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Fan Fare / Havana North Update

February 7th, 2017

Ward III Council Member Marsh Berzins and Havana BID Executive Director Gayle Jetchick met with Aurora Urban Renewal staff on January 27 to get an update on Fan Fare/Havana North.  AURA staff reported that the developer chosen by the steering committee last summer, Dillon Place/Kiewit, has been in for a preapplication meeting with the city’s Office of Development Assistance and is working on their financial due diligence before any plans are submitted and before any contracts can be put into place.  The City of Aurora currently owns the Fan Fare site.  There are currently no site plans for us to review and no store or restaurants names are known at this time.

Many of you will remember that in 2004 the Fan Fare site was rezoned from Light Industrial to PD (Planned Development) to accommodate the 20-story twin tower project originally planned for the site.  The PD zoning is still in effect even though the plans have changed and we will not be seeing the 20-story buildings from the old plans from 2004 (those old plans are no longer active).

So, the city needs to rezone the property to “mixed use” so we have flexibility to do the combination of for-sale townhomes, market-rate apartments, retail, restaurants and a small innovative office complex with outdoor spaces that will be coming forward in the new plans (again, there are currently no site plans to review and no other details available to share at this time).  We were told this rezoning process will take approximately 4 months to complete.

In the meantime, Council Member Berzins will be speaking with the principals of Dillon Place/Kiewit and will be monitoring the process to make sure we are moving foward on schedule.  The Aurora Urban Renewal Authority Board will have to approve all plans and contracts for this project.  Once there is a site plan to review, the usual City of Aurora “referral process” will kick in and neighbohood groups and businesses within a one mile radius will get to review and comment on the plans.

Very Rough Time Line:  Assuming that the Aurora Urban Renewal Authority enters into contracts with this developer chosen by the steering committee, design development and early permitting are scheduled to take place in mid 2017 with sitework grading and infrastructure/road improvements from late 2017 into 2018. Townhomes could be ready by late 2018 and apartments may be “move in” ready by 2020.

We would like to thank Ward III Council Member Berzins for her ongoing help with overseeing this redevelopment process.