Confluent Development ordered land from Amazon.

The developer paid the tech giant $9.9 million last month for 21 acres off 144th Avenue and Grant and Washington streets, public records show. That amounts to $11 per square foot.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.

Confluent Vice President Nick Kitaeff said the property was “excess land” that Amazon had acquired for a neighboring distribution center. Confluent plans to install infrastructure on the site and build about 5 acres of retail along 144th Avenue while deciding what to do next.

Bradbury Cos., also based in Colorado, is the co-developer on the project, Kitaeff said.

“We’ve been under contract for 19 months. … It’s been a journey to get it entitled, and there’s been a lot of work that’s gone into it. This will be our third project in Thornton in the last couple years,” he said.

As part of that process, Thornton’s urban renewal authority agreed to reimburse nearly $4 million in Confluent’s infrastructure work on-site. It will include widening 144th Avenue and consolidating two detention ponds into one. Groundbreaking on that work will begin later this month.

“We’ll take out of the ground probably five buildings that will consist of some convenience service users, some restaurants, some retail, and we’re working on a lot of leases right now, but nothing I can formally announce,” Kitaeff said.

Public records show the company is considering a hotel, apartment complex and more retail for the property’s remaining acreage, though those plans are conceptual.

“It’s really a strategic investment at this intersection. … There’s successful employment districts to the north that the City of Thornton has done a fantastic job curating, there’s established residential neighborhoods to the east, and then there’s access to I-25 immediately to the west,” Kitaeff said.

Read more from our partner, BusinessDen.

Get more business news by signing up for our Economy Now newsletter.