Leon Burroughs talks as he broadcasts on Facebook Live during a taping of Soul TV at Soul Center in Aurora, Colorado on November 21, 2016. Leon Burroughs, the new owner of the former Afrikmall property, is transitioning the space to be an entertainment and culture center called the Soul Center, where he also broadcasts his radio and TV shows GrooveRadio and SOUL TV. (Photo by Seth McConnell/The Denver Post)
A former furniture warehouse in north Aurora that was the base for an Afrocentric mall concept is in transition again after the founders of Afrikmall received an eviction notice in September for not paying rent.
Now, an Internet TV and radio host named Leon Burroughs has taken possession of the 56,000 square foot space at 10180 E. Colfax Ave. and rebranded it as the Soul Center. Immediately, he turned part of the space into a broadcasting headquarters for his shows — Soul TV and Groove Radio — a 24/7 network of R&B and funk stations.
“This is the Soul Center now,” Burroughs said. “We want everyone from everywhere to come here, and we want to be all things to all people.”
Burroughs is an Army combat veteran who served for 29 years before his retirement earlier this year in Aurora. He has been doing radio shows and spots since 1973. After taking over the former Afrikmall building lease in September, Burroughs set to work installing his studio and outlining a plan to make the rest of the space a hybrid entertainment venue with an indoor flea market as well as an incubator for startup businesses and rental space for established organizations and companies.
With the help of his eight-man transition team made up of several other veterans, Burroughs hopes the space will also give a home to a startup nonprofit he calls the Veteran’s Assistance Program, which in its early stages is being developed as a mentorship and business skills development program for millennial-aged veterans.
“I’m a disabled veteran, and I have found that there are not enough resources in the Colorado area to support younger age veterans,” Burroughs said.
He says that some veterans can’t afford housing, so he aims to work with those veterans on coping and skills development and partner with landlords who are willing to help.
Inside the building, Burroughs and his team spend their days organizing the various projects taking root in the Soul Center. Burroughs composes, mixes and airs music in his second-floor studio space, which has lime green walls that are paneled with flat screen TVs and surrounded by state-of-the-art mixing boards and instrument sets all around the room.
Soul TV has been up and running in Aurora since April and has more than 650,000 likes on its Facebook page. There, Burroughs, who hosts the show as “The General,” often uploads video updates of the Soul Center’s daily progress.
This whirlwind of development and restructuring started when members of the former Afrikmall organization, who held the property since late 2013, received notice that their lease was being terminated after months and months of building repairs and mounting bills that stymied their efforts to establish a mall where mostly African refugees held subleases for restaurants, beauty salons and various clothing and import businesses.
Cobina Lartson, chief executive of Afrikmall, said in an email from Ghana that Afrikmall’s rent was about $48,000 after the amortization of the one and half years’ rent accumulating during the mall’s construction period, which was 15 months behind schedule.
“During that time electrical bills accumulated,” he said. “On two occasions we had to pay $10,000 to Xcel to stay connected, thereby missing our rent payments. The remodeling was not completed, leaving the entire third floor and part of the second floor and as a startup with very little operating capital we could not fill the space fast enough.”
Some of Afrikmall’s original partners have left the project, but Lartson and the remaining members of that group vow to revive Afrikmall elsewhere after a period of reorganization. He said they tried to work out a deal with Burroughs to work together and keep the mall on site, but philosophical disagreements ended that effort quickly.
Most of the tenants from Afrikmall have also left the Soul Center after new operational rules, including opening at 10 a.m. and closing at 9 p.m., were instituted by Burroughs and his transition team.
“It was a painful journey on both sides. Despite Afrikmall’s huge fiscal indebtedness to Northstar I would not say we left on bad terms,” Lartson said.
Denver-based Northstar Commercial Partners funded the building’s nearly $2 million redevelopment.
“The reason we ultimately had to end the lease with Afrikmall, and why they left voluntarily, was due to nonpayment,” said Kyle Forti, spokesman for Northstar. “I’m not sure if Northstar is going to try to collect anything back that’s owed, but to my knowledge they are not.”
He said, “We were very, very excited about Afrikmall when it launched about a year ago, we teamed up with the city and (other partners and investors in Aurora) …. to try to make this model work. We were willing to do whatever it took because we wanted to see the concept succeed.”
Tim Gonerka, Aurora’s retail specialist, said that developing the property’s expansive space is a challenge as much as it is an asset, but the city hopes Burroughs’ concept will be successful in the transitioning north Aurora neighborhood.
“The good news is that they have it cut up in such a way that I think it can be used by young entrepreneurs, retailers and restaurateurs,” Gonerka said. “With the right kind of combination and leasing and merchandising, I think (Burroughs) can do some really interesting things there. ”
The Soul Center will host its first live performance at 8:30 p.m. Friday by Slave, a funk band. That show will be broadcast live on Soul TV, and also open to an audience at the Soul Center for a $10 donation.
“We want to be the soul of Aurora, the center of culture and a meeting place for anyone and everyone,” Burroughs said. “We’re going to do great things and help a lot of people. That’s a promise.”
By Megan Mitchell | mmitchell@denverpost.com
Megan Mitchell works for YourHub, The Denver Post’s community news section, covering Aurora and Adams County. She started as a city desk intern for The Post in 2012.
Follow Megan Mitchell @mmitchelldp