to Colorado Boulevard and Interstate 25. According to marketing materials for the sale, the residences are 92% occupied with an average unit size of 867 square feet. The purchase price represents a $198 per-square-foot price. The acquisition was financed using a $22 million Fannie Mac loan with a $7.5 million second mortgage from the city and county of Denver, according to public records. Should the developer be interested, the property is eligible for Low-Income Housing Tax Credits provided the Denver Housing Authority is involved, according to marketing materials. The Kentro Group did not reply to a request for comment about its plans for the property. It has partnered with nonprofit providers in the past, including on a new proposal for workforce housing off Colfax Avenue. The Kentro Group also recently canceled plans to build a 12-story tower in Denver’s Belcaro area. It has plans for a 170-unit mixed-use project in the Platt Park neighborhood. The Platt Park project would include a Trader Joe’s location. The Kentro Group typically anchors projects around grocery offerings. Dan Woodward, David Potarf, Matt Barnett, Jake Young and George Hanlon of Walker & Dunlop brokered the sale in partnership with Henry Group Real Estate.

A developer has proposed building a six-story affordable apartment complex on Colfax Avenue east of downtown, the latest proposal for a lot that’s seen more than a few ideas over the past decade. After 10 years and seven different concept plans, developers recently submitted plans to the city for a transit-oriented affordable housing complex targeting health care employees. If approved, Williams Workforce will offer 111 studio, “micro-apartments” and 1-bedroom units, the plans show.

Trader Joe’s wants to open a store in Denver’s Platt Park neighborhood that will look different from its others in the region. The grocery chain has applied for a retail liquor license for a planned store at the northwest corner of Pearl Street and Louisiana Avenue, according to a notice posted at the site. The site at 567 E Louisiana Ave is home to a shuttered 7-eleven. But Trader Joes, does not plan to occupy that building – or a standalone structure at all, as its other Denver stores are.

After receiving pushback from nearby homeowners, the local firm slated to buy a retail site along Colorado Boulevard says it won’t seek to have the site rezoned. Denver-based Kentro Group, led by the Balafas brothers, says it hasn’t fully determined what it will do with the 7-acre site at 825 S. Colorado Blvd. but will work within the existing three-story zoning.

A long-running, high-profile legal battle over a 100-year, $10-per-year lease signed in 1991 ended at the close of April 2025 when the Supreme Court declined to hear a case encompassing the Mall of America and Transform Holdco, an investment group led by former Sears CEO Eddie Lampert.

Denver has a new King Soopers under construction, set to replace an existing one along Colorado Boulevard in Belcaro. The grocery chain, a division of Cincinnati, Ohio-based Kroger, and Denver-based development firm Kentro Group held a groundbreaking ceremony Friday to mark construction on the new store at 4201 E. Arkansas Ave.