Full speed ahead for giant complex on north side

A 14-screen Cinemark movie theater complex, a 1,059-space parking garage and an approximately 100,000-square foot retail and office building are expected to be completed in three to four months as part of Colorado Crossing, a high-profile project on Colorado Springs' far north side.

The project's $65 million first phase is going up southeast of Colorado Highway 83 and InterQuest Parkway, east of Interstate 25, amid tough times for developers, said the project's developer, Jannie Richardson of Sunshine Development Co..

Aside from a minor problem refinancing a $10 million loan three months ago, and the need to lay off some consultants, Richardson said she's moving ahead and has started utility work for the second phase.

"You can't push the market, you can't push the economy," Richardson said. "You have to deal with it the way it is. You have to be patient."

Colorado Crossing is going up across the street from the 135-acre InterQuest Marketplace, which is being built by Nor'wood Development Group of Colorado Springs. Oregon-based Hollywood Theaters opened its own 14-screen complex in May at InterQuest Marketplace, which also will include a hotel, stores, restaurants and a bowling alley.

Even before local and national economic problems, Colorado Crossing was one of the city's more ambitious mixed-use projects. The 153-acre complex will include 1.6 million square feet of housing, stores, restaurants, offices and entertainment venues and has been designed to evoke a town-square setting - residents living in multistory buildings above ground-floor retail and shoppers strolling streets and plazas.

About 75 to 100 construction workers were at the project site last week along with Richardson, who said she's overseeing much of the project.

Texas-based Cinemark, which has two complexes on the Springs' northeast and south sides, was scheduled to open this fall, but now will probably open in February, Richardson said. A Cinemark spokesman couldn't be reached for comment.

The 100,000-square-foot retail and office building, which will connect to the theater's west side via a second-story walkway, is about 70 percent finished, Richardson said. She's in talks with a half-dozen restaurants looking to locate in the building, she added.

The three-level parking garage, with each level about the size of a football field, is 80 percent finished and will serve theater-goers, office workers, shoppers and diners, Richardson said. The retail and office building also will have its own underground garage with about 75 spaces, she said.

The project's second phase, across a street and south of the theaters, will include 366 lofts, a pair of retail buildings and a 700-space parking garage. Richardson said she hopes to break ground on the second phase in early 2009.

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CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0228 or rich.laden@gazette.com