Allen Ginsborg: Denver is the hub of the Rocky Mountain region [which also includes] New Mexico, Wyoming and Montana. Just as the recovery comes to the Coasts first, it would come here first and then might fan out north and south. You have some exceptions due to the energy business, and people don't always pay attention to how booming Denver is due to shale oil production and fracking, which is really driving the economy here hard, as it is in South Dakota and Wyoming.

I'm developing a site in Fort Collins and just brought in an employer that will hire 1,600 engineers. Colorado is unique in that it has a highly educated population, a very good business climate, and entrepreneurs that will invest in businesses.

I'm from California [originally], and the housing market in California, Arizona and some of those places just tanked. Colorado went down by single digits. By this summer we'll be up by double digits over the height of the market. Colorado didn't take as big a hit.

GlobeSt.com: How are your developments and redevelopments different from before the downturn?

Ginsborg: Here in Colorado, we're seeing two large projects – the Village at the Peaks [in Longmont] and Foothills Mall that Alberta Development is doing in Fort Collins. They're both infill redevelopment, established malls that are being converted to new facilities. In both cases, there is city bond finance subsidy. That is critical; that is what allows these projects to go forward today. They're [utilizing] tax increment financing, a revenue-sharing agreement that funds the bond. These projects produce new income streams for the city, and they share that income to fund the debt service on the bond.

Today, the rents retailers are willing to pay, and their yen for expansion, are better than at the bottom of the recession, but by no means have rents for anchor tenants recovered. As a developer, I have a couple of realities that drive my yields, and frankly, I'm all about trying to get my yields correct, as well as meeting the needs of the community. But yields are income over costs, and costs did not go down much during the recession and are now above pre-recession levels by double-digits. So here I am with what I would call depressed rents, still, on anchor tenants, and a cost structure that reflects where rents are escalating. Without that bridge, the city funding, there would be no project.

That's what's fundamentally different right now. Ground-up development in this market without some sort of special circumstance to allow for where rents are at today just won't occur until retailers are willing to pay more rent.

GlobeSt.com: How do you conquer that with so few potential anchor stores?

The reality is that there isn't going to be as much retail development. We're continuing to see consolidation: see Office Depot and OfficeMax. The result is continued pressure on rents. You have fewer [retailers] to choose from, and they're going to smaller formats. As a result, you don't have the competition: You don't have OfficeMax, Office Depot and Staples competing. Now you just have Staples and Office Depot. That's a big thing. If Staples is in your market, you have to make the Office Depot deal or you're out of luck. That's the problem now. I've seen it over my whole career; with the consolidation of retail, there's less competition.

GlobeSt.com: Is de-malling the answer, as you're doing at the Village at the Peaks?

Ginsborg: The focus is in-fill. The projects we're involved with are in-fill projects. We're redeveloping a defunct, functionally obsolete piece of real estate. The demographics are already pinned. You know what you're getting into. The cities are more willing to work with the developer, because they want the tax revenue in Colorado. Colorado's cities' budgets are about 50% to 65%t funded by sales tax. When they lose a mall that's been declining over the years, what was once 10 percent of the city budget is now 2 percent. That's a big hit. They're trying to recover that, and they're willing to share in the upside of the sales tax revenue to fund the costs. Without that, the projects would not get built. It's a public/private partnership and they're investing to help the project succeed.

GlobeSt.com: What are your goals for RECon?

Ginsborg: We have about two million square feet in Colorado; our total portfolio is about 10 million square feet. My focus is Colorado, and my team is out there to lease our projects in Colorado, especially Twin Peaks (Village at the Peaks). We're going to dedicate a third of our booth to this project. Now that we've announced our three anchors, we have the momentum of retailers being interested in this. On the flip side, there aren't that many projects coming out of the ground. I doubt there are 100 half-million square feet projects to be built in the United States. These will be built. [Village at the Peaks] is a real legacy project for me and my partner, Sandy Sigal.

GlobeSt.com: In what way?

Ginsborg: We're doing a unique village element to this project, because the community doesn't have a center. The mall was the community gathering place. We're building a village that will be extraordinary, with views of the Rocky Mountains. It will feel very Colorado.