Small business owners look to the future as Aurora's Stanley Marketplace changes hands

Nearly a decade after becoming one of Aurora's most recognizable gathering spaces, Stanley Marketplace is preparing for a major transition.

The mixed-use marketplace is under contract to be sold to a new ownership group, something current operators acknowledge may sound scary to longtime customers and tenants, but insist will not change the identity that made Stanley successful in the first place.

"The original vision was really a community hub," said Jonathan Alpert, managing partner with Westfield Company, which manages Stanley Marketplace. "A place for entrepreneurs, first-time business owners to gather and break all the rules and just be an awesome place for the community to come and hang out."  

Originally opened in 2016, the marketplace has grown into a destination filled with locally owned restaurants, boutiques, fitness studios and service providers.

"It's been a phenomenal decade," Alpert said. "What's truly incredible is that more than half of our original tenants are still here."  

That longevity, he says, comes from the community support surrounding the marketplace.

"There's a million reasons to come here," Alpert said, pointing to everything from restaurants and retail to childcare and service businesses. "This is a daily trip for a lot of families and people that live in and around the marketplace."  

Still, news of a potential sale has raised questions among some customers and tenants about whether Stanley could lose the local, community-centered atmosphere that has made it stand out from traditional shopping centers.

"Change can be scary," Alpert said. "But it's a positive."  

According to Alpert, the buyers are not outsiders unfamiliar with the area.

"They've been in and around the project for over three years," he said. "They've really come to this decision to purchase the marketplace because of their interest in investing in this community."  

Alpert confirmed reports that the buyer is Magnetic Capital, describing the group as intentionally selected because of its familiarity with Stanley and Aurora.  

"We wanted local," he said. "We wanted a group that understood what made Stanley so important."  

He says the sale is still in its early stages and not finalized.

For business owners inside Stanley, uncertainty naturally comes with any ownership transition, but many say they are optimistic that the culture that defines the marketplace will remain intact.

"Change can always be a little bit scary because there's some uncertainty with change," said Tiffany Spector, owner of True Boutique.  

Spector has worked inside Stanley for nearly eight years and says the marketplace offers something different from a typical mall or shopping center.

"Everyone that shops here and lives nearby knows that Stanley is about 50 businesses that are all made up of individual owners, no major chains," she said. "We all have a like-minded mindset of wanting to help each other out, support each other, collaborate."  

She says that sense of community is what continues to draw both locals and travelers stopping between downtown Denver and Denver International Airport.

"A lot of our customers are definitely people that live close by and in the neighborhood," Spector said. "But a huge part of our customer base is travelers that are going from downtown to the airport."  

Alpert says Stanley's impact has extended beyond the walls of the marketplace itself, helping fuel additional housing, development and investment in the surrounding area over the last decade.

"What was an area that did not have a lot of life, so to speak, it's changed dramatically over the decade," he said.  

Despite the coming ownership transition, both tenants and management insist the core identity of Stanley is expected to remain the same.

"The new buyer is buying the leases," Alpert said. "The tenants that are here, that's what they are purchasing. Without them, they don't have anything."