|
A
new 285-unit apartment complex has been
announced for the Central Platte Valley of Denver by the
Opus Development Corp. To be one of five new projects
for the 7-block area west of Denver Union Station at
1490 Delgany Street, it is to be co-developed by Urban
Market Partners of Denver and is to break ground in the
spring.
Plans to build a
W Hotel
in downtown Denver have been scrapped by Sage
Hospitality. To have been located at 16th and Market
streets, the company is now pursuing an office and
residential development for the site, which is to be
reviewed by the Lower Downtown Design Review Board.
The 336-room
Curtis
Hotel, which occupies the first 16
floors of the 30-story building at 1405 Curtis Street in
downtown Denver, has been sold. The property was traded
for $68.4 million or $204,000/room.
The 111,690 SF office building at
1690
Welton Street was recently placed under
foreclosure and is scheduled to be auctioned on March
8th. The Colorado Athletic Club, which is a tenant at
the property, is not expected to be affected by the
foreclosure process.
The historic
Denver
Union Station has been the subject of
town-hall meetings and public focus groups hosted by
Union Station Alliance. The company, which was approved
by the Regional Transportation District to redevelop the
property into a boutique hotel, shops, and restaurants,
is holding separate meetings to gather information
regarding the management of the plaza and other public
spaces of the building as well as the retail components
of the project, which will be held at the Denver Union
Station in the Great Hall.
The
Park
Avenue Lofts recently sold. Totaling 194
units at 755 East 19th Avenue, the property was sold for
$49.5 million or $255,000/unit.
Forum Real Estate Group is currently preparing a site at
6th and Logan for the construction of a
new apartment complex. To be called The Logan, the
57-unit development will total 5 stories and include a
51-unit underground parking garage. The company
anticipates it will complete the project by the summer
of 2012.
A 1.4-acre site near the planned Blake Street Station of
the FasTracks rail expansion was recently purchased for
$1.7 million or $28/SF by the Urban Land Conservancy.
Located at
East 38th
Avenue and Walnut Street, the
development will provide affordable housing and other
uses. Blake Street Station is to be completed in 2015
and is to provide light rail service to Denver
International Airport
The construction of a new
Sunflower
Farmers Market grocery store in Denver
was advanced via approval of the Denver City Council. To
be located in the City Park neighborhood on the north
side of East Colfax Avenue between Monroe and Garfield
streets, construction of the 26,000 SF store required
rezoning of the site.
Alliance Residential has announced that it will
construct two new apartment complexes in the Cherry
Creek area. The first, to begin construction this week
and be located one block west of South Colorado
Boulevard on the north side of Alameda between Harrison
and Jackson streets, is to be known as the
Broadstone
Gardens at Cherry Creek and total 161
units. The company is also working with developer
Sembler Co. on a site at the former location of the
University of Colorado hospital at east
9th Avenue
and Colorado.
The 41-unit Alexan Broadway apartments at 1145 South
Broadway was recently sold by Trammell Crow Residential.
Purchased for $82 million or $196,000/unit, the new
owner has renamed the property
Windsor at
Broadway Station.
A 43,525 SF industrial building at
1265 South
Broadway Street in Denver has been
purchased by Total Longterm Care for $2.69 million,
$62/SF. The new owner purchased with the intent to
convert the property into a health and day care center
for aging adults.
A 5-building purchase totaling 317,026 SF was recently
made at the campuses of the
Porter
Adventist Hospital in Denver and the
Littleton Adventist Hospital in
Littleton. The properties include the Porter Medical
Plaza at 2535 South Downing Street, the Harvard Park
East and West medical office buildings at 950 East
Harvard and 850 East Harvard Avenue and the Arapahoe
Medical Park Plaza I and II buildings at 7720 and 7750
South Broadway.
A new mixed-use development has been announced for the
southeast Denver area by developers D.H. Friedman
Properties LLC, Spectrum Retirement Communities LLC, and
Forum Real Estate Group. To be located at
I-25 and
Hampden Avenue, the respective
developers are to separately anchor the NEC of the
intersection with a retail component of unknown size
known as the Shoppes at Highpointe, a 90-unit assisted
living retirement community, and a 362-unit 5-story
apartment community currently known as the Veranda
Highpointe apartments. Completion of the latter two is
anticipated for completion for mid-to late-2013, with
the apartment project to be complemented with a
520-stall parking garage.
The office and retail buildings at the
NWC East 2nd
Avenue / St. Paul Street sold to the
Adolph Coors Foundation recently for $3.59 million. The
Colorado Real Estate Journal reports that John Jackson,
the Foundation's executive director said that any
redevelopment would likely include a "permanent home"
for the Foundation. The buildings contribute relatively
little to the 12,500 SF site and the price is equivalent
to $287/SF of land.
The 324-unit
Heritage
Creek apartment complex in Glendale at
650 South Dahlia Circle has been traded for $54.3
million or $168,000/unit. The Torrey Pines and Carmel
Alton Green Apartments in Denver were recently sold.
Totaling 235 units at 7575 East Arkansas Avenue and 312
units at 8965 East Florida Avenue, the properties were
purchased for $48 million or $88,000/unit.
Denver Council Member Jeanne Robb
first gives some background. In Denver's strong mayor
form of government, one of City Council's unique powers
is land use planning and zoning. Many years ago as a
community activist, I became concerned with the
relationship between land use and transportation. I've
learned a lot from my activism during the Pena and
subsequent administrations and my time on Council. I'm
still learning and still committed to how land use and
transportation planning, place-making and livable
streets contribute to a vibrant and economically healthy
city. The Cherry Creek Area Plan process is a test on
all those lessons. We should all be studying up and OK,
maybe cramming, for the oral exams and final passage.
There's lots of talk lately about the Cherry Creek Area
Plan, creating a vision for the next 20 years of Cherry
Creek. I hope that you've read or heard something that
peaks your interest. Area residents and business and
property owners have been working to envision what the
future of Cherry Creek will look like. Discussions have
focused on urban form (the built environment), the
public realm, economic development and transportation. I
hope you want to be part of these important discussions.
Here are some ways to learn more and to participate:
Read, read, read - there's lots of information at:
www.denvergov.org
Enter "Cherry Creek Area Plan" in the search box,
including focus group findings, a study about
development capacity in Cherry Creek and what it will
take to encourage re-investment in the business area,
and the plan vision. On or about March 15, a draft plan
for the next 20 years in Cherry Creek will be posted on
the website.
Wednesday, March 7
at 7 pm at 1201 Williams, 19th Floor Party Room-Julie
Bender, executive director of the Cherry Creek North
Business Improvement District - aka the "retail area,"
will give an update on the BID and their hopes for the
future at the CHUN Zoning Committee.
Wednesday, March 21
at 5:30pm at the Gart Building (299 Milwaukee)-The
Cherry Creek Steering Committee, a group of neighborhood
and business leaders will be discussing their initial
reactions to the plan draft. Meetings are held in the
basement conference room.
Tuesday, April 3
at 5:30 pm at the JW Marriott in Cherry Creek-Denver's
Department of Community Planning and Development (CPD)
will be hosting a public meeting for comment on the plan
draft.
CPD will also be conducting a survey and outreach so
watch the city website above to weigh in. Related to the
future of Cherry Creek, here are some other meetings
that will provide additional perspectives:
Thursday March 22,
from 8 am to 10:30 am, join Transportations Solutions,
our local transportation management association, to
discuss where Cherry Creek traffic comes from and how do
we work cooperatively as a region. Transportation has
always been related to growth issues in Cherry Creek.
This annual forum, "The Road Ahead," will feature Denver
Mayor Michael B. Hancock, Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan &
Glendale Mayor Larry Harte who will speak on the
importance of local cooperation and the involvement of
the private sector in the evolving importance of
connecting livable communities in the Denver region.
Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Kelly
J. Brough and Aurora Chamber of Commerce President and
CEO Kevin Hougen will respond with an interactive panel
discussion. The event will be held at infinity Park
Event center in Glendale, 4400 E. Kentucky Ave. This
meeting will cost you some bucks because space is
limited. Register online at:
http://roadahead2012.eventbrite.com/
Tuesday, March 27
the Cherry Creek North Neighborhood Association will
host a presentation and discussion of a proposed
rezoning on the east side of the 200 block of Columbine
www.250Collumbine.com
The meeting begins at 7pm will be held at the Daniels
Fund Building at 1st and Monroe. This rezoning would be
moving forward regardless of whether we revise the plan
or not; we need to understand how it relates to the
future vitality of the area and evaluate it on its merit
as a contribution to place-making and economic
development in the Cherry Creek area.
Council Member Robb also describes some other projects.
The
East
Colfax Improvement Project from Grant to
St. Paul Streets will last from March to Early Fall
2012: Grant to Columbine Streets - 131 new pedestrian
lights, concrete sidewalk panel replacement as
necessary; Columbine to St. Paul Streets "Greektown"
area - 36 new pedestrian lights and curb ramp
improvements at some corners, 14 trees.
A milestone was met in February by finishing the
structure of the new
1st
Avenue bridge at Downing Street. The new
trail alignment is scheduled to begin in March. The
completion of the project has been extended to June. The
project team will continue to maintain traffic in two
lanes over the bridge as much as possible.
Finally Council Member Robb reports about the pending
renovation of the
McNichols
Building, at 144 West Colfax Avenue,
built in 1909 as a Carnegie Library. The 2005 Civic
Center Park Master Plan determined that one of the keys
to activating Civic Center as a lively and engaging
civic space is by restoring the McNichols building as a
public facility. The city's goal is to transform the
McNichols Building into an active civic and cultural
resource for the community as the region's premiere
civic gathering spot. New uses will include public
restrooms, a restaurant or café, retail space, and
cultural facilities - such as a museum, theater or
exhibition uses. The renovation is scheduled to complete
in September.
Glendale continues to plan its
Riverwalk
Development. See the Master Plan at:
http://glendaleriverwalk.com/pdf/masterplan/GlendaleRiverWalk_MasterPlan.pdf
Historic Denver, Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods and
Colorado Preservation, Inc. held an open house at
Cathedral Parish at 1840 Grant Street to
explore sale of the property, once Denver's Cathedral
High School and Mother Teresa's Seton House. The site
includes 45,952 SF of land with 31,545 in existing
structures and a large vacant parcel currently used for
parking. Capitol Hill activist Michael Henry reports
that the property had been under contract to St.
Charlestown Company for 2 years, which could not obtain
its last piece of a financing package from CHFA.
Sagebrush Capital then had a contract for a few months
last year and filed for a certificate of non-historic
status, which prompted Historic Denver, Capitol Hill
United Neighborhoods and Colorado Preservation, Inc., to
file joint applications for landmark designation. This
prompted Sagebrush (which intended to demolish both
structures and build a 12-story rental residential
building) to exit the contract.
The Downtown Denver Partnership, in collaoration with
Denver Parks & Recreation and Southwest Airlines,
invites Denver to hoop it up with the introduction of
the
Southwest
Court at Skyline Park on the former ice
rink. The full-sized basketball court will open on March
15 and run through mid-April on the corner of 16th
Street Mall and Arapahoe Street, adjacent to the Daniels
and Fisher Clock Tower. At the ice rink total attendance
was 42,826, 11,000 over last year's total and 24
broomball teams scored 87 goals in 12 games.
Urban Land Conservancy welcomes the Boys & Girls Club of
Metro Denver and the future Nancy P. Anschutz Center to
Holly Square with assistance from the
Holly Area Redevelopment Project (HARP). Mayor Hancock
recently announced a $5 million grant from The Anschutz
Foundation for the new Boys & Girls Club.
http://www.urbanlandc.org/assets-investments/holly-square/holly-square-site-of-new-boys-girls-club/?utm_source=February+25%2C+2012+Newsletter&utm_campaign=Feb+2012+Newsletter&utm_medium=email
Doors Open Denver
(DOD) this year will be April 14-15. DOD is a FREE,
annual, two-day event celebrating architecture and
design. Over 70 sites are open to the public through
self-guided tours, expert guided tours and urban
adventure tours.
http://www.denvergov.org/doca/DenverOfficeofCulturalAffairs/DoorsOpenDenver/tabid/440781/Default.aspx
|
