AURORA • Doug McMurrain is raising a village.

Seven long years after he first came to the abandoned Kmart here along East Colfax Avenue, customers have finally started to fill the parking lot.

What started in 2017 with clearing trash — “seriously, like 40 bags of trash,” McMurrain said — is now close to the fully realized, 100,000-square-foot space that he indeed calls “a village”

La Plaza Colorado mimics a Hispanic neighborhood, complete with all the goods and services you’d imagine — and also the big fountain and pool in the middle of commerce. “Handmade in Mexico,” McMurrain said beside the water this summer.

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In La Plaza’s first summer open, vendors were found selling clothes and accessories, along with toys, candy, art and souvenirs. Kids ran around the playground in the back, conveniently beside an ice cream stand. By the adjacent arcade and concert stage, McMurrain pointed to a wall, where he planned a massive screen to show soccer games, boxing matches and other sports. El Matador Bar is conveniently around the corner.

A nail salon here, a barbershop there, a law office in another stall across the way. “Got a tattoo parlor coming in here,” McMurrain said. He also was expecting a bank, medical clinic and med spa.

And then the two “anchors” of La Plaza: the Hispanic grocery to fill one side of the building, and 24 food pop-ups to fill the center.

In the meantime, food trucks have been posted outside. Come fall, McMurrain expects everyone to be inside.

“We will have the largest Hispanic food hall in the United States right here in Aurora,” he said.

He’s excited about his own food, smashburgers and pizzas with unusual toppings true to La Plaza’s theme: birria, al pastor and grasshoppers. The expected and unexpected — that’s the idea for the food here.

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There will be tacos, of course, while Latin-style sushi also is planned. Another vendor looks to serve spicy wings, while another looks to cook chicken in a traditional way out back.

“Salvadorian food, Colombian food, Honduran food, Venezuelan food,” McMurrain said. “We’ll have many regions of Mexico represented here.”

The ultimate goal: “To make this the capital for the Hispanic community in the state of Colorado.”

McMurrain saw Atlanta’s Plaza Fiesta become that for Georgia.

Amid a career developing Walmarts, Targets and The Home Depots around the country, McMurrain rolled out that Latin-themed mall in 2000.

“We paid $10.5 million,” he said. Six years later, he said he sold it for $56 million. In 2022, Plaza Fiesta reportedly sold for $86 million.

McMurrain sees the profitability of La Plaza Colorado. The “Colorado” in the name is strategic.

“Denver will be our hub,” he said, “but my goal is to take this model and replicate it in other major markets in the United States.”

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Markets with the customer base and talent pool. Markets such as Aurora, where about 30% of the population is Hispanic, according to census data. (Colorado’s population as a whole is closer to 22%.)

The community was there to meet Atlanta’s Plaza Fiesta, McMurrain recalled, just as he sees the community here in Aurora. He recalled the words of a master’s thesis that came out of his former marketplace: “Whatever Latin American country a person has come from, they could feel as if they were home at Plaza Fiesta.”

And without the costs of their own brick and mortar, cooks and creators had a lower-cost entry to business, McMurrain observed. “This is business incubation at its core,” he said.

Yes, with La Plaza Colorado, profitability was top of mind. But so were those sentiments of home and livelihoods — something that could not be said for his big box stores.

“More rewarding than all 13 Walmarts put together,” McMurrain said. “It’s real, you know?”