Old bank demo’d at 21st/ Broadway; no redev for now
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The former bank building at the northeast corner of 21st and Broadway streets has been torn down.
But there are “no plans” to redevelop the now-vacant site, according to Manjinder Singh, a member of the property owning group, AHAG LLC. The reason for the demolition was that “we had issues with the homeless,” he said in a brief phone interview. From 1975 to the late '90s, Pikes Peak National Bank, whose main location is at 2401 W. Colorado Ave., operated a 1,200-square-foot drive-through at that location. It had been mostly unused since then. In 2013, Kum & Go took out a contract on the 1.77-acre property (actually two parcels at 1035 and 1045 S. 21st), but backed out on the deal in late 2014. Singh's AHAG group then bought the site on the first day it was back on the market, according to John Georgeson, the Pikes Peak National CEO. Singh was so quick with the purchase, he even beat out the Gold Hill Mesa partnership, which was ready to make an offer, related one of the partners, Bob Willard. The location is significant to Gold Hill Mesa - the largest property development on the Westside at 210 acres - because Broadway off 21st is planned as the main access to its future 60-acre commercial area east of 21st and south of Highway 24. Singh's group owns multiple 7-Elevens in Colorado Springs, including the one just down the street from Broadway at 1001 S. 21st. The demolition was preceded this fall by a project in which the old building was shrouded in plastic for a few weeks while work went on inside. This was explained at the time by an AHAG spokesperson as an attempt to secure the building against trespassers. Westside Pioneer article |