Three potential uses of the Thornton Shopping Center site were quickly erased by residents last week at a wide-ranging public forum to discuss the future of the long-abandoned parcel.
Big box store? Nope. Quickie gas station and convenience store? No. A developer-driven proposal? Get outta town.
Instead, the 100 or so locals said they wanted a community park, garden, and a gathering place to fill the void. Local vendors and food trucks would be nice, as would a dog park, they said.
Most of all the city should strive for something unique that truly would make Thornton stand out from other cities, John Barreto said.
“We have the opportunity for a real facelift,” Barreto said. “We used to have a downtown Thornton…and that’s something we don’t have right now. We should honor this site and make it sustainable, something historical.”
“We could have something real and powerful,” Barreto said.
Crown jewel to disrepair
Last week’s “Community Reuse Visioning” session at Thornton’s Community Connections building helped kick off an effort to redo the shopping center site, located at the northeast corner of 88th Avenue and Washington Street. Built in 1955, the 15.6-acre parcel was a shopping crown jewel for the city until it fell into disrepair, say city officials.
The city took possession of the area in January 2023 and is moving ahead with asbestos cleanup and demolition. In the meantime, the city is using facilitators from Kansas State University’s Technical Assistance for Brownfields – or TAB – program and local brownfields planning group Adaapta to help arrive at the best use for the shopping center tract.
The TAB team will take suggestions made by residents to complete an analysis of the best path toward transforming the site, officials said.
“We want to identify the best uses for the site and what is supported by market forces,” said Kate Lucas, EPA Region 8 Assistant Director for the Kansas State team.
Thornton Councilmember Kathy Henson said that momentum is finally on the city’s side when it comes to redeveloping the shopping center.
“This is literally a meeting that’s been years in the making,” Henson said. “Somebody please pinch me.”
Councilmember Justin Martinez, who also attended the visioning gathering, said the big turnout showed how important the center’s reshaping is to residents.
“We can tell this project means a lot to the city of Thornton,” Martinez said. “To the entire city and not to Ward 1” where the shopping center is located.
Residents at the session broke into small groups to come up with their own wish lists for the new uses for the shopping center site. Nearly all centered around community activities of some kind.
Big box stores or gas stations did not go over well with participants. Neither did allowing an outside developer to dictate what should go into the site.
Resident Sara Wash said Thornton should put in place some home-grown culture into the site.
“We need such a revitalization,” Walsh said. “We have so many Wendy’s and McDonald’s now. We need some diversity. We need some culture.”
I agree that the sight of the old Thornton Shopping Center should not be redeveloped into more shops and restaurants. It needs to become a park where food trucks can park every day of the week,kids can play at a playground and dogs can play in area for them. The original Thornton Shopping strip was built when my great grandparents first moved to newly created Thornton with my 10 year old grandmother and holds so many memories of early Thornton.