LOVELAND – Contrary to speculation on some social media platforms that Whole Foods has withdrawn from the planned Centerra South development on the eastern edge of Loveland, a spokesperson for the grocer says plans are still on schedule.

“These reports are not accurate,” Carrie Rodgers, a corporate communications specialist at Amazon subsidiary Whole Foods Inc., said in an email to BizWest. “Whole Foods Market has not withdrawn from this project.”

A statement from McWhinney Real Estate Services Inc., the developer of the controversial project on the eastern edge of Loveland, was not quite as decisive.

“Centerra South continues to move forward as planned and we are encouraged by the enthusiastic response we have received regarding the future of retail in the area. Community engagement and tenant outreach remain strong and reflect the strong interest in this project,” the emailed statement said.

“We are not in a position to make formal tenant announcements at this time. However, we can confirm that leasing is proceeding as planned and we continue to be excited by the positive momentum in the retail sector at Centerra South. We look forward to providing further updates on the progress of the project.”

Some of the rumors may stem from a passage in a July 22 response in Larimer District Court to the City of Loveland’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit against it over the newly elected City Council’s actions regarding Centerra South. That passage, written by Loveland-based attorney Russell Sinnett, states that “the project has lost its planned anchor tenant and numerous other tenants.”

In the lawsuit, eight plaintiffs, including former Loveland City Council members Richard Ball, Dave Clark, John Fogle, Don Overcash and Chauncey Taylor, are seeking the removal of Mayor Jacki Marsh, Mayor pro tempore Jon Mallo and Council members Troy Krenning, Erin Black and Laura Light-Kovacs. They claim they violated the Nov. 21 city charter by not holding a public vote on the Reversal of urban renewal and financing agreements with McWhinney, which had been approved in April And May 2023 for the planned development of Centerra South.

The lawsuit alleges that the public vote required by Ballot Question 301 would have adopted on 7 November with 70% of the voteslargely driven by vocal opposition to McWhinney’s Centerra South plan. That vote amended the city charter to include a section requiring that any action by the Loveland City Council to approve or amend an urban renewal plan must be ratified by the city’s voters.

The Council responded to a McWhinney files breach of contract suit about withdrawing from the Centerra South agreements, came out of a board meeting in the early hours of February 21, revised its decision and reinstated the agreements under the terms of a settlement McWhinney had offered the previous day.

Sinnett declined to name a specific Centerra South tenant who was “lost” Thursday because it could weaken his position if the lawsuit goes to court, but he told BizWest he was simply trying to illustrate “the extent of the damage” from the City Council’s actions.

“It’s generally a reaction to what actually happened, to the city’s claim that there was no harm and no foul play because they reversed the reversal,” Sinnett said. “They say it made everything right, but it didn’t. They can’t undo what they did.”

Sinnett wrote in his July 22 response: “To save the project, which had already lost an estimated $10 million due to the city’s withdrawal, The developer had to offer additional funds that were paid to the city: $750,000, of which $250,000 has already been paid pursuant to the settlement agreement and the remainder is to be paid at a later date.”

A major tenant that pulled out of Centerra South this year was the Children’s Museum of Northern Colorado. BizWest reported in April 2023 that Ryan Howard, the museum’s executive director, and his board had negotiated with McWhinney for six years and finally reached an agreement. locate the facility there. In May of this year, however, the museum’s organizers announced that they had changed their mind and decided instead to locate at Loveland Yards, the new name for the Outlets At Loveland at the northwest corner of Interstate 25 and U.S. Highway 34. The yards are now owned by Windsor-based Schuman Cos.

When McWhinney unveiled his preliminary development plan for Centerra South, a 148-acre project south of US Highway 34 across from the existing Marketplace at Centerra, in January 2023, the plan included a 37,000 square foot Whole Foods grocery store which would be located in the north-eastern corner of the settlement.

Chad McWhinney, co-founder and chairman of the developer, told the council at the time that his company had been working with Whole Foods for about 16 years and that while the grocer had five communities in Northern Colorado in mind, McWhinney was able to secure a lease. He told the council that the lease was contingent on the company meeting certain time requirements.”

In a related development on Wednesday, Clark, the former city councilman who is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the city in which Sinnett filed a statement of claim on July 22, delivered petitions with more than 2,000 signatures to the Loveland City Clerk’s office in an attempt to Recall from Krenning on the ballot for this fall’s parliamentary elections.

Clark and two co-signers had until Wednesday to collect 1,615 valid signatures from Ward 1 voters. That number represents a quarter of the votes cast in the Nov. 7 election, which Krenning won as one of several newly elected council members who were far less amenable to McWhinney’s development plans than the members voted out by Loveland voters.