{"id":13975,"date":"2026-01-13T22:30:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T05:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-mall-development-deal-collapses\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:42:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:42:45","slug":"durango-mall-development-deal-collapses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-mall-development-deal-collapses\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango Mall development deal collapses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Kensington Development Group is proposing demolishing part of the Durango Mall to build hundreds of apartments and a national organic grocery store, which some believe would be a Whole Foods. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Durango Mall and the Kensington Development Group have dissolved a purchase and sale agreement that would have brought a \u201cnational organic grocery store\u201d and 230 to 270 rental apartments to the property.<\/p>\n

The conceptual plan, which called for demolishing and revamping about 165,000 square feet of the mall at 800 South Camino del Rio, was met with pushback from some residents and small-business owners.<\/p>\n

Some believed the \u201cnational organic grocery store\u201d was Whole Foods, but the grocery chain\u2019s name was never officially released.<\/p>\n

URA Staff Liaison Tommy Crosby said at an Urban Renewal Authority meeting Monday that it\u2019s unclear which party ended the deal. A city of Durango news release<\/a> said the mall withdrew its authorization for Kensington to pursue a development and use application.<\/p>\n

The notice of termination, effective Jan. 8, was sent to the city\u2019s Community Development Department by the mall\u2019s legal counsel, Newbold Chapman & Geyer PC, the release said. The mall gave no reason for the decision, according to the release.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll we know is what was communicated to the Community Development Department on Friday, Jan. 9, which simply said, \u2018The contract has been terminated,\u2019\u201d city spokesman Tom Sluis told The Durango Herald. <\/em><\/p>\n

Richard and Kim Rathbun, who have owned the Durango Mall through Rathbun Properties and Durango Mall LLC since 2012, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Newbold Chapman & Geyer PC also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The tentative development plan was first revealed at a Dec. 4 Community Development Commission study session.<\/p>\n

Several concerned residents and small-business owners spoke in opposition<\/a> to the project at a Dec. 8 Urban Renewal Authority board meeting.<\/p>\n

Sluis told<\/a> the Herald<\/em> in early December that the proposal was in \u201cpre-application\u201d status and that the development group had not purchased the Durango Mall, finalized a tenant list or submitted a formal development plan.<\/p>\n

\"The
The southern section of the Durango Mall, photographed in December, has long sat quiet. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A purchase and sale agreement \u2013 the document terminated, according to the city \u2013 is a legally binding contract outlining terms between a buyer and a seller for a property or asset and typically comes into play when a deal nears closing.<\/p>\n

The project was located within the suggested boundaries of the proposed South Durango Urban Renewal Authority Plan Area, which is being reevaluated after the mall sale fell through, according to the city and the URA board.<\/p>\n

The proposed area also includes land across the Animas River along Colorado Highway 3 and Sawmill Road, and is now under review by the Durango Renewal Partnership, the city\u2019s Urban Renewal Authority.<\/p>\n

If the URA board decides it wants to reevaluate the area boundaries, an agenda item will be added to the Feb. 9 board meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the concern was around the potential tenant, not around the development of that area,\u201d said La Plata County Community Development Director Lynn Hyde during the meeting. \u201cSo it\u2019s actually kind of curious that that tenant is no longer there. I\u2019d be interested to hear the conversation now that one of the controversial variables has been removed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several commercial tenants have long-term leases in the 94,400-square-foot northern section, including TJ Maxx, Old Navy and Ross. But the mall\u2019s southern section has lacked significant retail tenants for more than a decade. The deal would have affected the southern section, and left the northern section untouched.<\/p>\n

epond@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Tommy Crosby as a member of the Durango Renewal Partnership board. He is the Urban Renewal Authority staff liaison.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The
The Kensington Development Group was proposing demolishing the southern part of the Durango Mall to build hundreds of apartments and a national organic grocery store, which some believed would be a Whole Foods. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

property owners withdrew authorization request for housing, grocery store<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,374,28,994],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-economic-development","tag-headlines","tag-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13975"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19259,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13975\/revisions\/19259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13975"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}