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The Torrey Pines and Carmel Alton Green Apartments in
Denver were recently sold by Carmel Partners. Totaling
235 units at 7575 East Arkansas Avenue and 312 units at
8965 East Florida Avenue, the properties were purchased
by Friedkin Realty Group Inc. for $48 million, or
$88,000/unit.
The site of Little Raven and 15th Streets in the
Riverfront Park neighborhood of downtown Denver was
recently sold for $9.4 million, or $98/SF. Totaling
95,607 SF, AEW Senior Housing Investors purchased the
site from Balfour Cosmopolitan LLC. The site is
anticipated to be redeveloped into a senior living
community, as was originally proposed by Balfour in 2006
when it bought the site for $7.7 million, or $80/SF.
The City and County of Denver awarded two contracts for
transit studies along the East Colfax corridor between
the Auraria Campus and the Fitzsimons Redevelopment.
Steer Davies Gleave will conduct a $2,027,590
Alternatives Analysis and Environmental Assessment and
to AECOM will do a $700,000 Focus Model Assessment. The
studies are follow-up to a study of potential streetcars
along the same corridor. More at:
http://www.denvergov.org/sirepub/cache/2/us3yion0b2ky4afapwhfddbk/21057304012012041830726.PDF
Transportation Solutions, the Cherry Creek based
transportation management association is improving the
transit tubes at bus stops in the Cherry Creek area.
Approximately 50 transit tubes were created as result of
the TS "Designed to Ride" project for the area that was
initiated a number of years ago as part of a federal
grant and follow up surveys showed that they have helped
with bus ridership. TS received funding from RTD this
year to improve the look of the tubes by updating the
maps and route descriptions and adding B-cycle
information as well as replacing worn out materials.
Denver City Council Member Mary Beth Susman announced
that the former Lowry Finance Center will soon be
transferred from the Air Force to the Lowry
Redevelopment Authority (LRA) and redevelopment will
start. The 600,000 SF office building will be removed
from the 70 acre site between Monaco/Quebec/1st Avenue/Bayaud
Avenue. The LRA will finalize development plans, have
them approved by the City of Denver and begin to sell
sites to developers. Some 800 homes are planned together
with some 200,000 SF of retail and office space.
Denver City Council approved a $5 million tax increment
financing package to enable redevelopment of the former
Tamarac Square shopping center site at East Hampden
Avenue/Tamarac Street into a $20 million 135,000 SF
super Target store. Tamarac Square was a "festival
shopping center" of some 196,000 SF.
Denver City Council Member Jeanne Robb reports that
Denver Parks and Recreation is preparing to construct
irrigation, grading, sod placement and concrete
improvements at Civic Center Park over the next six
weeks. The work will include a total upgrade of the
irrigation system to state-of-the-art technology to
accommodate the numerous special events that take place
in the park under the City & County of Denver's Better
Denver Bond Program approved by voters in 2007.
The Better Denver Bond Program also funded a $30 million
expansion of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science
which has started construction. The 126,000 SF expansion
will be 5 levels on the south side of the building and
house a new Education and Collections Facility.
Denver City Council is considering a city-wide ordinance
that would prohibit unauthorized camping. Sponsored by
Council Member Albus Brooks, the ordinance would make it
illegal to camp out in public and private spaces
overnight without permission to do so. More at:
http://www.coloradocoalition.org/!userfiles/Advocate/DenverCampingOrdinanceDRAFT.pdf?utm_source=Copy%20of%20Copy%20of%20Copy%20of%20Copy%20of%20Copy%20of%20Copy%20of%202012/03/29%
Similar to the existing Sit & Lie Ordinance law
enforcement, prior to citation or arrest, must provide
the unauthorized camper with an oral or written request
to move off the property, and determine whether or not
the individual needs medical and/or human services
assistance and how the individual may receive these
services. The Downtown Denver Partnership is concerned
about camping on the 16t Street Mall and supports the
ordinance, along with Mayor Hancock's plan for a
balanced approach to addressing the challenges of
unauthorized camping. The proposed ordinance is
scheduled to be heard at the City Council Land Use,
Transportation & Infrastructure Committee meeting on
Tuesday, April 3 at 10:30am at the City and County
Building in Room 391. More at:
http://www.denvergov.org/sirepub/meeting.aspx?cabinet=published_meetings&docid=10785
In 2009, acknowledging continuing development interest,
neighborhood and business interests approached Council
Member Robb to request a renewed planning effort from
Denver's Community Planning and Development Office (CPD).
After two years of work, CPD in conjunction with
business and neighborhood leaders will present the draft
plan for the future of the Cherry Creek area on Tuesday,
April 3 at 5:30 pm at the JW Marriott in Cherry Creek
(150 Clayton Lane). The plan is at:
http://www.denvergov.org/cherrycreekareaplan/tabid/435320/default.aspx
You can also share your feedback online, take a brief
survey and enter to win a $50 Cherry Creek North gift
card. Until April 23rd, the survey is available at:
www.denvergov.org/cherrycreek
After this public meeting, the Cherry Creek Steering
Committee, a consortium of neighborhood and business
leaders, will continue to suggest draft revisions. A
revised draft, based on public input, will be submitted
to the Denver Planning Board, which must approve the
plan before it proceeds to City Council approval. The
Draft Cherry Creek Area Plan was developed over two
years of conversations with Cherry Creek area residents,
business owners, and property owners. It suggests a
comprehensive vision for the Cherry Creek area and makes
recommendations that will serve to guide decisions on
future land use, urban design, mobility, connectivity
and economic prosperity over the next 20 years.
Boundaries for this plan are University Boulevard, 6th
Avenue, Colorado Boulevard and Cherry Creek.
Council Member Robb also reports that after years of
work on the 32-acre former University of Colorado Health
Sciences Center site at 9th and Colorado-there is a
deal! Sembler has restructured the purchase with the
University of Colorado. In cooperation with the City and
County of Denver and DURA. Sembler's President, Jeff
Fuqua, and Vice President Heather Correa, announced that
they and three other Sembler development professionals
are splitting off from Sembler to start a new company
tentatively named Fuqua Development. The terms of the
purchase for 9th and Colorado took into consideration
the new Fuqua Development which along with the Lionstone
Group will be developing the site. Fuqua notes it will
always maintain a strong, ongoing affiliation with The
Sembler Company and they will continue to do business in
the future. The next Colorado Boulevard Health Care
District meeting will be May 3rd @4pm where
representatives of the City and the Development Team
answer questions regarding the Design Guidelines and
development plans. A vote by the CBHD on the Design
Guidelines, will take place before any public hearing of
the Denver Planning Board. The Design Guidelines are at:
http://www.denvergov.org/cpd/CPDHome/PlanningandDesign/tabid/429947/Default.aspx
National Jewish Health has completed demolition of the
former Gove Middle School. Work continues on
construction of an employee parking lot on the site with
expected completion scheduled for mid-June. The lot will
include 462 parking spaces and site landscaping. This
portion of the property will remain landscaped but
otherwise undeveloped to accommodate a future National
Jewish facility. In the longer term, National Jewish
Health intends to build on the Gove property to support
its clinical, research and education mission.
The Denver Office of Cultural Affairs and the Denver
Architectural Foundation invite the public to celebrate
Doors Open Denver the weekend of April 14 and 15 from 10
am-4 pm. Doors Open Denver is an annual celebration of
Denver's built environment and design. During the free
two-day event, you can self-tour the buildings you see
every day but may never have entered. Attendees will
have access to more than 70 sites that represent
outstanding examples of architecture. The sites are open
to the public through 3 types of tours, Self-Guided
Tour, Expert Guided Tour (must pre-register) and Urban
Adventure Tour. For more information and to register for
the event, go to:
http://www.denvergov.org/doca/DenverOfficeofCulturalAffairs/DoorsOpenDenver/tabid/440781/Default.aspx
Denver Water's pipes are getting a facelift. The
utility's pipe rehabilitation program, which involves
cleaning old, unlined cast-iron water mains and lining
them with a cement mortar lining, may be coming to a
neighborhood near you. Through the summer, a Denver
Water contractor will be cleaning and lining water mains
in central and east Denver. The work will take place
from just east of Colorado Boulevard to Jasmine Street
between Third and Eighth Avenues. In addition to
cleaning and lining the pipes, the project will add and
replace valves. To stay on top of necessary
infrastructure upgrades, in 2010, Denver Water
implemented a program to increase the amount of pipe
rehabilitated each year to 50,000 feet per year.
Goodwill Industries announced it will open its first
Deja Blue store in the former Homer Reed building at
East 3rd Avenue/University Boulevard this spring. The
2-story 3,800 SF building will be extensively
"repurposed" using design from the Roth Sheppard
architecture firm. Goodwill and Roth Sheppard are also
working together to open another 31,000 SF store at the
Quebec Square shopping center in the Stapleton
redevelopment.
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