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If your organization would like to take advantage of either of these
opportunities, please contact Bill James at bjames@jres.com or
303-316- 6768.
Transportation Solutions produced its 2nd annual The Road Ahead
seminar at the JW Marriott hotel in Cherry Creek North in late January
advancing its mission to enable residents and businesses to move about
the area more easily. Lyle Miller of the Colorado Historical Museum
took over 120 people back to the old days of streetcars and trolleys.
Charley Hales, a transportation consultant from Portland, Oregon gave
an entertaining and educational presentation about the possibilities
for ease of transport that T-REX and FastTracks present for Denver.
Bill Elfenbein, Director at RTD for the southeast Denver area
moderated a panel discussion on the same topics that included local
Denver Council Member Jeanne Robb. Look for the 3rd annual Road Ahead
next winter.
The developer of the former Veldkamp’s Florist property at
3rd/Harrison in Cherry Creek North has applied for a rezone to permit
development of 6 townhomes. At a meeting held at the Daniels Fund
building, members of the Cherry Creek North Neighborhood Association
reviewed preliminary plans for the project with the architect and made
a few suggestions but generally responded favorably to the prospect of
conversion of the site from commercial to residential use.
The Denver City Council unanimously approved Main Street zoning for a
residential development at East Colfax Avenue and Madison Street. The
five-story development will host 39 residential units and 4,300 square
feet of retail space at a cost of $10 million. It is the first project
to be approved under the Main Street rezoning plan, but was resisted
by residents of the area for concern the project will cause parking
problems. The developer of the project is Len Goldberg of Mile High
Construction and Development LLC.
Just down the street, Smiley’s Laundromat and the surrounding land are
about to be redeveloped by Triton Investment Co. (Don Bailey), Mosher
Sullivan Development Partners (Bill Mosher) and others. The
partnership bought the property last summer and is considering a wide
variety of redevelopment options for the over 1 acre site including
preservation of the existing building and continued operation of
perhaps the largest laundromat in the country. The owners have applied
for rezone to become the second Main Street zoned property in Denver
and are considering using New Market Tax Credits, a new federal
program designed to encourage economic development in low- income
areas.
And right across Colfax Avenue the Ogden Theatre is planning an
expansion by some 400 seats to 1,500 seats along with a renovation of
the interior. Nobody in Particular Presents (NIPP), the owner/operator
of the Ogden and the Bluebird Theatre nearby also produces concerts at
the Denver Botanic Gardens and wants to produce larger family oriented
concerts at the Ogden.
Jesse Moreale, owner of the Mezcal cantina on East Colfax and La Rumba
nightclub purchased the Executive Inn motel at Colfax/Milwaukee for
$1,850,000 and renamed it All Inn. The motel built in 1959 had become
a center of drug and prostitution activity with room rates in the $24
- $40 range. Morreale plans to re-open the restaurant and convert the
54-room motel into a “boutique” hotel. Morreale was one of the
founders of NIPP and also hopes to alleviate parking problems in the
area by adding a parking structure on the hotel site. The purchase
price is equivalent to $56/SF and $34,000/room for the 33,000 SF
building with a ¾ acre site.
The city of Denver is considering aiding Cherokee Development with the
redevelopment of the Gates Rubber Company site by providing $85
million in tax increment financing to pay for infrastructure costs.
Redevelopment of the site, located on the west side of Broadway and
I-25, is considered a high priority by the city, as it is anticipated
to generate more than $1 billion in private investment during the next
15 to 20 years and more than $16 million per year in incremental
revenues by 2032. Local neighborhood organizations support the
financing after negotiating some concessions from the developer. The
project will be perhaps the largest most visible transportation
oriented development in the metro area. A final hearing by the city
council is scheduled in February. The Gates developer, Cherokee Denver
LLC also announced the selection of Kiewit Building Group, builder of
-TREX as the contractor to clean up and demolish most of the existing
buildings and build the $126 million in streets, utilities and transit
projects. The Gates redevelopment on the west side of Broadway is
expected to cost some $1 billion and take 15 years to complete.
The Tattered Cover Bookstore has announced that it will be closing its
Cherry Creek location in June upon the opening of its new location at
the Lowenstein Theater. The store had been a landmark in the shopping
area for 34 years and has occupied its current location at East First
Avenue and Milwaukee Street for nearly 20 years. A smaller location in
the Cherry Creek area is currently being pursued to serve as a
satellite location.
The potential for redevelopment of Fillmore Plaza continues to be
examined by adjacent property owners, neighbors, the Cherry Creek
North Business Improvement District and city officials. Some 350
people attended a meeting at Bromwell School on January 11th at which
Commarts, Inc. a Boulder consultant hired by the Cherry Creek North
BID presented 6 examples of possible designs for redevelopment of the
plaza. The reaction of most neighbors was quite positive to one
playful design that had the Tattered Cover in a freestanding building
in the middle of the plaza and mostly negative to the others,
particularly if they included a street of any size with cars.
Later the Cherry Creek Steering Committee met with the property
owners, Donald Sturm of the Tattered Cover building and David Steel of
Western Development, developer of the block on the west side of the
plaza. Both said that they would design their facilities to
accommodate whatever design ends up at the plaza. Similar to past
experience retail tenants simply would not rent space along the plaza
if it did not have at least a few cars able to drive by, so both
property owners said that if a street of some sort is not built on the
plaza, they would adapt their properties to office space in the case
of the Tattered Cover building and office or residential space on the
west side. The PUD (zoning) at the Tattered Cover building permits
residential use only above the parking structure on the north side of
the block. Both property owners said they would not care to ask for a
rezone from the City of Denver.
Funding for any improvements to Fillmore Plaza will likely come from
bonds issued by the Business Improvement District as a part of a
district wide effort to improve the entire public infrastructure after
a vote this November. The adjacent property owners have no plans to
contribute to the cost of the plaza at this time. The next step in the
process is a meeting of the Fillmore Working Group on February 7th.
The City of Glendale bought 4 older houses and some 1.6 acres of land
on the south side of East Mississippi Avenue between Birch and
Clermont Streets. The land is within the City and County of Denver and
zoned for homes. The purchase price of $1,250,000 is equivalent to
$18/SF of land. It appears that the City may remove the homes and
build a municipal building.
A loft project in the Platte Park area was destroyed by fire in early
January. Known as the Louisiana Station Lofts, the 29-unit 4-story $8
million development, which is located at Buchtel Boulevard and East
Louisiana Avenue, was expected to be open for move-ins in two weeks.
It would have been the first transit-oriented development to be
completed in the inner city, but now the future of the project is
unclear. The units were all under contract for sale at from $170,000
to $365,000.
The office building at 123 Cook Street sold in November at a price of
$1,200,000. The 2-story brick 6,400 SF building was built in 1955 and
the sale price is equivalent to $188/SF.
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