On May 27, 2016, the Aurora Urban Renewal Authority (AURA) of Aurora, Colorado issued a Request For Qualifications (RFQ) in search of developer to work on an 11.9-acre parcel known as the Fan Fare site.
The site includes the 10.3-acre AURA-owned property within the Havana North Urban Renewal Area. Fan Fare is the site of the first enclosed mall in Aurora, which closed in 1965, and then was home to a Western Electric Co. facility in the 1980s. The site has been targeted for redevelopment since AURA purchased the building in 2014 for $4 million.
AURA is looking for a “visionary” development concept that will address the goals of building a mixed-use, high-density, pedestrian oriented project.
The original Fan Fair building was designed by well-known Denver architect William Muchow. Much also designed the Boettcher Concert Hall in downtown Denver. The building had a distinctive white bubble roof formed by 36 thin-shell concrete domes in a symmetrical rectangular pattern. It was an “outstanding example of the Formalist style of the Modern Movement, according to Colorado Preservation Inc..