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	February 2008

	Welcome to Cherry Creek Perspective. If it was forwarded to you, and you would like to continue to receive this monthly email newsletter, subscribe free by clicking on Subscribe If you are not sure if you have already subscribed, feel free to subscribe again. You will be sent only one copy. Click on the logos on the left to go to sponsor websites. Please forward this email to friends and business associates and encourage them to subscribe free at Subscribe. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cherry Creek Perspective welcomes the campaign of Bill James 4 RTD as a sponsor. Find out more about Bill's campaign for District A of the RTD Board of Directors by clicking on the link below on the left. Weber Management recently sold the 26,400 SF rentable Liberty Savings Bank office building at 234 Columbine Street to Western Development Group LLC for $4.13 million ($156/SF). Western Development is building the NorthCreek retail/residential development at Fillmore Plaza, redeveloped the Starbucks office/retail building at 2nd/Fillmore and owns the Iron Mountain Winery building, formerly Mel's Bar and Grille to the north on Fillmore. Weber Management developed and owns the Inn at Cherry Creek on Clayton Street and the retail/office building to the north. The Denver Post reports that agreement for the redevelopment of the Union Station in downtown Denver was formally reached. The owners of Union Station and the surrounding land (Regional Transportation District, City and County of Denver, the Denver Regional Council of Governments and the Colorado Department of Transportation) signed a letter of intent with Union Station Neighborhood Co. to redevelop the site into the centerpiece for the FasTracks rail transportation system. Construction is to begin next January and is estimated to cost $476 million. The Colorado Real Estate Journal reports that Chicago developer David Elowe is acquiring apartment buildings at the southeast corner of South University Boulevard/East Evans Avenue with the intention of redeveloping the site into 120 luxury apartments and perhaps ground level retail use to be called Lux at DU. The Cherry Creek North Neighborhood Association and the Cherry Creek Steering Committee announced that the reconfiguration of the First Avenue crossing at Fillmore Plaza is complete. The former two crosswalks across First Avenue that connected Fillmore Plaza and the Cherry Creek Shopping Center are now combined into one wide attractive crossing with significant landscaped improvements to the median refuge for pedestrians and countdown signal timing to communicate crossing time limits. There is still much concern about the length of crossing time and the safe median space at other 1st Avenue crossings, especially at St. Paul, Milwaukee, and Detroit. If the current amount of pedestrian traffic across First Avenue going to and from the new Nordstrom store is an indication of future traffic, countdown signal timing may need to be lengthened to provide greater public crossing safety. The CCSC and CCNNA will continue to press for further First Avenue improvements. Denver Council Member Jeanne Robb announces that the annual Post-News Colorado Colfax Marathon will be held this year on May 18 celebrating the revitalization of America's longest continuous street - Colfax Avenue. The route this year has been restaged in response to comments from runners in last year's race. The course for the full-marathon will start and finish in City Park, and will take walkers, joggers and runners along Colfax through Lakewood, and downtown Denver. The half-marathon will be run east along Colfax to Fitzsimmons and back to City Park. More at: www.coloradocolfaxmarathon.org. Former Denver City Council Member Joyce Foster announced that she is running for election to Colorado Senate District 35. Encompassing southeast Denver and Glendale, District 35 is now represented by Ken Gordon. Ms. Foster was instrumental in creation of Transportation Solutions, a national award winning transportation management association, based in Cherry Creek North and which also serves the southeast Denver/Glendale area.

The Cherry Creek North Neighborhood Association reports that the Cherry Creek North Business Improvement District (BID) has re-initiated its design process of the entire business district, including Fillmore Plaza. Go to:

http:// www.ccnneighbors.com/issues.htm

for for a complete report on the design discussion and the Core Values and Ends Statement of the BID. At a recent Cherry Creek Steering Committee meeting Julie Bender, the CEO of the CCN Business Improvement District (BID), gave a brief Fillmore Plaza (FP) development update. Design Workshop, was selected to work with CommArts, the original firm that created the garden district plan for the business district and FP. Since Western Development is presently constructing Phase III of North Creek on the west side of FP, the construction will be tearing up the western parts of Fillmore Plaza, and Western Development has offered to remove all of the FP concrete surface at the same time. Even though it was not clear what would happen after FP surface demolition, several ideas of temporary planted grass, artificial grass, or some other type of surface were discussed to replace the removed concrete surface until a final design plan is approved and ready for implementation.

According to Lowry News International Risk Group, Industrial Realty Corp and Bear Creek Capital formed a joint venture to redevelop the former landfill site located along East Alameda Avenue across from Windsor Gardens in the southeast corner of Lowry. The group unveiled plans at two open houses this month. In addition to the open houses and Lowry Redevelopment Authority meetings, the Lowry Vista owners are scheduling more than a dozen community meetings in the coming weeks, including briefings with the Lowry Community Master Association and the Lowry United Neighbors. The joint venture will present the plan to the Lowry Planning and Disposition Subcommittee on March 27. More at:

http://www.lowrylink.com/content/content_view.cf m?SUB_GROUP=1&ID=2532

Also, the Lowry Redevelopment Authority submitted the final Buckley Annex redevelopment plan in late February. The Air Force and HUD have a 60-day review period of the plan document. The submitted plan is now available to download from the Buckley Annex website. More at:

http://www.l owry.org/buckleyannex/

The Hangar 2 development team of Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum (WINGS) and International Risk Group (IRG) has teamed with Rite Place Management and Larimer Square Partners for the new Hangar 2 adaptive re-use plan. The plan reportedly meets many of the community's concerns from previous designs, as well as concerns from the Landmark Commission. The development team will present the re-use plan to the Lowry Planning and Disposition Subcommittee on March 27. More at:

http://www.lowrylink.com/content/content_view.cf m?ID=2533

Last month, Odell Barry of Horizon Group, LLC broke ground on his latest project, Jaydyn Court. Located at 309 Quebec Street, Jaydyn Court at Mayfair is the last remaining development in Lowry's West Neighborhood. More at:

http://www.lowrylink.com/content/content_view.cf m?ID=2540

The Rocky Mountain News reports that Janus Capital Group of Denver will donate $3 million over three years to help the district attract, train and keep teachers over time. The plan is to streamline various teacher recruitment pipelines and better prepare new teachers for the classroom. The Janus Education Alliance also will invest in veteran teachers, providing a career path for those interested in mentoring their younger peers. The Janus headquarters offices are in the Clayton Lane office building at East 1st Avenue/Detroit Street.

The $1.2 billion Daniels Fund based at 1st/Monroe in Cherry Creek North announced its first quarter 2008 grants totaling $8.2 million including $4.6 million to 51 Denver based organizations.

Life on Capitol Hill reports that Regas Christou, owner of several nightclubs near 11th/Broadway/Lincoln Avenue proposes to open an outdoor entertainment venue at 1136 Broadway on the site of a building, which collapsed in the December 2006 snowstorm. The Denver Zoning Administrator approved the outdoor entertainment use as a Conditional Use with some conditions. Christou owns buildings on both sides of the site and Café Brazil is reportedly interested in locating in one of them. More at:

http://w ww.lifeoncaphill.com/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=220&Itemid=106

LOCH also reports that the Community Garden at 11th/York will be moved late next year to allow construction at the Denver Botanic Gardens funded by the bond issue approved last fall. The garden will move and expand onto the east side of Congress Park.

And LOCH also reports that after a long selection process the Colorado History Museum has chosen the site just south of the 20-story ING office building bounded by 12th/Broadway/Lincoln for its new headquarters and museum. The museum will move from the Colorado Judicial Center in the block to the north.

The Denver Business Journal reports that Barnes- Keesee LLC has started construction on the Wash Park North condominiums across the street from Steele Elementary School at East Alameda/Lafayette Street. The 15 units will sell in the high $200,000 to high $600,000 range and 4 are pre-sold. Sprocket Design-Build, Inc. plans to start construction of the 20- unit Wash Park Place condominiums nearby this summer. These units will sell from the low $400,000 to the low $800,000 range.

If your organization would like to consider sponsorship of Cherry Creek Perspective, please contact Bill James at bjames@jres.com or 303-316- 6768.