Denver, Centennial Spaces Available After Amazon Fresh Stores Are Killed

Amazon is looking to move on from two Denver-area properties where it had planned to open Amazon Fresh grocery stores.

The 41,500-square-foot building at 4950 E. Hampden Ave. in the Happy Canyon Shopping Center has been listed for sublease. So too have the 43,000 square feet that Amazon leased at 8181 Quebec St. in the Quebec Village Shopping Center in Centennial.

Amazon leased those spaces without fanfare no later than 2021. But neither ever welcomed shoppers.

Other parts of the country experienced something similar — planned stores that stalled out, with no communication from Amazon.

Then, late last month, Amazon announced it was closing all 57 Amazon Fresh grocery stores and 15 Amazon Go convenience stores. It said some stores would become a Whole Foods. Amazon also owns that chain.

Amazon didn’t specify what would happen with planned stores that never opened.

The Denver and Centennial spaces are being marketed for sublease by Chad Knoth of Locate. He did not respond to a request for comment.

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The sublease listings would appear to indicate that Amazon won’t open a Whole Foods at either of those locations.

The Happy Canyon space was formerly a Safeway. Before Amazon Fresh, deals fell through to open first Tony’s Meats and Market and then Marczyk Fine Foods at the property.

Centennial, meanwhile, agreed in 2022 to reimburse $250,000 worth of sales tax at the store to Amazon over a 10-year period. That deal required the store to open by the end of March last year. Denver didn’t strike an incentive agreement for the Happy Canyon store.

Amazon also leased nearly 36,000 square feet at 11000 S. Parker Road in Parker for a Fresh store in 2021. That space is now home to Arc Thrift Stores.

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