AURORA, Colo. — On Thursday the City of Aurora will celebrate the grand opening of its first "transit-oriented development." Forum Fitzsimons is a nearly 400-unit luxury residential complex located near the RTD R Line Colfax station.
"This is the culmination of a long process for the City of Aurora of trying to attract developers to our stations," says Andrea Amonick, the city's development services manager.
TODs are a growing trend in development, offering residents opportunities to live closer to where they work, or commute without a car. Forum Fitzsimons is across the street from the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, and walking distance from the RTD R Line which connects Aurora to DIA, downtown Denver, and the Denver Tech Center.
"In more urban environments the traffic creates a disincentive to drive," Amonick said. "There are lots of places where people don’t have cars because they don’t need them. They’re expensive, insurance is expensive, and we want to make those opportunities possible here and give people the lifestyle that they want to live."
Amonick says Aurora is no longer a bedroom community of Denver. The state's third largest city wants to offer the same urban opportunities residents of Denver have, where people can live, work, and play in one place.
Randy Bryant, the president of Catalina Development Company, the developer behind Forum Fitzsimons, says the complex was designed with that in mind.
"If I lived here, what would I want? Coffee, breakfast, sports bar, hair, nails, cleaners, and we’re hitting all that," Bryant said.
Forum Fitzsimons has 30 thousand square feet of retail space on the bottom level. New retailers will be opening throughout the year.
The luxury units range in price from the $1,300s, up to $2,800 a month for premium units. Amonick says the city realizes not everyone can afford this lifestyle.
"We want to be really sensitive to our existing communities but as I said before, what creates a dynamic city is the opportunity for choice," says Amonick. "So we're looking for diversity of housing types and housing price points, because not everybody wants the same thing," she said.