Brownfields
Success Story
Flying H gh Again
Aurora, Colorado
In the early 1950s, a former Navy test pilot named Robert M. Stanley was searching
for a new home for Stanley Aviation. Aurora, Colorado seemed a perfect fit. He
had found an old landfill and wastewater treatment plant on the southeast edge
of Denver's Stapleton Airport. The location was strategically situated near Lowry
and Buckley Air Force Bases in a community undergoing a post-World War li
redevelopment boom.
In 1954, Stanley built a 22-acre campus anchored by a new, 100,000-square-foot
manufacturing facility. Known for its innovative design and manufacturing of ejector
seats for American military aircraft. Stanley Aviation thrived for the better part of
50 years. By the mid-20005, however, the once-largest employer in Aurora began to
stagnate and, after 2009, the property sat idle and vacant.
Stapleton Airport didn't survive either, eventually being replaced by Denver
international Airport. But while the Stapleton property was redeveloped into a
sustainable, mixed-use community of roughly 18,000 residents, the City of Aurora
looked for a partner to remediate and redevelop the former Stanley property,
which was riddled with asbestos and soil contaminants.
The Challenge
With support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the City of
Aurora headed up an area-wide planning process for land surrounding the Stanley
site. Indeed, the site was identified in the subsequent 2013 bro.wnfield area-wide
plan as a "catalyst site" for its potential to help revitalize the surrounding area.
But the city still needed to find a redevelopment partner that shared in the
community's vision.
Enter Mark Shaker, a social worker by trade, who inquired about opening a beer hall
in the area. Through a series of unusual and unplanned events, Shaker eventually
decided to redevelop the entire property.
Cleanup and Redevelopment
In addition to remediating existing soil and groundwater contamination, a large
amount of asbestos was removed from the site. Drywall and other contaminated
building materials and roughly 40,000 square feet of asbestos asphalt in the
parking lot were taken to a landfill.
To finance the cleanup, the developer took out two low-interest loans from EPA
Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) grant recipients. In 2015, the City of Aurora
used its RLF grant to provide an $825,000 loan for asbestos abatement. The
SEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA Grant Recipient:
City of Aurora, Colorado
Grant Types:
EPA Area-Wide Planning Grant,
EPA Revolving Loan Funds
Former Uses:
Municipal Landfill, Wastewater
Treatment Plant, Airplane
Manufacturing Facility
Current Use:
Retail Marketplace
AVUTICN
After 55 years and four owners, the
once-booming, 100,000-square-foot
Stanley Aviation manufacturing facility
sat vacant in 2009.

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This view from the Stanley Marketplace
shows the beer garden and homes in Denver's
neighboring Stapleton development.
Five years ago,
there was no
economic activity
at the Stanley
Aviation site. Now
we probably have
well over $100
million invested in
the area. M
Chad Argentar,
Economic and Business
Development Supervisor,
City of Aurora, Colorado
For more information:
Visit the EPA Brownfields website
at www.epa.gov/brownfields
or email Danny Heffernan at
Heffernan.Daniel@epa.gov.
'
January 2018
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment also used its RLF grant to
provide a $774,000 loan for soil cleanup.
After extensive remediation and more than two years and $30 million
worth of redevelopment and construction, the Stanley Marketplace opened to
great fanfare in 2016. The Marketplace features 54 independently owned Colorado
businesses—including restaurants, breweries, yoga studios, clothing stores,
barbershops, hair salons and even a daycare center—underneath its main roof, with
collaborative office space located on the second floor. Five hundred workers are
employed by these businesses. The redevelopment has also become home to various
arts and other festivals, features an 18,500-square-foot event center and is home to a
7-acre urban farm located on remediated garden plots.
"Maintaining the integrity of the original building for the Stanley Marketplace was a
really big win for the city," says Aurora Development Project Manager Jennifer Orozco.
"It kept a cultural asset in the neighborhood and built it into something even bigger
and better. And the site is amazing. There's just so much activity there now,"
The Benefits
As hoped, the success of the venture has spurred additional developments near the
property, including plans for a new apartment complex and public park. But Stanley
Marketplace has more than just opened businesses; it's also opened communities to
each other.
More than 20 percent of Aurora residents were born in another country, and more than
a third of Colorado's African population resides in Aurora. A large number of refugees
from Nepal also call the city home. Planning efforts—including three new major roads
connecting Northwest Aurora's immigrant and refugee communities to the new
urbanism in Stapleton—specifically sought ways of breaking down physical barriers.
The removal of cultural barriers has followed.
"It's been a physical connection between the two neighborhoods, yes; but it's also
bringing two populations together," Orozco says.
Chad Argentar, Aurora's economic and business development supervisor, adds, "You
can physically see a difference between the old and the new developments, but the
iines—from a functional standpoint—are really blurred. There literally had been a
fence up between the two neighborhoods and the two cities. Stanley Marketplace has
successfully broken down those barriers."
The Stanley Marketplace offers a variety of
food and drink options, such as shops with
ice cream, breakfast and sandwiches, and
wine and spirits.
Community meetings were held as part
of a brownfields area-wide planning
process for the former Stanley property.

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