6 westword.com WESTWORD MARCH 5-11, 2026 | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Take a Whiff LAWSUIT CLAIMS THAT ODORS ARE KILLING BUSINESS AT THE LOWRY TOWN CENTER. BY BENNITO L KELT Y The smell of sewage and gas has been bother- ing businesses at the Lowry Town Center for years, forcing Petite Gateaux and Smash- burger to leave the complex at 200 Quebec Street in 2025, according to court documents and a Denver City Council rep, but the shop- ping center’s owner has been unresponsive to the complaints so far. The fi rst business to leave the Lowry Town Center because of the alleged stench was Smashburger, which shuttered last May. The burger chain closed the location without paying the last three month’s rent and six years before its lease was set to expire, which came to light through a lawsuit fi led by the shopping center’s owner, Weingarten Miller Lowry, in August. Weingarten Miller Lowry LLC is the Colorado subsidiary of Kimco Realty, a New York-based company that owns shopping centers with grocery-store anchors. Wein- gartern Miller Lowry was formed in part by Denver developer Skip Miller in 1998, shortly before it won the contract to develop the Lowry Town Center on part of the former Lowry Air Force Base property. The complex opened in 2002, and Kimco took over all Weingarten Miller Lowry properties when the two companies merged in 2021. “The landlord takes reports of sewer odors seriously and has responded promptly to investigate and address any concerns,” Jennifer Maisch, a spokesperson for Kimco Realty, tells Westword. “We devoted sig- nifi cant time and fi nancial resources to this effort, engaging licensed professionals, con- ducting testing and inspections, and com- pleting necessary repairs where items within the landlord’s control were identifi ed.” The Lowry Town Center is home to small, independent shops like a liquor store, a nail salon and a tailor, as well as a dentist, a dog washer and several places to eat. Colorado- based restaurant chains like Walter’s 303 and Chop Shop have locations there, alongside national names like Safeway, Starbucks and Palm Beach Tan. Residents from the sur- rounding Lowry neighborhood and nearby retirement communities like Brookdale of- ten visit and shop at the town center. Kimco owns eight Colorado shopping centers, including the Quincy Place Shop- ping Center in Aurora, the Highlands Ranch Shopping Center in Highlands Ranch and the Heritage West Shopping Center in Lakewood. Before Weingarten Miller Lowry fi led its lawsuit in August, other businesses com- plained to Councilmember Amanda Sawyer and Lowry business and neighborhood as- sociations about the smell and the prop- erty manager’s lack of response. On May 13, Sawyer’s offi ce sent a letter and email to the director of real estate for Kimco Realty, requesting “urgent action” for the “revital- ization of Lowry Town Center.” According to the letter from Sawyer’s of- fi ce, the Lowry Town Center had a 31 percent vacancy rate as of late 2025, which is “multiple times higher than the average across Kimco’s Denver properties,” and the shopping center is dealing with “persistent issues such as an inoperable central fountain and ongoing sewer gas odors reported by tenants.” The councilmember’s offi ce also men- tioned a proposed rent increase by Kimco despite lagging foot traffi c, and warned that new businesses aren’t going to move into a smelly, struggling shopping center. “These conditions are not only impact- ing current businesses but also diminishing the appeal and function of this essential community space,” Sawyer’s offi ce wrote. “Adding to these challenges, several current tenants have raised repeated concerns about proposed rental increases that threaten the viability of their businesses. These increases come when foot traffi c is down and mainte- nance issues remain unaddressed.” A week later, Sawyer sent another letter to Kimco, this time copying a regional vice president. The May 30 follow-up demanded “detailed information” on the company’s plans to bring in more “high-quality, com- munity-serving” businesses and remedy the smell and maintenance issues, including the broken fountain. Sawyer also asked that Kimco present a “vision and plan for reinvestment in the public realm,” in order to market Lowry Town Center and its businesses “to bring residents back.” Signed onto Sawyer’s letter were the heads of Lowry United Neighborhoods, the Lowry Foundation and the Lowry Business Alliance. “We were concerned about businesses closing,” says Katherine Head, the LUN chair, adding that “we hesitate to discuss the odor that has been reported because we are con- cerned that it will drive customers away and be bad for all our already struggling businesses. “LUN originally contacted KimCo be- cause the Lowry Town Center is important to the quality of life in Lowry,” Head explains. “Having a vibrant town center is important to the health of our community.” According to Maisch, Kimco “recently engaged a new brokerage team to support leasing activity and further strengthen the tenant mix” at the Lowry Town Center. A few of the store vacancies are the result of businesses “right-sizing” by moving to smaller spaces “that better matched their operational needs and allowed them to re- main at the center,” including Timbuk Toys and Kismet Boutique, she says. A Stinky Situation Last August, Weingarten Miller Lowry fi led a lawsuit in Denver County Court seek- ing to recover more than $48,000 in lost rent from Smashburger. According to the lawsuit, Smashburger began complaining about “sewer odors” in May 2024 that were “emanating into the premises from the com- mon areas of the shopping center.” The homegrown burger chain had opened its Lowry location a couple of years earlier; it was the fi rst Denver Smashburger with a full-service bar and cocktail menu, the company touted at the time. However, Weingarten Miller Lowry’s lawsuit argues that “to the extent such odors ever existed were, in fact, the result of ten- ant’s operations,” pointing to Smashburger’s plumbing and grease interceptor. “The alleged odors, if any, were not caused by landlord and were not the result of any failure by landlord to maintain or repair the common areas,” the lawsuit reads. “There was nothing for plaintiff to maintain, repair or cure at the shopping center.” Last March, Smashburger stopped paying its rent “based on purported ‘sewer odors’” and claimed the property owners “failed to take steps to address the issue,” according to the lawsuit. In April, Smashburger sent a letter to Weingarten Miller Lowry, detailing plans to leave the Lowry Town Center. A month later, the restaurant was vacant. Around the time Smashburger allegedly “abandoned” the Lowry Town Center, as the lawsuit describes it, Sawyer sent her letter to Kimco. According to the lawsuit, which is still in court, Smashburger left without paying rent for March, April and May. Smashburger did respond to a request for comment. What’s that Smell? By November, Petite Gateaux had also left the Lowry Town Center, according to Michelle Rasul, one of the bakery’s owners. Rasul declined to say why the Lowry outpost, a second location of the Gateaux bakery on Speer Boulevard, had closed shop, but Sawyer’s offi ce claims Gateaux wanted to escape the bad smell of “fumes.” In an email to Westword, Matt Walter, Sawyer’s senior aide, says that “the owners mentioned they also closed that location due to the ongoing sewer smell and that they could not subject their employees and customers to the fumes on such a routine basis.” According to Walter, the councilmember’s offi ce was in touch with Petite Gateaux for “nearly a year now about a pervasive sewer smell in and around the Lowry Town Center.” “Their experience lines up with other complaints about a smell dating back as far as 2018,” Walter writes “The council offi ce has sent multiple letters to the property owner, Kimco Realty, asking them to look into this issue and make the necessary investment to mitigate the smell.” Sawyer also asked several city agencies to get involved, including the Denver Depart- ment of Economic Development & Oppor- tunity, the Department of Transportation & Infrastructure, the Department of Public Health & Environment, and Denver Com- munity Planning & Development. The DDPHE investigated the odors on December 9, according to Amber Campbell, a spokesperson for the department, and a DDPHE investigator determined that “the problem could be a deeper issue with the infrastructure out there.” The case was then handed off to DOTI and Community Plan- ning & Development, Campbell says. Community Plan- NEWS continued on page 8 KEEP UP ON DENVER NEWS AT WESTWORD.COM/NEWS Nearly a third of the retail space at the Lowry Town Center is empty, and the smells aren’t helping. BENNITO L. KELT Y
