On April 28, 2026, the Buena Vista Board of Trustees approved the Public Improvement Agreement for the new City Market at the northwest corner of U.S. Highway 24 and Crossman Avenue. That single vote did more to reprice the north end of town than any comparable sales report has this year, and most buyers looking at listings north of Main Street still have not adjusted for it.
The reason is timing. The store will not open in 2026. Site work has to finish, a new signalized intersection has to be built at Farwell and Highway 24, and a two-year public improvement warranty period runs after that. Buyers who understand what the interim looks like, and what the end state actually delivers, are working with a different map than the one on the portals.
The Number That Changes The North End
The current City Market on Highway 24 is roughly 23,000 square feet. The approved replacement is 60,000 square feet on six acres, with a four-dispenser fuel station, a drive-through pharmacy, and seven online-pickup lanes. That is not a remodel. It is a 2.6x jump in store footprint dropped onto the north gateway, and it comes with a new signalized intersection at Farwell that reroutes how the top half of town moves.
For a buyer comparing a home three blocks off Crossman to one south of Main, the median price is the wrong data point. The right question is what the north end will feel like in eighteen months versus what it feels like today, because the answer determines which side of the transaction is holding the appreciation.
What "Approved" Means In Practice Right Now
The April 2026 vote was for the Public Improvement Agreement, not the building itself. Planning Director Marika Kopp explained the sequence at that meeting: a preconstruction meeting with the applicant and CDOT is expected in the following months, public improvements get built and inspected, and only then does a two-year preliminary acceptance period begin. If the developer fails to perform, the town can withhold certificates of occupancy and draw on the performance guarantee.
Two takeaways for anyone writing an offer on a north-end property this year:
- The signalized intersection at Farwell is a public improvement, not a Kroger amenity. It gets built regardless of whether the store opens on schedule, and it changes how you exit north-end streets onto Highway 24.
- There will be a stretch when the roadwork is disruptive and the store is not yet operating. Any listing that markets "walk to the new grocery" is selling a future condition, and the seller is asking the buyer to price it in today.
The Crossing Sits Next Door, And That Matters More Than It Sounds
Immediately west of the City Market parcel is The Crossing, a mixed-tenure development combining Chaffee Housing Trust homes, Chaffee Housing Authority apartments, and market-rate homes. In April 2025, the trustees amended The Crossing's PIA so that underground utilities could be accepted ahead of full above-ground infrastructure, allowing site work and foundations to proceed in parallel. That was a schedule move worth roughly $200,000 in avoided delay costs to the project overall.
The practical read: two large developments on adjacent parcels are advancing in overlapping windows, sharing sidewalks, utility trenches, and the same Highway 24 curb cuts. Trustee Maggie Huyck flagged during the April 2026 meeting that the sidewalk built by City Market's developers would not initially connect to town sidewalks, and that the gap in front of the Latinos restaurant at Highway 24 and Crossman would remain until that lot redevelops. Connectivity is on the town's radar but not yet on the ground.
For a buyer, the story here is not "affordable housing next door." It is "the entire six-block area between Crossman and the current north gate is becoming a construction zone with a clear finish line." Everything about the pricing on the interim reflects that.
Three Submarkets, Three Different Trades
Here is the frame I use with clients weighing a north-end purchase against the other options inside town.
| Submarket | What You're Buying Today | What Changes By 2027–2028 |
|---|---|---|
| North end near Crossman | Lower price per square foot, construction-period friction, direct exposure to the Farwell signal build | Walkability to a 60,000 sq ft grocer, fueling station, and pharmacy; new signalized intersection; adjacency to The Crossing |
| Central in-town core | Higher per-square-foot cost, mature streetscape, walk to Main Street businesses | Modest lift from town-wide convenience gains; core walkability advantage narrows |
| South Main and near-river | Premium pricing for river access and South Main amenities | Least changed by the north-end build; competes against a newly convenient north end for the same buyer pool |
The interesting move is the middle row. A central in-town home carries a walkability premium today partly because it is the only walkable option. When the north end activates, that premium gets tested. It does not disappear, because Main Street's character is not replaceable, but the delta between north-end and central pricing has room to compress.
Friction The Listing Photos Won't Show
Anyone buying north of Crossman in 2026 or early 2027 should walk the property at least twice, at different times of day, before writing. Specifics to look for:
- Highway 24 turning movements at the property's nearest access point. Residents have long flagged the current City Market entrance as a safety concern for left turns onto northbound Highway 24, and construction staging will make that worse before the new signal helps.
- Truck routing on Crossman Avenue during the build. City Market's site plan includes truck circulation upgrades, and those trucks have to arrive somehow during construction.
- Sidewalk continuity from the specific property to the future store. There is a real gap at the Highway 24 and Crossman corner that will not close automatically.
- Drainage and grading on adjacent lots. The April 28 meeting closed with Kopp noting that a drainage report with a detailed inspection and maintenance plan existed but was not in that night's packet. Ask your inspector to look at how the neighboring parcels drain during the build.
None of these are dealbreakers. They are price-setters. A buyer who walks in aware of them has leverage that a buyer relying on the listing description does not.
How This Reprices A Sub-Median North-End Home
The clearest example is a modest three-bedroom north of Crossman priced below the town median. Today, that price reflects distance from Main Street, an older Highway 24 commercial edge, and the current cramped City Market experience one reader described as the one thing she disliked about living here. In eighteen to twenty-four months, the same house sits three blocks from a full-service grocer, a fueling station, a pharmacy, and a signalized intersection that makes the whole north gate function differently.
If you are the buyer, the trade is straightforward. You accept construction-period friction, you underwrite the timeline conservatively, and you price the property against today's conditions while holding an option on the future one. If you are the seller in that same house, the mistake is pricing at today's median without a strategy for how the marketing communicates what is coming. Both sides need the same map. They just read it in opposite directions.
One footnote worth carrying into any conversation with a listing agent: the trustees declined to offer Kroger tax-sharing or subsidy in October 2025, and the project moved forward anyway on standard PIA terms in April 2026. That sequence tells you the town's negotiating position held, and it tells you Kroger's underwriting cleared the hurdle without the concession. Both facts should raise your confidence that the store gets built. Neither should raise your confidence that it opens early.
FAQ
When will the new City Market actually open? The town has not published a firm opening date. Earlier reporting in the Chaffee County Times referenced a 2027 target from City Market, but that predates the April 2026 PIA approval, the preconstruction meeting, and the buildout of the Farwell signal. Treat 2027 as the earliest reasonable window and plan for later.
Does the new store affect the current City Market site? The relocation implies the existing 23,000 square foot store closes when the new one opens, which puts a significant commercial parcel on Highway 24 into transition. That is a separate submarket question worth revisiting closer to opening, because how that lot re-tenants will influence the corridor between the two sites.
Is it worth waiting to buy on the north end until the dust settles? Waiting is a real strategy, and it has a real cost. The premium the market places on the north end is likeliest to move once the intersection and store are visibly under construction, not on opening day. Buyers who transact during construction typically capture more of the repricing than buyers who wait for certainty.
If you are weighing a purchase or a sale on the north end and want a read that accounts for what the site plan actually says, Mary Kale has been working this market for more than two decades and is happy to walk the parcel with you before you write. Contact Mary Kale to start the conversation.
