King Soopers at Littleton Square, Littleton, CO
I have to stop on the way home from work tonight... Meaning yet another drive through the ice and snow covered roads of Minnesota, to pick up some stuff we need from the store I loathe.
I've never liked Cub Foods. I don't like the layout of their stores, not a fan of their staffing policies, and their generic food line SUCKS! Kroger's name brand is far superior in nearly every food I've sampled. That and their King Soopers chain is just plain better run.
Cub Foods's parent company, Super Valu, recently decided to shift focus solely on their wholesale grocery business. In doing so, they put all their retail stores up for sale to interested parties. Including Cub Foods. King Soopers' parent company, Kroger, has been named as a possible buyer for some (but not all) of Cub Foods properties.
Littleton Square was one of the first features for the Abandoned Englewood issue of Wasted Quarter that I was actively pursuing. I wanted to document the demise of the shopping center that Kroger needed partially flattened, in order to build an even more Sooper King Soopers, way back in 2014. The fact that it was roughly 4 blocks from my apartment made it's demolition far more convenient than shopping there ever was...
But first, thank you Sooper Card for all the discounts on food and merch over the years! Not to mention saving me some cash at your gas pumps!
Despite it's proximity to my residence since 2006, I rarely shopped for groceries at the Littleton Square King Soopers, before it was demolished.
I just wasn't a fan of not going south. Englewood was as far south of Denver as I wanted to live. Everything I needed to drive to or from was to the north of our apartment. And there were plenty of other King Sooperses to pick up needed food stuffs. Namely either Englewood location, both were a convenient stop on whichever route I chose to leave work.
When I did go to the Littleton Square store, I didn't care for the layout. The small amount of space available to the store lead to everything being cramped in narrow aisles. Selection was also poor because there simply wasn't enough room to stock much for variety.
I've had my Sooper Card for over 20 years. That beat up magnetic strip hasn't worked since the early 2000's, but at least the bar code was still scannable! Many a cashier told me to go to the customer service desk (and in later years, online) and get a new card. Just didn't want to. This one still worked well enough...
As far as the rest of Littleton Square, far too much retail space was going wasted and unused. King Soopers desperately needed more square footage. It only made sense to demolish the largest part of the shopping center and rebuild. After all, it was a huge success at the Centennial Square center in Englewood, a couple of years earlier. Demolition of the current structure and construction of the new store would take about a year.
The new store would be 75,000 square feet, and set up like the one that recently opened at Federal Boulevard and Belleview Avenue, with expanded selections, more square footage and an improved parking lot. It will include a drive-through pharmacy on the west side, two front entrances on the east, a resurfaced and realigned parking lot and a Starbucks kiosk inside.
Littleton Square is located at the corner of Broadway Avenue and Littleton Boulevard, in Littleton, Colorado. (Stop saying Littleton!) The shopping center has been here for many years, with King Soopers as it's main draw. But that drawing power dwindled, leaving the center old, outdated and littered with vacant storefronts. So an upgrade was definitely in order.
After the Belleview and Federal store was demolished and rebuilt as Uber-Soopers in 2012, I wondered when some of the other older grocery stores in the area were going to get the re-boot. News of the pending demolition of Littleton Square made it's way to me in the fall of 2013. With no official word on when the closure and demolition would take place, I stayed on low alert...
On X-mess morning, 2013, I executed one of my favorite Denver activities, abandoned building hunting. The first stop on my mission was Littleton Square. The holiday would provide vehicleless photos of a set of businesses that rarely closed. These next few pictures were taken around 7am, when normal people were opening their X-mess gifts. It became a tradition in Denver that early on holiday mornings, I would take advantage of the lesser traffic and empty parking lots for abandoned building hunting.
In addition to King Soopers, Littleton Square was once home to a Walgreens, that was directly north of the deli and produce. The Walgreens was pretty small in comparison to the new stores the druggist has been building over the last decade. That store was closed in 2010, moving north into Englewood, into a new and larger building at Broadway and Belleview.
North of Walgreens was the Apostolic Church, which took up several storefronts, combined into one larger meeting space. Upon Littleton Square's closing, the Apostolic Church moved a few blocks down Littleton Blvd, setting up shop inside an old Chinese restaurant.
Around the corner, along the north facing walls were more vacant stores. On the end opposite the church was a liquor store with a drive through window. One of the last open businesses was H&R Block. They had recently relocated to the south branch of the shopping center, which was going to spared from demolition, and given an updating facelift.
This section of the shopping center was more filled. Mattress Firm had a firm grip on the large storefront facing Broadway. With longtime neighbor Subway sitting next door. Subway has been in that spot since at least 1996, and likely a lot earlier.
Some of the other stores in the south wing of Littleton Square on X-mess morning, 2013. Including that relocated H&R Block. While it houses zero stores of interest to me these days, Angelo's CDs had a store on the west end when I first moved to Englewood. I visited the Square a lot just for that store, until they moved 11 blocks west. Then I pretty much stopped coming here.
There is a fully occupied three store building in the north side of the parking lot. It houses Starbucks, Lotus Jewelers and a Papa Murphy's. We have picked up pizzas from here, but one of my bling has come from Lotus Jewelers. Mile High Comics used to have a store in the space Starbucks is now. Like Angelo's CD's, Mile High Comics also moved about ten blocks west, nearly 20 years ago.
These businesses, and the south wing were not a part of the demolition. Instead, they will receive a new facade as part of Littleton Square's renovation.
Rounding out the property is the King Soopers branded gas station and car wash. As you'd expect, points earned from store purchases would apply towards discounts on gas. Despite not shopping at the old Littleton Soopers very often, I did fill our cars with gas here often. You couldn't beat the convenience of the location at Broadway and Littleton.
This gas station was an old Conoco in the early 2000's. Conoco had a very small retail space inside when it was an open store. It had a small rack of chips, candy and the usual. A limited cooler, pop fountain and cigarettes rounded out all you could buy here. Pretty sure there were restrooms. The cashier area was behind bullet proof glass, which was typical in these style gas station. Conoco was a sometimes stop when my job was giving rides to pizza.
King Soopers eventually took over the gas station and closed the retail space. A couple of vending machines and a walk-up window for smokes. However, this small chunk of land had enough room for six pumps and a car wash. With a configuration that maximizes the tiny property, Soopers could reap better profits. The car wash must go. The wasted retail space gone, the new station would allow more than twice as many pumps. And the property would be far easier to drive in.
Oddly enough, across the street from this old Conoco gas station was another Conoco gas station. Which sat on the northwest corner of Broadway and Littleton until the early 2000's, when it was demolished in favor of this shiny Chipotle.
Late on the night of February 3, 2014, Laura and I drove by the King Soopers Fuel Center. A gas truck was pumping out the leftover fuel from the underground storage tanks. A banner attached to the canopy overhead declared the gas station and the King Soopers grocery store would be closed on January 31st, 2014, at 8pm.
By February 9th, the three gas pumps had been removed, and a security fence was placed around the property. The sign stayed up to tease gasoline needing consumers for the rest of 2014.
Back when this station operated as a Conoco, this was a very small convenience store. It had only the bare minimum of inventory, but was closed off completely when King Soopers took it over. I think you could buy a few things like cigarettes from the windows on the left side. Accessed via that gray box on the wall.
The King Soopers car wash wasn't all that popular, and it wasn't all easy to access. Makes sense that it wasn't replaced. Car washes are expensive for gas stations to keep operating, much better to put another set of pumps in it's place. I wont miss it, I never used it...
The security fence stopped what was one of the most used features of King Soopers gas, a shortcut around the Broadway & Littleton Blvd intersection! You could enter on the north side, then escape on the east. Avoiding several cars waiting at the light to make a right turn. This was especially useful when Littleton High School down the street let out, and the neighborhood was crawling with teenagers in skinny jeans staring at cell phones.
Were they still open, you could have stretched your gas dollars with Super Mileage Booster fuel system cleaner! Try it today!
The gas station had a much better label scar than Soopers itself did. Although the "Food & Drug" is kinda cool, the large rectangle above it isn't very special...
Soopers stores built in the 1980's, all had the same trademark red brick entrance. With sliding glass doors that stayed open until the stores were closed, usually only on X-mess. As Kroger went about updating their Denver area Soopers stores, these dated entrances were gone.
This rather high tech sign is telling you that you have to buy carrots and Ding Dongs elsewhere. I did find it funny that it was placed less than a foot off the ground.
Above that was a more professional we're closed sign. Along with a drawing of what would soon be going up on the site. Kroger did provide a short list of other stores in the area where you could still buy carrots and Ding Dongs.
Oh, and the pharmacy is closed too. Not sure why they censored out the words "This" and "Is Now" next to "Pharmacy" and "Closed". Doubtful there would be any confusion that another pharmacy here may still be open, as the building around it would be torn apart...
In the just over two weeks since this Soopers was closed, the store was pretty gutted. A small fleet of semi trucks were parked out front, with workers moving stuff from inside the store to the trucks for loading and hauling away.
Some of the workers saw me taking pictures, but none of them seemed to care. The guy in the middle of this picture, hugging a box of fluorescent light bulb tubes, turned around and stared at me for a few seconds, before going back to caressing his bulbs.
The old service desk hadn't been removed yet, along with the row shelving on the northern side of the store. One thing that bothered me about the small size of this Soopers was the narrow aisles. They made two passing carts difficult to navigate. Especially once the trend of rude ass people needing to walk BESIDE their carts became a thing...
As I mentioned, Walgreens left this location in 2010, leaving only a slight Walgreens label scar behind. No tenants leased this space after Walgreens, with the exception of a Halloween store that showed up every fall between 2010 and 2012.
When I printed this photo in Wasted Quarter, I doubted it would come across in the drastically shrunk down black and white reproduction. A sweet additional scar had formed in recent years. The Halloween Store left a distinct WEEN in the middle of the facade.
The entrance to (not) Walgreens (anymore). Walking around in front of the store, I took a few interior window shots. But there was nothing special about what was left behind.
This first picture was taken through the front entrance doors. I do really like the frame from the big tube TV security monitor still hanging from the ceiling, with no security monitor inside it.
The next two pictures were taken blindly from the higher windows behind the former cashier area. I couldn't see in the windows, so i trusted the camera to get me something decent.
The store was emptied when Walgreens moved, although the dingy shelving stains left on the floor show how cramped this small Walgreens really was. I only went inside a couple of times while it was open.
When it was here, the Halloween Store used tables and cheap temporary fixtures when they would come in. Once they were done, ex-Walgreens continued to look just like this.
Out of respect, I did not take any pictures of the Apostolic Church today. It was fairly early on a Sunday morning, and people were still doing churchy type things with bibles and families and stuff inside. Figured that I already looked like a total weirdo to them by taking pictures of an abandoned shopping center.
I'm also pretty sure this was the last day that any churchtivities took place here. After closing, the Apostolic Church moved three blocks west, into a vacant building -which used to be a Pho restaurant- facing Littleton Blvd.
H&R Block had previously moved to a vacant store in the south wing of the shopping center. They left behind a very bold label scar that leaves no question regarding their previous location.
Hopefully the new location allows for longer parking, or your taxes are so non-complex that they could easily be done in 20 minutes... Hey Littleton Square! Be considerate to the people who are in a difficult tax situation! Not everyone's financial struggles can be resolved in the time it takes to cook a frozen pizza. That you can no longer buy around the corner...
Fifteen years ago, this store was a Cricket Wireless outlet. I bought my cell phone here a week after I moved back to Colorado, in May 2005. At the time, I was looking for a cheap and convenient phone plan until I got my new old life straightened out. Cricket won my dollar, but I soon found out that once I left the Denver metro area, their phone plan was worthless. So a little over a year later, I went with a different carrier and a much better phone. Cricket closed this location shortly after I dropped them. I like to take credit for that...
And I still have the same phone number that Cricket handed me today! I may live in Minnesota now, but you still have to call Colorado in order to reach me via cell phone! And I don't plan on changing that anytime soon...
Here's another vacant store. This one next door to ex-Cricket. I have no memory of what was once here.
The drive up liquor store on the northwest corner of Littleton Square held a tiny chunk of a memory, despite rarely shopping there. Dating back to the pizza taxi days, a co-worker and good friend of mine lived within a few blocks of Littleton Square. He even worked at the liquor store for a while. Sometimes when we were hanging out, alcohol was purchased here.
Back in 2010, I would sometimes give him a ride home from his job at 470 and Quebec, in Highlands Ranch. Often, he’d have me pull up to the drive through window for a bottle of whatever. We were both going through some bad relationship issues at the time, I greatly appreciated his company and sympathy as we philosophized.
The exit of the drive-up window spilled into the back of the shopping center. A loading dock for Walgreens is on the right side of this photo.
When the liquor store left they pulled the coolers out, but left the wine racks. With price tags still hanging from them.
Whenever a liquor and/or convenience store closes and the coolers are ripped out, It leaves a huge hole inside. Which also provides a look at it's construction. In this case, the work wasn't pretty...
The calendar on the wall read November 2013, with the last markings on November 12th. So I’m assuming that is when the liquor store closed. I tried really hard to read any of the stuff written on the dates, but other than some numbers, not much made any sense.
That's a really ancient credit card imprinter left on the counter... I guess they also decided against keeping the fake hanging potted plant, and commemorative plaque for whatever it was commemorating. I couldn't read it so I can't tell you. My best guess is an award for Littleton Business of the Year (for 2012).
Hey Littleton! If it's unlawful to place ANY sign on public property, doesn't that make this sign illegal? Did you prosecute whomever placed it here? Or is it exempt under that city code?
February 16, 2014 was the last time I photographed Littleton Square before demolition started.
The next time I visited the property with my camera was March 9, 2014. When I approached from the northwest corner, and was greeted by a fence around the perimeter. But I didn't know how much work had been done here in the days I wasn't paying attention.
When I entered the parking lot, I couldn't miss the blown out glass windows and doors of the former Apostolic Church. Clearly demolition had already started. The American Demolition shovel tearing the roof apart, must have put pressure on the glass, exploding it outward. Which seems really unsafe, yet kinda cool...
A chain link fence blocked off most of the parking lot of King Soopers. This was used by the demolition (and later construction) crews as a staging area. Though the nature of access to the shopping center forced the fenced off area to come back in very close to King Soopers' entrance.
The far back wall was still standing, but nearly all of Soopers that I recognized was gone. Reduced to piles of rubble in the middle of frozen foods.
There was a decent breeze going when I took these pictures, causing some paper garbage to swirl around the parking lot. Mostly non-descript Soopers stuff that wasn't very interesting. But a few comment cards were fluttering in the wind, including this one filled out by an angry customer.
The employee doors by the pharmacy have fallen -or been ripped- off, exposing a lot of daylight that wasn't seen when the store was open. That greeting card display wasn't salvaged by the clean-up crew, and will likely be smashed by the falling roof very soon.
Looking through that same broken door at the pharmacy entrance, then spanning the line of missing cashier checkout lanes. Then past the Bobcat that replaced the service desk, where the holes in the sheetrock now are. The deli and produce sections were beyond this, at the far end of the building.
Just past that door was the collapsed roof of Soopers, with cinder blocks falling inward. They also fell on those two poor benches against the wall. The narrow wood slats stood no chance against the heavy bricks dropping on them.
The southwest corner of Soopers was gone, save for some rebar and brick pieces sitting on top of the platform that the store was built upon. And that ugly brown chair has somehow survived to this point!
Whomever was last sitting in that chair could have had a great view of the shovel that was ripping apart it's home.
I really like this picture too. You can see almost all the way to Broadway through what's left of the store.
Looking further north at what the shovel had done... Almost finished destroying the former butcher's area of the meat department!
This piece of garbage (dated July 9, 2012) found behind Soopers was pretty interesting. It's a survey of gas prices in the immediate area, so Kroger could track their direct competition's prices. While their printed form is more professional than just notes on a scrap of paper, I remember the concept from the mid 1990's days of 99 Spillihp. Each day, Karen (or sometimes even myself) would go on a quick drive around town to check how much the competition was charging for gas. We had to write down each gas station's prices, to determine our course of action upon return.
Soopers and Walgreens... The stand up gas price sign wasn't moved at all since the store (and gas station) closed, although gas wasn't ever 5 cents a gallon. A new -but similar- sign was put at the entrance of the new King Soopers when it opened.
This wrapped up my March 9, 2014 photos. Knowing that demolition was well underway, I waited a week, then came back the next weekend to check on the progress.
The north side of the property was down to storefronts, with no stores backing them. The liquor store still had it's drive up window, but only a pile of twisted beams, broken glass and splintered wood for inventory.
A hole has been left where Cricket and the other store I can't remember once was. I couldn't get a better picture thanks to the semi trailers parked in front. One of these trailers was being used as an on-site office for American Demolition.
The north wall of Walgreens is still standing behind the fallen stores. A week later, both were gone. Another week after that, all of it was gone. Except for some remnants of foundation.
As destruction closes in on H&R Block, I'm dismayed by Littleton Square not removing their extensive "rules" list, which was posted in a really strange place. Will these rules not apply at the NEW Littleton Square?
The post-apocalyptical Apostolic Church, at the northeast corner of the complex. I guess they didn't need to bring the aluminum mini-blinds to the new church. American Demolition didn't seem to need them either.
The Apostolic Church was the first part of the center to lose it's facade (of the parts that were still standing). The now removed tree that was planted on the corner of the sidewalk also wasn't going to live to see the new Soopers.
Without a roof, you can easily see inside Walgreens again. Too bad the fence was placed so far away that I couldn't get closer pictures. I'm guessing they wanted to keep people away from broken glass spraying out at the sidewalk.
Littleton Square blocked off a major portion of the lot for the building's demolition. This made parking for businesses in the south wing a real problem. The lot never was all that easy to navigate due to rude drivers and an overall bad traffic flow, but with this much of it fenced off, maneuvering your way in and out was difficult at most times of the day.
When I first saw the former entrance to King Soopers, with the front door wide open to destruction inside, that was the picture I wanted for the cover of Wasted Quarter #70. I wasn't sold on either shot I took the week before, so I was happy the marquee was still standing so I could try a few different angles.
Despite it not being located in Englewood, this seemed like the best choice for the subject matter of Abandoned Englewood. I needed to squeeze the image together to include as much detail, and position the photo to fit the trim size and planned design. But I'm happy with how it turned out.
About the same as last week's inside the front door picture. Only the back wall has been replaced with ripped up chunks of the roof...
Down the row of missing conveyor belts and cash registers... The 15 items or less Express Lane sign is still hanging in there!
While I'm not certain, I think this Soopers had several small offices upstairs in the area above the checkout lanes. Looks like the sheetrock was removed a while ago, leaving the exposed aluminum studs.
Secured door in the back of Walgreens left open. I didn't hear the alarm sounding, so I'm assuming the building is still secure. Through the back door of the liquor store, you can see a little bit of the collapsed roof!
After a successful walk around the property, I got back in the car and left. This was the last time I'd see any part of Littleton Square standing.
The liquor store was gone, with just some metal scraps piled up in it's place. Behind it, Walgreens was a similar larger pile...
Southeast corner of Soopers, and entrance to Littleton Square. All recognizable features of the building are gone.
Actually, that wooden stand is something I remember sitting in the entrance of this Soopers. Nice to see that it stuck it out until the very end...
This sign on the retaining wall, holding up the gas station, is actually in focus in real life. It also survived the entire renovation of the shopping center, and was still attached to the wall in May, 2018. When I last shopped at the new Littleton Square King Soopers.
On March 30, 2014, all that was left of the King Soopers/Walgreens/Church/Liquor store building was a few piles being cleaned up.
A view to Bannock Street from just inside Broadway. At this location, you could not have gotten this view in a long time, and soon it would be blocked off again...
The south wing of Littleton Square was suffering from slowed business. With King Soopers closed and now demolished, traffic to these stores was drastically cut. Yogo Mojo did not survive the remodel of the shopping center, and closed up in the Summer of 2014. Citing a dramatic decrease in customer traffic after Soopers closed.
The new store will stretch from there, up to where the church used to be. Bricklayers got the walls put up in just over three months. It was kind of cool tracking the progress throughout the Summer and Fall of 2014.
Nearly 4 months after I took the picture of the dirt under the church from this angle, the new Soopers building looked like this...
The north walls and south walls hadn't been connected by July 6, 2014. This would become the seasonal promotions area between the two sets of entrance doors of the new store.
Another check on Soopers progress... The drive up liquor store used to be here. The new Soopers dwarfs the old building by a lot.
The new entrance promises to be a lot grander than the old sliding glass doors between coated red bricks...
Green Care dry cleaners vacated this location just a week before I took this picture. They were another casualty of decreased business brought on by Soopers year long closure. However, instead of closing up shop as Yogo Mojo did, they just moved a couple of miles south to Highlands Ranch.
On Friday, September 19, 2014, Laura told me the King Soopers gas station had been demolished earlier in the afternoon, as I was getting for work. The next morning, I went back to Littleton Square to snap some photos of the gas station rubble.
The station was gone, but the mess left behind was still there. This was the view from Littleton Blvd, taken as I drove up. Once I parked the car, I walked up to the corner for some closer shots.
Now that it's collapsed, you can see there really wasn't much to the gas station building. Just a hollowed out rectangle with no retail inside. Couldn't have been much trouble to knock over.
Well, at least the trash can/windshield washer combo drums were saved. But I don't think they were used by the new King Soopers gas station.
The former gas station sign announcing the new Soopers, which can be seen behind the gas station destruction. Littleton Square's closed sign was changed early on to inform the public that the other stores in the complex were indeed still open. They all suffered a dramatic drop off in customer traffic in 2014. I guess people thought the entire place was closed.
The south wing of stores at Littleton Square is now undergoing it's own renovations. These stores will all have new facades built, with a new sidewalk out front. If there were questions about these stores still being open the public, ripping the signs off them sure isn't going to help.
By November 24, 2014, progress on the King Soopers building had advanced to the point where the interior lighting was turned on in both the retail areas and upstairs offices. Store fixtures, including aisle shelving, were being put up and the store was looking like it could re-open fairly soon.
I checked back in, early X-mess morning, 2014. Exactly one year after I began photographing this location.
The new King Soopers gas station was also taking shape. It would feature more gas pumps, and an even smaller building, also with no retail space and no car wash.
In the past month, the entire Littleton Square parking lot had been somewhat smoothed out and re-paved. With new curbing obstacles placed in areas to hopefully improve traffic flow. Soopers just needed the black plastic coverings taken off their signs and merchandise placed on the shelves. Then they could be open again...
Starbucks sign has been put up in the window. In plain view of the Starbucks in the parking lot. Soon you'd be able to stop at Starbucks, before going to Soopers, to get more Starbucks!
The new and improved facade of Littleton Square's south wing. Featuring tons of unnecessary windows!
I took these pictures on February 3, 2015. Both the gas station and Soopers store had opened. You can tell by the balloons and banners.
The new King Soopers opened on January 28, 2015. Bringing back a whole lot more convenience to my life.
For a while, the store was open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Which was good, because during daylight hours you couldn't find a place to park. Littleton had missed it's Soopers... Now that it was back, the people came in droves.
I took this picture on my crappier cell phone on December 23, 2017. I liked the snow passing over the lights of the south wing's marquee, while standing outside of Soopers front door. This phone didn't take very good pictures. It broke a month later when it fell on a WalMarts restroom floor. A much nicer phone with infinitely better camera was soon being carried everywhere I went. Allowing much better photos for posting to Four Baggers!
As for the new King Soopers, I was here multiple times a week. The new store was so much better than the old one.
And I don't mean this store...
My frustration with the Minnesota winter weather has me really missing Colorado...
My frustration with Minnesota's leading grocer, Cub Foods, has me really missing King Soopers...
I've never liked Cub Foods. I don't like the layout of their stores, not a fan of their staffing policies, and their generic food line SUCKS! Kroger's name brand is far superior in nearly every food I've sampled. That and their King Soopers chain is just plain better run.
Hey Cub... You SUCK!!!
But this truck is NOT on it's way to Minnesota...
And I miss King Soopers.
And Colorado...
(Unrelated abandoned gas station in Poncha Springs Colorado, is not owned by Kroger or SuperValu.)
With fingers crossed for Kroger helping to defrost my Minnesota grocery shopping spirits, I'm once again turning to Wasted Quarter's Abandoned Englewood issue to re-write the story of Littleton Square.
Littleton Square was one of the first features for the Abandoned Englewood issue of Wasted Quarter that I was actively pursuing. I wanted to document the demise of the shopping center that Kroger needed partially flattened, in order to build an even more Sooper King Soopers, way back in 2014. The fact that it was roughly 4 blocks from my apartment made it's demolition far more convenient than shopping there ever was...
But first, thank you Sooper Card for all the discounts on food and merch over the years! Not to mention saving me some cash at your gas pumps!
Despite it's proximity to my residence since 2006, I rarely shopped for groceries at the Littleton Square King Soopers, before it was demolished.
I just wasn't a fan of not going south. Englewood was as far south of Denver as I wanted to live. Everything I needed to drive to or from was to the north of our apartment. And there were plenty of other King Sooperses to pick up needed food stuffs. Namely either Englewood location, both were a convenient stop on whichever route I chose to leave work.
When I did go to the Littleton Square store, I didn't care for the layout. The small amount of space available to the store lead to everything being cramped in narrow aisles. Selection was also poor because there simply wasn't enough room to stock much for variety.
I've had my Sooper Card for over 20 years. That beat up magnetic strip hasn't worked since the early 2000's, but at least the bar code was still scannable! Many a cashier told me to go to the customer service desk (and in later years, online) and get a new card. Just didn't want to. This one still worked well enough...
As far as the rest of Littleton Square, far too much retail space was going wasted and unused. King Soopers desperately needed more square footage. It only made sense to demolish the largest part of the shopping center and rebuild. After all, it was a huge success at the Centennial Square center in Englewood, a couple of years earlier. Demolition of the current structure and construction of the new store would take about a year.
The new store would be 75,000 square feet, and set up like the one that recently opened at Federal Boulevard and Belleview Avenue, with expanded selections, more square footage and an improved parking lot. It will include a drive-through pharmacy on the west side, two front entrances on the east, a resurfaced and realigned parking lot and a Starbucks kiosk inside.
To match the Starbucks 25 feet away in the Littleton Square parking lot.
After the Belleview and Federal store was demolished and rebuilt as Uber-Soopers in 2012, I wondered when some of the other older grocery stores in the area were going to get the re-boot. News of the pending demolition of Littleton Square made it's way to me in the fall of 2013. With no official word on when the closure and demolition would take place, I stayed on low alert...
On X-mess morning, 2013, I executed one of my favorite Denver activities, abandoned building hunting. The first stop on my mission was Littleton Square. The holiday would provide vehicleless photos of a set of businesses that rarely closed. These next few pictures were taken around 7am, when normal people were opening their X-mess gifts. It became a tradition in Denver that early on holiday mornings, I would take advantage of the lesser traffic and empty parking lots for abandoned building hunting.
One I didn't get to partake in for X-mess 2018...
Damn Minnesota snow...
North of Walgreens was the Apostolic Church, which took up several storefronts, combined into one larger meeting space. Upon Littleton Square's closing, the Apostolic Church moved a few blocks down Littleton Blvd, setting up shop inside an old Chinese restaurant.
Around the corner, along the north facing walls were more vacant stores. On the end opposite the church was a liquor store with a drive through window. One of the last open businesses was H&R Block. They had recently relocated to the south branch of the shopping center, which was going to spared from demolition, and given an updating facelift.
This section of the shopping center was more filled. Mattress Firm had a firm grip on the large storefront facing Broadway. With longtime neighbor Subway sitting next door. Subway has been in that spot since at least 1996, and likely a lot earlier.
Some of the other stores in the south wing of Littleton Square on X-mess morning, 2013. Including that relocated H&R Block. While it houses zero stores of interest to me these days, Angelo's CDs had a store on the west end when I first moved to Englewood. I visited the Square a lot just for that store, until they moved 11 blocks west. Then I pretty much stopped coming here.
There is a fully occupied three store building in the north side of the parking lot. It houses Starbucks, Lotus Jewelers and a Papa Murphy's. We have picked up pizzas from here, but one of my bling has come from Lotus Jewelers. Mile High Comics used to have a store in the space Starbucks is now. Like Angelo's CD's, Mile High Comics also moved about ten blocks west, nearly 20 years ago.
These businesses, and the south wing were not a part of the demolition. Instead, they will receive a new facade as part of Littleton Square's renovation.
Rounding out the property is the King Soopers branded gas station and car wash. As you'd expect, points earned from store purchases would apply towards discounts on gas. Despite not shopping at the old Littleton Soopers very often, I did fill our cars with gas here often. You couldn't beat the convenience of the location at Broadway and Littleton.
This gas station was an old Conoco in the early 2000's. Conoco had a very small retail space inside when it was an open store. It had a small rack of chips, candy and the usual. A limited cooler, pop fountain and cigarettes rounded out all you could buy here. Pretty sure there were restrooms. The cashier area was behind bullet proof glass, which was typical in these style gas station. Conoco was a sometimes stop when my job was giving rides to pizza.
King Soopers eventually took over the gas station and closed the retail space. A couple of vending machines and a walk-up window for smokes. However, this small chunk of land had enough room for six pumps and a car wash. With a configuration that maximizes the tiny property, Soopers could reap better profits. The car wash must go. The wasted retail space gone, the new station would allow more than twice as many pumps. And the property would be far easier to drive in.
Oddly enough, across the street from this old Conoco gas station was another Conoco gas station. Which sat on the northwest corner of Broadway and Littleton until the early 2000's, when it was demolished in favor of this shiny Chipotle.
I took this next set of photos on February 16, 2014.
I had no idea when they would close both stores, but we missed it...
Back when this station operated as a Conoco, this was a very small convenience store. It had only the bare minimum of inventory, but was closed off completely when King Soopers took it over. I think you could buy a few things like cigarettes from the windows on the left side. Accessed via that gray box on the wall.
Wow! Fanta Orange was on sale! For the low bargain price of regular price!
What a deal!
The security fence stopped what was one of the most used features of King Soopers gas, a shortcut around the Broadway & Littleton Blvd intersection! You could enter on the north side, then escape on the east. Avoiding several cars waiting at the light to make a right turn. This was especially useful when Littleton High School down the street let out, and the neighborhood was crawling with teenagers in skinny jeans staring at cell phones.
Were they still open, you could have stretched your gas dollars with Super Mileage Booster fuel system cleaner! Try it today!
Behind the King Soopers gas station, from the King Soopers parking lot.
The inconvenient and rather narrow car wash entrance
behind the permanently closed closed up store.
behind the permanently closed closed up store.
And for one of my crappily done panoramic pictures, this one turned out rather okay...
That's a nice label scar on the canopy!
As for the King Soopers store itself, all signage was promptly removed upon it's closure. On the day I took this set of photos (February 16, 2014), the temporary demolition fence had not yet been placed around the property. Meaning I could still get close up pictures of this doomed retail space!
The gas station had a much better label scar than Soopers itself did. Although the "Food & Drug" is kinda cool, the large rectangle above it isn't very special...
Soopers stores built in the 1980's, all had the same trademark red brick entrance. With sliding glass doors that stayed open until the stores were closed, usually only on X-mess. As Kroger went about updating their Denver area Soopers stores, these dated entrances were gone.
This rather high tech sign is telling you that you have to buy carrots and Ding Dongs elsewhere. I did find it funny that it was placed less than a foot off the ground.
Above that was a more professional we're closed sign. Along with a drawing of what would soon be going up on the site. Kroger did provide a short list of other stores in the area where you could still buy carrots and Ding Dongs.
Oh, and the pharmacy is closed too. Not sure why they censored out the words "This" and "Is Now" next to "Pharmacy" and "Closed". Doubtful there would be any confusion that another pharmacy here may still be open, as the building around it would be torn apart...
In the just over two weeks since this Soopers was closed, the store was pretty gutted. A small fleet of semi trucks were parked out front, with workers moving stuff from inside the store to the trucks for loading and hauling away.
Some of the workers saw me taking pictures, but none of them seemed to care. The guy in the middle of this picture, hugging a box of fluorescent light bulb tubes, turned around and stared at me for a few seconds, before going back to caressing his bulbs.
The old service desk hadn't been removed yet, along with the row shelving on the northern side of the store. One thing that bothered me about the small size of this Soopers was the narrow aisles. They made two passing carts difficult to navigate. Especially once the trend of rude ass people needing to walk BESIDE their carts became a thing...
And cigarettes for $3.85 a pack?!
Minnesota this certainly isn't...
Does "Propane Tanks" really need an ellipses?
Even if I was writing that sign, I would have chosen different punctuation...
And you know how much I love Ellipses...
Always have...
Likely always will...
Yup...
The pay phones are now gone. Their stands, a bench and ashtray were left behind.
That's a lot of rules, Littleton Square...
When I printed this photo in Wasted Quarter, I doubted it would come across in the drastically shrunk down black and white reproduction. A sweet additional scar had formed in recent years. The Halloween Store left a distinct WEEN in the middle of the facade.
Deaner and Gener would have been proud.
This first picture was taken through the front entrance doors. I do really like the frame from the big tube TV security monitor still hanging from the ceiling, with no security monitor inside it.
I bet it was stolen...
The next two pictures were taken blindly from the higher windows behind the former cashier area. I couldn't see in the windows, so i trusted the camera to get me something decent.
The store was emptied when Walgreens moved, although the dingy shelving stains left on the floor show how cramped this small Walgreens really was. I only went inside a couple of times while it was open.
When it was here, the Halloween Store used tables and cheap temporary fixtures when they would come in. Once they were done, ex-Walgreens continued to look just like this.
At least they knew where the Pharmacy was...
Out of respect, I did not take any pictures of the Apostolic Church today. It was fairly early on a Sunday morning, and people were still doing churchy type things with bibles and families and stuff inside. Figured that I already looked like a total weirdo to them by taking pictures of an abandoned shopping center.
I'm also pretty sure this was the last day that any churchtivities took place here. After closing, the Apostolic Church moved three blocks west, into a vacant building -which used to be a Pho restaurant- facing Littleton Blvd.
H&R Block had previously moved to a vacant store in the south wing of the shopping center. They left behind a very bold label scar that leaves no question regarding their previous location.
Conveniently placed signs above the sidewalk had not been removed when the Block left...
But they did leave a nice sign announcing their move...
And here's what their old place looked like inside. How warm, welcoming and taxey!
Although, Papa Murphy's is still open....
And I still have the same phone number that Cricket handed me today! I may live in Minnesota now, but you still have to call Colorado in order to reach me via cell phone! And I don't plan on changing that anytime soon...
Here's another vacant store. This one next door to ex-Cricket. I have no memory of what was once here.
The drive up liquor store on the northwest corner of Littleton Square held a tiny chunk of a memory, despite rarely shopping there. Dating back to the pizza taxi days, a co-worker and good friend of mine lived within a few blocks of Littleton Square. He even worked at the liquor store for a while. Sometimes when we were hanging out, alcohol was purchased here.
Back in 2010, I would sometimes give him a ride home from his job at 470 and Quebec, in Highlands Ranch. Often, he’d have me pull up to the drive through window for a bottle of whatever. We were both going through some bad relationship issues at the time, I greatly appreciated his company and sympathy as we philosophized.
The exit of the drive-up window spilled into the back of the shopping center. A loading dock for Walgreens is on the right side of this photo.
When the liquor store left they pulled the coolers out, but left the wine racks. With price tags still hanging from them.
Whenever a liquor and/or convenience store closes and the coolers are ripped out, It leaves a huge hole inside. Which also provides a look at it's construction. In this case, the work wasn't pretty...
More stuff left behind on the cashier's table. With the drive-up window on the right.
That's a really ancient credit card imprinter left on the counter... I guess they also decided against keeping the fake hanging potted plant, and commemorative plaque for whatever it was commemorating. I couldn't read it so I can't tell you. My best guess is an award for Littleton Business of the Year (for 2012).
And that cashier table is really beat up...
February 16, 2014 was the last time I photographed Littleton Square before demolition started.
The next time I visited the property with my camera was March 9, 2014. When I approached from the northwest corner, and was greeted by a fence around the perimeter. But I didn't know how much work had been done here in the days I wasn't paying attention.
American Demolition... Removing Denver area history, one block at a time!
Wished I'd been here to see that happen...
Sure did a number on this door...
The fence extended past Walgreens entrance as well.
I love this picture. The front entrance of King Soopers, with a demolished store beyond it.
Let's get closer!
Customer Service has been replaced by a Bobcat...
I decided that needed saving...
Although, It's no Bustable Hapl Cuustomer...
Let's go for a walk and see what the south side of Soopers looked like on March 9, 2014...
Looking through that same broken door at the pharmacy entrance, then spanning the line of missing cashier checkout lanes. Then past the Bobcat that replaced the service desk, where the holes in the sheetrock now are. The deli and produce sections were beyond this, at the far end of the building.
Please, 15 items or less...
Kroger was proud to be a part of the Littleton community!
Stairs to nowhere...
Whomever was last sitting in that chair could have had a great view of the shovel that was ripping apart it's home.
I really like this picture too. You can see almost all the way to Broadway through what's left of the store.
Looking further north at what the shovel had done... Almost finished destroying the former butcher's area of the meat department!
This piece of garbage (dated July 9, 2012) found behind Soopers was pretty interesting. It's a survey of gas prices in the immediate area, so Kroger could track their direct competition's prices. While their printed form is more professional than just notes on a scrap of paper, I remember the concept from the mid 1990's days of 99 Spillihp. Each day, Karen (or sometimes even myself) would go on a quick drive around town to check how much the competition was charging for gas. We had to write down each gas station's prices, to determine our course of action upon return.
(Especially if EZ Stop was undercutting the market, as usual...)
Nice to see that tradition still exists!
Wonder if some of these old stands were actually saved, or if they were trashed as well. I remember seeing some of them inside Soopers, holding free magazines and newspapers.
Soopers and Walgreens... The stand up gas price sign wasn't moved at all since the store (and gas station) closed, although gas wasn't ever 5 cents a gallon. A new -but similar- sign was put at the entrance of the new King Soopers when it opened.
Still love the front doors open to destruction... I took a bunch of pictures of this.
Blown out Walgreens windows.
A closer look... Man I would have loved to see those shatter and fall out of the wall...
So here's what Littleton Square looked like on March 16, 2014.
A hole has been left where Cricket and the other store I can't remember once was. I couldn't get a better picture thanks to the semi trailers parked in front. One of these trailers was being used as an on-site office for American Demolition.
The north wall of Walgreens is still standing behind the fallen stores. A week later, both were gone. Another week after that, all of it was gone. Except for some remnants of foundation.
As destruction closes in on H&R Block, I'm dismayed by Littleton Square not removing their extensive "rules" list, which was posted in a really strange place. Will these rules not apply at the NEW Littleton Square?
The post-apocalyptical Apostolic Church, at the northeast corner of the complex. I guess they didn't need to bring the aluminum mini-blinds to the new church. American Demolition didn't seem to need them either.
The Apostolic Church was the first part of the center to lose it's facade (of the parts that were still standing). The now removed tree that was planted on the corner of the sidewalk also wasn't going to live to see the new Soopers.
Something tells me these trees wont either...
And it looks like the vintage hanging security monitor frame is gone now...
Your prescription is not ready...
When I first saw the former entrance to King Soopers, with the front door wide open to destruction inside, that was the picture I wanted for the cover of Wasted Quarter #70. I wasn't sold on either shot I took the week before, so I was happy the marquee was still standing so I could try a few different angles.
I didn't even mind the sun induced lens flare...
And thanks again to what's his name for writing "Wasted Quarter" in tagger font for me!
The Bobcat is gone, as is the Service Counter. Guess cigarettes aren't on sale anymore either...
Going around the south side for another peek into the pharmacy and cashier area.
That bench is still here! And they are still proud to be a part of the Littleton community!
Pulling back for a wider shot of the Soopers south side...
Southwest corner of Soopers...
And no windows...
Northwest corner of Soopers, with Walgreens to the left of the shovel.
After a successful walk around the property, I got back in the car and left. This was the last time I'd see any part of Littleton Square standing.
My next visit would be seven days later, on March 23, 2014.
Southwest corner of Soopers is some more piles of building and a loading dock.
The bench is still there!
King Soopers is nothing but rubble... And a stop sign...
Actually, that wooden stand is something I remember sitting in the entrance of this Soopers. Nice to see that it stuck it out until the very end...
No parking on the jagged re-bar!
Big pile of Sooper pieces, put it all back together for a big prize!
How about a Soopers deluxe Walgreens roof pretzel?
Part of Walgreens still has part of a wall!
On March 30, 2014, all that was left of the King Soopers/Walgreens/Church/Liquor store building was a few piles being cleaned up.
Apostolic Church used to face Littleton Blvd. from this angle...
Now it's just dirt...
But Walgreens scrapes up nicely...
A few chunks of Soopers walls remain piled up at the southeast corner...
Yet, no destruction has taken place at the lonely King Soopers gas station.
And there's Mattress Firm. They weathered the storm...
On 4-20, 2014, I found the first signs of foundation work on the new King Soopers, Roughly at the entrance to the Apostolic Church.
By mid-June, a new sign was posted announcing the new King Soopers.
In about 6 months...
Progress! New walls are growing out of the southeastern corner!
Nearly 4 months after I took the picture of the dirt under the church from this angle, the new Soopers building looked like this...
The north walls and south walls hadn't been connected by July 6, 2014. This would become the seasonal promotions area between the two sets of entrance doors of the new store.
August 3, 2014.
The new entrance promises to be a lot grander than the old sliding glass doors between coated red bricks...
Green Care dry cleaners vacated this location just a week before I took this picture. They were another casualty of decreased business brought on by Soopers year long closure. However, instead of closing up shop as Yogo Mojo did, they just moved a couple of miles south to Highlands Ranch.
And you know how I feel about that town...
The station was gone, but the mess left behind was still there. This was the view from Littleton Blvd, taken as I drove up. Once I parked the car, I walked up to the corner for some closer shots.
Someone needs to clear the car wash entrance... There's broken gas station spilled all over it!
Well, at least the trash can/windshield washer combo drums were saved. But I don't think they were used by the new King Soopers gas station.
The former gas station sign announcing the new Soopers, which can be seen behind the gas station destruction. Littleton Square's closed sign was changed early on to inform the public that the other stores in the complex were indeed still open. They all suffered a dramatic drop off in customer traffic in 2014. I guess people thought the entire place was closed.
Or they couldn't find parking and just went elsewhere...
The former car wash became a sorting area for building parts, before the crushed bricks and rocks were hauled away to build the new gas station.
View of the demolished gas station from the King Soopers parking lot.
While the front of the new Soopers building has finally connected the north and south portions.
Work on the roof and interior is well underway.
By November 24, 2014, progress on the King Soopers building had advanced to the point where the interior lighting was turned on in both the retail areas and upstairs offices. Store fixtures, including aisle shelving, were being put up and the store was looking like it could re-open fairly soon.
But it would still be about two more months...
The new King Soopers gas station was also taking shape. It would feature more gas pumps, and an even smaller building, also with no retail space and no car wash.
In the past month, the entire Littleton Square parking lot had been somewhat smoothed out and re-paved. With new curbing obstacles placed in areas to hopefully improve traffic flow. Soopers just needed the black plastic coverings taken off their signs and merchandise placed on the shelves. Then they could be open again...
In just another month...
Hey, they're hiring!
I hate Starbucks!
January 19, 2015.
The gas station and Soopers are still not open.
But it wont be long now...
In one week, it would be just one more day!
Or NOW!
I took these pictures on February 3, 2015. Both the gas station and Soopers store had opened. You can tell by the balloons and banners.
I must have missed the parade...
For a while, the store was open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Which was good, because during daylight hours you couldn't find a place to park. Littleton had missed it's Soopers... Now that it was back, the people came in droves.
Now Kroger, PLEASE buy some of the Cub Foods stores near me...
That's all I ask of you...
As for the new King Soopers, I was here multiple times a week. The new store was so much better than the old one.
And that's not a conspiracy!
Uh oh!
Thanks for sharing your experience with us. Yes they maybe did that to keep people away from broken glass spraying out at the sidewalk.
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