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Roberta Simonton, Chair of the Cherry Creek Steering Committee reports
progress in the Committee’s efforts to make East 1st Avenue more
pedestrian friendly, particularly at Fillmore Plaza. With the
cooperation of surrounding property owners, the Cherry Creek North
BID, Denver Engineering and Council Member Jeanne Robb, the Fillmore
double crosswalk will be reduced to one crosswalk with countdown
pedestrian signals as quickly as the equipment arrives. As the nearby
Nordstrom store is built, this is the first step in plans to make East
1st Avenue less of a barrier to pedestrian access between the Cherry
Creek Shopping Center and the Cherry Creek North retail district.
At the recent annual luncheon of the Cherry Creek Chamber of Commerce
(at the Botanic Gardens), Nick LeMasters, General Manager of the
Cherry Creek Shopping Center referred to Cherry Creek North as
Denver’s first “lifestyle shopping center”. At the same luncheon,
Mayor Hickenlooper responded to a question about the city’s commitment
to making East 1st Avenue pedestrian friendly by acknowledging Cherry
Creek is one of the most valuable assets of the city, the pedestrian
environment is an important feature of Cherry Creek and that Denver
suffers from limited east-west arterial road capacity.
Whole Foods (191 stores), well represented just west of Clayton Lane
has purchased Wild Oats (110 stores) in a $565 million deal. No word
on what will happen to either of the two stores in the area, but if
one is closed, one must believe it would be the Wild Oats on Colorado
Boulevard.
One manifestation of the softening low to mid level residential market
is a recent decision by McStain Neighborhoods to reduce its planned
development at the former Gates Rubber Company site at Broadway and
Mississippi. The Washington Park Profile quotes Eric Wittenberg, CEO
of McStain as saying, “The residential market has softened and there
are numerous competing projects.” McStain was to buy the land from
Lionstone Development. Lionstone spokesman Doug McKinnon said, the
230-240 units planned by McStain would have been about 15% of the
overall project and other groups are very strongly interested. McStain
is completing its 44-unit first phase. Separately, Echelon Telecom has
moved into the former Gates headquarters office building at 900 South
Broadway and another 265,000 SF of office space is still available.
Lincoln Property Company, owner of Colorado Center at I-25/Colorado
Boulevard is also reported by the Washington Park Profile to be
planning to submit a rezone application for the Center. This is one of
the most appropriate Transit Oriented Development (TOD) sites in the
metro area, long planned that way by George Thorn the original
developer and one of the founders of Transportation Solutions based in
Cherry Creek. The total building area will not be expanded, but a
portion of the development rights will be converted to residential use
with a maximum of 15 stories and new buildings construction on the
current surface parking lot.
Allied Realty Services recently sold the 240-unit Retreat at the Park
apartment complex at 1600 Fillmore Street in Denver to The Michelson
Organization for $45.6 million, or $190,000/unit.
The 192-unit Lowry North apartment complex at 8101 East 11th Avenue in
Denver was purchased for $24.43 million, or $127,219/unit by Union
Partners Realty Group.
Acacia Apartments of Denver LLC sold the 54-unit Acacia apartment
complex in Denver to Acacia Investment Group LLC for $3.85 million, or
$71,296/unit.
A DataQuick Informations Systems survey of home sales in the Denver
metro area in the 4th quarter of 2006 found the North Boulder zip code
of 80304 to host the most expensive homes sold in the area in the
period, boasting a median price for all homes in the area of $597,254
and a median sale price per square foot basis for single-family,
detached homes of $351. Within the city of Denver, the Washington Park
zip code of 80209 was found to have the highest median price for a
home in the period at $455,000.
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