Lowe’s home improvement store off the 9.4-acre parcel list

FRISCO — The list of retailers vying for Frisco’s 9.4-acre parcel is shrinking.

Lowe’s home improvement store has taken its name off the list of applicants seeking to develop the town-owned land adjacent to Interstate 70 behind Safeway.

Still in the running are Home Depot, Alberta Development, Wal-Mart and local developers Don and Betsy Sather.

“Lowe’s would have stayed in, but they couldn’t make the timing,” Frisco town manager Michael Penny said. “Because of internal turnover, they couldn’t get their people up to speed.”

Penny received an e-mail message Tuesday from Lowe’s representative Mark Stoner, indicating the company would not provide the town with a proposal.

“Frisco Junction would be an excellent site for a Lowe’s home improvement,” Stoner wrote of the parcel. “Unfortunately, due to a change in consultants, Lowe’s is unable to complete its submittal by (the July 1 deadline). The earliest Lowe’s could complete its submittal package would be by July 21, 2005. Please notify me if there is any change in the process, and good luck on the future Frisco Junction project.”

The town could not accommodate Lowe’s requested extension without abandoning its goal of selecting a finalist by mid-July.

The decision will be put to a town referendum.

Meanwhile, the Sathers, as BigHorn Center Partners, have scheduled a “public focus group and project review” for their proposal. The meeting is set for 6 p.m. today at the Best Western Lake Dillon Lodge in Frisco.

“As a bidder on the parcel, we look forward to your thoughts,” read a BigHorn ad in Wednesday’s Summit Daily News.

Today’s Summit Daily features a half-page ad recruiting meeting attendees. The Sathers’ first-round bid for the project, taking up about 20 percent of the available land, was substantially more modest in scale than their big-box competitors. The initial proposal consisted of a two-acre hardware and home goods Ace Solutions store.

Following the July 1 deadline for development proposals, the applicants’ projects will go before Frisco’s Economic Development Advisory Committee, the general public and the town council. Once the council selects an applicant, the project will go to the ballot for voter approval.

Julie Sutor can be reached at (970) 668-3998 ext. 203 or jsutor@summitdaily.com.