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First, because it happens in just a couple of days,
Denver City Council Member Jeanne Robb invites you to
join her on Wednesday, September 25th, for an
interactive dialogue with Public Works, Community
Planning and Development, the Cherry Creek Steering
Committee and the Technical Advisory Group working on
new zoning for the Cherry Creek Business District.
The forum will take place at the J.W. Marriott at 150
Clayton Lane in Cherry Creek. It will begin with an
open house from 4:30 to 5:30. City staff will be
available at information stations about zoning, parking,
traffic counts and transit. They want to hear your
questions, concerns and ideas. Then, at 5:30, Mike
Hughes, who is facilitating the Cherry Creek Business
Area rezoning effort will lead us in group discussion
and a polling exercise. The meeting is planned to last
until 8:30 pm. There's a high level of interest in the
rezoning effort in Cherry Creek and its relation to
transportation
RTD recently partnered with Transportation Solutions to
initiate a feasibility study of
transit
service in the Denver Union Station/Cherry
Creek/Glendale corridor. The purpose of
this study is to determine market potential for visitor
transit services in the corridor connecting Denver Union
Station, the Cherry Creek area and City of Glendale and
what transit services and enhancements would be feasible
to meet this need in combination with commuter needs.
The study is being conducted through this fall by
Transportation Management & Design (TMD), which serves
as RTD's ongoing General Planning and Operations
Consultant. TMD, based in Carlsbad, California
www.tmdinc.net also conducted the Downtown
Circulator Study. The Cherry Creek North Neighborhood
Association also invites you to attend to ask what are
potential issues and concerns on development traffic
mitigation. Transportation Solutions has been charged
with taking the lead role in coordinating stakeholder
involvement in the study, including representatives from
Visit Denver, Denver Union Station, downtown businesses
and residents, the Golden Triangle, Cherry Creek and
Glendale.
Council member Robb also reports that bicyclists who
ignore stop signs and stop lights are a problem in
Denver. So are cars that block bike lanes or turn in
front of cyclists without yielding. The number of
pedestrians who blatantly ignore traffic signals in
cross walks (sometimes even with uniformed officers
standing next to them) number in the tens of thousands
every day. In the first quarter of 2013, police noticed
a
dramatic increase in automobile vs. pedestrian and auto
vs. bicycle accidents. In fact, auto
vs. pedestrian/bicycle accidents are up 41% between
January and May of 2012 compared to the same date range
in 2013. This is even more alarming when you factor in
that over the same time period accidents are down 7.2%
overall. Traffic Investigations Bureau detectives have
looked at the issue and have discovered many of these
accidents are the fault of the bicyclist or pedestrian.
In fact, up to 50% of auto vs pedestrian accidents are
the pedestrian's fault (jay-walking or disobedience to
traffic signals being the most common causes). Mayor
Hancock is also concerned, and has launched a city-wide
campaign to raise awareness and public education to
reduce future accidents called "Head's Up".
Leadership, innovation and public service are just some
of the reasons the American Public Transportation
Association is recognizing
Phillip A.
Washington, general manager and CEO of
the Regional Transportation District. In October,
Washington will receive
APTA's
outstanding public transportation manager award
at the trade association's annual meeting in Chicago. In
recognizing Washington, APTA said the RTD executive had
"undertaken a remarkable number of innovative,
cost-effective and customer-focused initiatives to build
projects and improve service to the public." Included
in the list of his achievements is the implementation of
the nation's largest voter-approved transit expansion
program, RTD's FasTracks program. Recently, APTA also
named Washington vice chair of its executive committee.
On Monday, September 23, all of the Regional
Transportation District's (RTD) nearly 1,000 buses will
roll with new vehicle tracking, communications and
dispatching equipment featuring
Automated
Stop Announcements (ASA). The GPS-based
system will provide audio and visual stop announcements
inside the bus, and broadcast route and destination
outside the bus when the doors open at bus stops. "By
replacing aging equipment, we have gained technology
that reduces driver distractions, assists in meeting
Americans with Disabilities Act community needs and
generally improves the customer experience for all
riders through accurate and consistent information,"
states Bruce Abel, RTD Assistant General Manager of Bus
Operations. RTD has been working for three years to
provide bus patrons a similar customer information
experience previously afforded only to light rail
patrons.
The RTD Board of Directors learned recently about
MPACT64, a
proposed
statewide ballot initiative that would
ask Colorado voters in all 64 counties to approve a
seven-tenths percent sales tax increase to improve
transportation infrastructure around the
state. The concept has the support of the Metro Mayors
Caucus and other high-profile state government groups.
Discussions and meetings are still being held to gain
consensus on the actual proposal that would be submitted
to Colorado voters. State transportation officials hope
to put the question to voters on the November 2014
statewide ballot, with a specific list of highway and
transit projects to be funded if the ballot measure is
approved. The current proposal would apportion
two-thirds of the funding raised by the sales tax
increase to statewide highway improvements and one-third
to statewide transit projects. Discussions are ongoing
regarding a sunset timeframe for the sales tax. If
approved, RTD would receive a portion of the transit
funding for state-of-good repair, operations and
FasTracks projects. MPACT64 members plan to monitor the
results of this year's ballot measures, including a
proposal to increase sales taxes for K-12 education,
which could serve as a litmus test for public support of
tax increases in general.
Galvanize,
a co-working space for start-up tech companies, will
expand its local operations by occupying a new 78,000
square foot office building at 1644 Platte Street in
LoHi. The company currently operates a campus at 1062
Delaware Street. An additional office may open in
Boulder and the company is also considering expanding to
other US cities. And
Thrive,
another co-working space has opened in Cherry Creek
North at 201 Milwaukee Street and in LoDo at 1830 Blake
Street. Similarly
Shift
has been open as a co-working space at 383 Corona for
some time.
http://galvanize.it/
http://www.businessatthrive.com/
http://www.shiftworkspaces.com/
Unico Properties bought an office and retail building in
downtown Denver's
Writer Square. The eleven-story
building is located at 1512 Larimer Street and contains
about 179,271 square feet. Unico acquired the 33-year
old building for an undisclosed amount in partnership
with LaSalle Investment Management. The seller was GDA
Real Estate. Unico is a Seattle-based investment company
with several Denver holdings.
A Houston developer bought the site of the long-proposed
Confluence apartment tower at 2166 15th
Street in downtown Denver. PM Realty Group is joining
with landowner Ray Suppa to develop the 34-story, 288
unit at 15th and Little Raven streets adjacent to the
parks along the South Platte River and Cherry Creek.
Construction is scheduled to begin this fall with
completion in late-2015. The Confluence will be the
tallest building in the Riverfront area.
Franklin Street Properties closed on its purchase of
1001 17th Street, a 655,565 square foot
office building in downtown Denver. The Boston investor
paid $217 million for the 20-story building, or about
$331 per square foot. The seller was an affiliate of
Miller Global Properties and was represented by Tim
Richey and Michael Winn of Cushman and Wakefield.
An affiliate of Colorado Lending Source bought the
historic
GE
Building at 441 18th Street in Lower
Downtown. CLS is a nonprofit agency that provides US
Small Business Administration loans in Colorado. It
will expand into about 15,000 square feet in the 26,592
square foot building over the next twelve months. CLS
Holdings, Inc. paid $4,850,000, or about $185 per square
foot, for the 107 year old building. The seller was a
partnership of some of the building's current tenants. CLS
was represented in the transaction by Nick Koncilja and
Charlie Woolley of the St. Charles Town Company while
the sellers were represented by Dan Grooters and Riki
Hashimoto of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.
According to CBRE Group the vacancy rate for retail
space on the
16th
Street Mall in downtown Denver is about
2%, one of the lowest of any submarket in metro Denver,
and rental rates can reach as high as $50 per square
foot in some of the newest buildings. Even in the face
of that success local business and governmental leaders
are seeking ways to attract more stores and shoppers to
the mall, especially in the middle blocks of the street
between Lower Downtown and Denver Pavilions. The 16th
Street Mall in downtown Denver ranks as the most visited
location in metro Denver for tourists and shoppers. The
mall will soon be 31 years old and the City & County of
Denver and downtown interests are considering options to
attract a wider variety of retailers and public events.
The Denver Business Journal's special report, "16th
Street Mall: Denver's main street at a crossroads," is
now available online.
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2013/08/19/16th-street-mall-denvers-main-street.html?ana=e_den_bn
Hines began construction on
1601
Wewatta Street, a ten-story, 280,000
square foot office building adjacent to Denver Union
Station. The building is the first large speculative
office building to be started in downtown Denver in
recent years.
Edwards Communities plans to develop the
Residences
at Prospect Park, a 296-unit apartment
building in the Prospect neighborhood near Coors Field.
The five-story building will occupy a 2.6 acre site at
2970 Huron Street. Completion is scheduled for the third
quarter of 2014. Edwards is based in Columbus, Ohio.
Trader Joe's announced the location of their fourth
Denver area store. The supermarket chain will occupy a
site at the southwest corner of East 7th Avenue and
Logan Street across from Governor's Park in Capitol
Hill. The store is expected to open by the end of
2014.
Construction started on
Logan
Lofts, one of the few condominium
projects underway in metro Denver. Condo development
has been stymied in Colorado in recent years by concerns
over the number of construction defects lawsuits brought
by homeowners or homeowner associations. Logan Lofts is
a three-story, 24-unit building at the southwest corner
of East 1st Avenue and Logan Street. LPH Logan LLC is
building the project,
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Colorado
will increase its local workforce by about 300
positions, following an increase of 250 jobs earlier
this year. The new positions will bring to about 1,300
the number of employees working at the insurer's
headquarters at 700 Broadway by the end of 2013. Anthem
credited the need for more employees to the effects of
the new healthcare legislation that will add about 16
million people nationally to insurance rolls.
Seattle-based Unico Properties bought
1660
Lincoln Street, a 31-story office
building in downtown Denver. The company paid $38
million for the 283,544 square foot building, which has
16 floors of office space atop a parking garage. Unico
bought the building from the lender, Aeron USA Realty
Advisors, and plans an extensive renovation. The buyer
was represented by Geoff Baukol and Tim Swan of CBRE.
Construction started on
Mile High
Vista, a mixed-use project at West
Colfax Avenue and Irving Street in west Denver. The
project includes the 25,000 square foot Rodolfo Gonzales
branch of the Denver Public Library and a 72-unit
affordable apartment building that is being developed by
Del Norte Neighborhood Development Corporation. A
future phase will include a small retail building
fronting on West Colfax Avenue.
An investment partnership associated with principals of
Hyder Construction plans to acquire
414 14th Street, a 90-year old office
building in downtown Denver that at one time housed the
administrative offices of the Denver Public Schools.
The project will ultimately contain about 49,138 square
feet once renovation is completed and 6,000 square feet
added. Upon completion the building will be known as
the Ambassador.
The
University
of Colorado Denver topped out its new
Academic Building One along Speer
Boulevard on the Auraria Campus in downtown Denver. The
146,000 square foot, five story building will house
several administrative offices and classrooms for the
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Completion is set
for August of 2014.
Denver Health
will reduce its employment by about 300 people, or 5% of
its total workforce. The hospital needs to reduce costs
due to federal health care funding reductions and a lack
of increased support from the City and County of Denver.
The hospital is the primary treatment center for
Denver's poorest residents, many of whom have no medical
insurance. Denver Health plans to make the cuts through
layoffs, attrition and a reduction in new hires.
The initial concept plan for the redevelopment of the
former
St. Anthony's Central hospital site in
west Denver was discussed by neighbors, planners and the
potential developer. The hospital moved to a new
campus, leaving vacant its former location on West 17th
Avenue at Perry Street across from Sloan's Lake Park. EnviroFinance
Group was selected as the master developer for the
property. The Denver City Council recently approved
concept plans for redeveloping the six-block site
occupied by the now-vacant hospital into a high-density
urban infill community. The concept plan for the 15
acre site calls for a mixture of land uses, including
commercial and residential. Trammell Crow Company filed
site plans with City and County of Denver planners for
Alexan at Sloan's Lake, a 378 unit
apartment community on a portion of the site at West
16th Avenue and Raleigh Street in west Denver.
The City and County of Denver created a $500,000 fund to
help pay preliminary development costs for commercial
and residential projects along the
Welton
Street corridor in the Five Points
neighborhood northeast of downtown. Costs eligible for
the challenge funds include architectural and
engineering services, environmental reviews and market
research. The target area for the work is between 20th
and 30th street. The Curtis Park neighborhood north of
downtown Denver is seeing more interest by townhouse
developers. The 15-unit Park Row project was recently
announced on the site of a former parking lot at Park
Avenue West and Glenarm Place with construction starting
later this year. Sale prices are expected to be in a
range of about $249,000 to $389,000.
An investor whose identity was not revealed bought
2600 Walnut Street, an 11,780 square
foot warehouse north of downtown Denver. The purchase
price was $1,280,000, or about $109 per square foot.
Jim and Karen Gruber of Gruber Commercial Real Estate
represented the seller
Peter Niederman bought
3650 East
1st Avenue, a 16,000 square foot office
building in the Cherry Creek East neighborhood. Niederman,
the chief executive officer of Kentwood Real Estate,
paid $4.3 million for the building, or about $268 per
square foot. The main tenant in the building is Mile
High Banks.
Western Development Group started construction on
250 Columbine, a $100 million mixed-use
complex in the Cherry Creek North district. The project
will include about 80,000 square feet of office space,
30,000 square feet of retail and 70 condominium units.
The initial phase of the work involves the demolition
of several existing office and retail buildings on the
site, which is located on the east side of Columbine
Street between East 2nd and East 3rd avenues.
Steele Street Bank and Trust
bought
101 Cook
Street, a 20,076 square foot office
building in Cherry Creek North for a reported
$9,150,000, or about $455 per square foot. The bank
will relocate its corporate headquarters from the
current location at 55 Adams Street in September. The
Cook Street building was built in 2008.
The
Garbarini
women's clothing store relocated in Cherry Creek North.
The retailer bought
239 Detroit Street for $5 million, or
about $400 per square foot. Garbarini expanded into the
12,500 square foot building from smaller quarters on
East 3rd Avenue. Roche Fore of Buell & Company
represented the buyer.
Pando Holdings announced plans for
Platt Park
North, an 83-unit residential infill
community on Mississippi Avenue east of South Broadway
in south Denver. The project will contain 54 rental
townhouses and 29 single family detached houses, with
the for-sale units offering prices around $600,000. The
developer expects to begin construction in September.
Elkco Properties plans to develop
999 South
Logan Street, a mixed-use building
containing 24 apartment units, 9,000 square feet of
office space and 2,900 square feet of retail space.
Construction is scheduled to start by the fall of
2013.
Alpha Interactive Group purchased the
Centura
Health Medical Building at 2415 South
Colorado Boulevard. The building was acquired from a
private investor for $1,850,000, or about $62 per square
foot. The 29,713 square foot building was built in 1978.
John Becker and Michael Haley of Fuller Western Real
Estate represented the seller.
Zeppelin Development plans another building at its
Taxi mixed-use campus on Ringsby Court
in the River North (RiNo) neighborhood.
Drive 2
will contain about 60,000 square feet and will be the
seventh building constructed in the park along the South
Platte River near downtown Denver. Taxi now contains
about 200,000 square feet of office, flex and retail
space occupied by sixty tenants with nearly 400
employees.
Great Divide Brewing Company
announced plans to build a $38 million brewery in the
River North neighborhood near downtown Denver. The new
plant would allow Great Divide to expand beer
production. The company is seeking a $1 million loan
from the City and County of Denver to assist in the
acquisition of two city blocks on Brighton Boulevard
between 33rd and 35th streets. About 29 new jobs are
expected to be created when the brewery is operational
in 2015.
Amerco Real Estate Company bought
4800
Colorado Boulevard, an 84,000 square
foot warehouse in north Denver. The 60-year old
building was acquired by the Phoenix-based investment
company for $3.3 million, or about $39 per square foot.
The seller was represented by Brad Gilpin and Greg
Knott of Unique Properties while the buyer's agent was
Jami Savage of CBRE.
Slipstream Properties plans to start construction in
March on Colfax Marketplace, a retail and apartment
building at 1080 East Colfax Avenue in Capitol Hill.
Slipstream is also renovating the
former
Smiley's Laundromat building into 7,000
square feet of retail space and 28 renovated apartments.
The addition, to be called
Route 40,
will include 74 apartments, a parking garage and an
additional 7,000 square feet of shops in a five-story
building at the southeast corner of Ogden Street and
East Colfax Avenue.
The University of Colorado is trying again to find a
developer for the
former CU
medical center property at Colorado
Boulevard and East 8th Avenue in east Denver. The
university has gone through several unsuccessful
agreements with companies selected to redevelop the 25.9
acre site. CU formed an evaluation committee to seek out
potential buyers for the property.
Lincoln Property Company plans to start construction by
the end of 2013 on
Tower 3,
a 15-story office and retail building in
Colorado
Center at South Colorado Boulevard and
East Evans Avenue. The project will contain about
205,000 square feet of office space, 11,290 square feet
of ground floor retail uses and a parking garage.
Construction is expected to be completed by mid-2015.
Gates Corporation received permits from the City and
County of Denver to demolish its historic manufacturing
plant on South Broadway. The permits allow for four
buildings to be removed at 999 South Broadway, between
Kentucky and Mississippi avenues. Gates
Rubber Company was once one of Denver's
largest manufacturers but the plant was closed in 1991
and has sat empty since then. Redevelopment plans never
materialized, except for the Gates property across from
the plant on the east side of Broadway. A complicating
factor has been the potential for environmental hazards
at the plant site on the west side of South Broadway.
Gates did not reveal plans for the property after the
demolitions are completed.
Construction was completed on
Evans
Station Lofts, a 50-unit affordable
apartment building at 2140 South Delaware Street,
adjacent to the RTD Evans Avenue light rail station.
The project was developed by the Urban Land Conservancy
and Medici Communities. Evans Station Lofts was fully
leased upon completion with rental rates in a range of
$380 to $850 per month.
Safeway
plans to close a supermarket at
7150
Leetsdale Drive in southeast Denver. The
store opened in 1993 and has 55 employees who the
company says will be placed at other Safeway locations.
The chain has 13 supermarkets in Denver. Safeway
claimed that the store's sales did not meet
expectations.
YPSI-Ann Realty Company bought the
Lowry
Professional Plaza, a 14,278 square foot
medical building in the Lowry neighborhood of east
Denver. Hampton Partners sold the six year old building
for $5.6 million, or about $393 per square foot. The
seller was represented by Riki Hashimoto of Newmark
Grubb Knight Frank and the buyer by Unique Properties
brokers Marc Lippitt, John Sheflin and Scott Shwayder.
The Millice Group bought the
Forum at
Cherry Creek, an 83,406 square foot
office building at 425 South Cherry Street in Glendale.
Millice was the previous owner of the building until
they sold it in 2007. The company paid $7,320,000, or
about $88 per square foot, to acquire The Forum from a
lender, which was represented by Cassidy Turley broker
R. C. Myles.
Blueline Properties bought
Vantage
Point, a 115-unit apartment community at
1105 South Cherry Street in Glendale. The company
purchased the 38-year old property from CES Properties
for $8.6 million, or about $74,800 per unit. Terry
Smith of Consolidated Equities represented Blueline in
the transaction.
Target
opened its new store at the redeveloped
Tamarac
Square shopping center in southeast
Denver. The 130,000 square foot store is located at
South Tamarac Drive and East Hampden Avenue. The
redevelopment of the center was aided by City & County
of Denver tax incentives. About 200 people will be
employed at the store, 40 of whom will be full-time
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