Phil Castle, The Business Times

As Mike Park surveys the Monument Village Shopping Center, he sees what he considers substantial progress: landscaping, outdoor seating and paving. That’s not to mention the renovations under way inside a combined Family Dollar and Dollar Tree store he expects to soon open as anchor tenant.

Park is still looking, though, for more — a restaurant and a few other tenants that will further revitalize the retail center in the Redlands area of Grand Junction. “It’s finding the right pieces of the puzzle to make it all come together.”

A Realtor and property manager with the Christi Reece Group in Grand Junction, Park represents and manages Monument Village Center. He works with Group One Integrity Broadway, which purchased the center in early 2022.

Park is familiar with Monument Village Center not only in his role as a property manager. Before he started working in real estate, he worked in the meat department in the Safeway store that once operated there.

A lot has changed since then, he says. Most notably, a space that long remained vacant after Safeway closed finally has been repurposed. Moreover, he says new owners have brought new life to the shopping center with their investments in renovations and their commitment to creating a center that attracts new customers and tenants.

Mike Ascione, one of the managing members of Group One, says the owners share a passion with the community to restore the shopping center to a more prominent role. “We want Monument Village to be a hub for the community — a place to gather, relax and enjoy. We have a really great foundation with our current tenants. The added convenience of shopping in the Redlands will really add to that.”

Park says Monument Village offers a number of businesses that attract customers, including a liquor store, chiropractic and counseling offices, dance studio and barbershop. Monument Village Coffee Shop constitutes a popular meeting place.

There’s room for more tenants, though, in three buildings with a total of 54,000 square feet of space, Park says.

A Family Dollar and Dollar Tree store will occupy more than 20,000 square feet of the former Safeway store. That will make the operation one of the largest of the new combo stores for the national chain, he says. He expects that operation to open before Thanksgiving and sell a variety of merchandise that will include some foods and beverages as well as household supplies, seasonal items and toys.

“It’s a what did I forget type store,” Park says that will offer residents the convenience of picking up a few needed items without having to drive to a larger grocery store or department store.

Kitchen Tune-Up, a kitchen design and remodeling business, also is expected to open at the Monument Village Shopping Center before the end of the year, Park says.

Another 11,000 square feet of space available in the former Safeway space provides what Park calls an end cap. That means the space would offer an ideal location for a pharmacy, bank or other business that needs a drive-through operation.

Finding a restaurant to occupy a space at the shopping center previously occupied by Garfield’s constitutes another priority, he says.

Ascione agrees. “We understand how much Garfield’s meant to the community. We heard many stories of people traveling great distances to visit Garfield’s. Our goal and commitment is to secure a brand of equal or greater quality that the community can equally embrace.”

Park envisions still other types of businesses he believes would constitute good fits for the Monument Village Shopping Center by providing needed services and in turn drawing more traffic. They might include an urgent care clinic or dental office, a nail salon or pet grooming firm.

The location is a good one, he says, with tens of thousands of cars driving by daily along Broadway and a median income of residents in the Redlands area about 30 percent higher than the average for the Grand Valley.

Renovations and other improvements that freshened the shopping center add to the attraction, he says.

Ascione says members of the ownership group talked with city and county officials as well as local residents in considering whether or not to purchase the Monument Village Shopping Center.

Shopping centers can constitute problematic investments, he says, because of the decrease in brick and mortar retail sales that’s corresponded with the increase in online sales.

But there was interest in the Monument Village Shopping Center and restoring a retail center that serves the Redlands area and Grand Valley, he says. “That’s something people want to go back to.”

Those efforts are off to a good start, Ascione says. “The center’s time has come. This is a great community, and we’re really excited to bring new retail to the neighborhood.”

For more information about the Monument Village Shopping Center, visit the website located at
www.monumentvillagecenter.com.