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Denver Infill Blog
June 2006
Here's
where I will regularly share news, observations, rumors, ideas, or
anything else about urban redevelopment, infill projects or Downtown
Denver.
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June
30, 2006. I am very pleased to be able to present today a
rendering of the new Sugar Building, officially known as Sugar3
or Sugar Cubed, which will break ground this fall on
Block 019 at the corner of 16th and
Blake in Lower Downtown. This project is very significant in that
it replaces not only a surface parking lot Downtown, but one that is
located on the 16th Street Mall. Its presence will complement the
vitality created by 16 Market Square, Illegal Pete's, Dixon's, and the
LoDo Tattered Cover Bookstore and, along with the soon-to-open EPA
Headquarters building and its ground-floor retail, further enhance the
urban experience of the LoDo portion of the 16th Street Mall as it heads
into the Central Platte Valley. I don't believe this rendering has
been published by any of the mainstream media yet. If not, then I
guess this represents a DenverInfill exclusive. My thanks
to the folks at Urban Villages. Here's the
rendering (Sugar
Cubed) and the
press release. A rendering of the
"Wazee Infill" portion of this project will be available very soon.
The day this building breaks ground will be a great day for Downtown
Denver!
June
29, 2006. In today's Denver Post, reporter
Margaret Jackson has a story about a possible new hotel for Downtown
Denver (Hotel
Dream May Awaken Across From Athletic Club). The site
is owned by Buzz Geller, who is also planning a 30-story condominium
tower at the corner of Speer and Market on
Block 242. This new hotel site by
the Denver Athletic Club would be located on
Block 198 in Upper Downtown.
Here's also a map graphic that accompanies the article (Hotel
Site). The project would include hotel rooms,
condominiums, and a grocery store. While the number of floors or
the number of rooms or condos was not indicated in the article, Mr.
Geller was quoted as saying the building would "go straight up and
pretty high."
What's interesting about
this is that the Denver Athletic Club itself has a plan to build a hotel
and condominium tower on its site located across Tremont from Geller's
property on
Block 171. That project would go
22-stories high and would look like this:
Denver Athletic Club Hotel/Residences.
Perhaps we might have a battle of the hotels developing in this
long-dormant part of Downtown Denver.
June
27, 2006. Speaking of Randy Nichols, a development review
application for the Spire project has been filed with the city planning
office. All signs continue to point to this project moving forward
this summer.
There's a new small
infill project in the Highland neighborhood! The site is the
northeast corner of 33rd and Osage. The project, 3300 Osage, will
consist of 4 new loft condominium units, ranging in size from 1100 to
2400 SF, along with a neighborhood restaurant/lounge and a boutique wine
store. The architect is Scott Rodwin of Rodwin Architects (www.rodwinarch.com).
This is exactly the kind of small-scale infill development that
strengthens and revitalizes our Downtown neighborhoods. Here's a
preliminary rendering (3300
Osage).
June
23, 2006. Randy Nichols' bank account just got bigger,
and that's good news for Downtown Denver. The Rocky Mountain
News reports today that Mr. Nichols, principal of the Nichols
Partnership, just sold the retail portion of his successful Clayton Lane
project in Cherry Creek North for a cool $97 million. It's been no
secret that the proceeds from that sale will assist Mr. Nichols with
financing his proposed 41-story Spire condominium project on
Block 131 in Central Downtown.
Now that the deal is final, I suspect it will be full-steam ahead for
Spire. The latest news on Spire was an August 2006 groundbreaking.
A sales office is also in the works in Larimer Square.
The old Davis and Shaw
Building, which stood mid-block along Champa between 14th and 15th, was
demolished in November 2005 to make way for Spire. In his
September 1, 2005 Artbeat column in Westword, Michael Paglia
wrote:
"Davis & Shaw is a high-end furniture retailer that first opened in
Denver 115 years ago, though the structure itself dates back only to the
1920s. Designed by Fisher and Fisher, one of Denver's preeminent
architectural firms, the building is a gorgeous little gem that looks
like it came right off the streets of Paris. It's a classic retail store
from the period, having a grand iron canopy and a procession of show
windows leading to the recessed front door. The facade is clad in
cream-colored custom tile made by the Denver Terra Cotta Company. The
style is an example of the short-lived neo-classical moderne, in which
traditional forms such as columns were modernized through
simplification. Davis & Shaw is near the Colorado Convention Center, and
it's too bad the building isn't somewhere else, like just a few blocks
up Champa, near 17th Street, where so many well-cared-for historic
buildings are located. Most of these architectural treasures are
protected from demolition by the Downtown Denver Historic District.
Davis & Shaw is surely fine enough to qualify for inclusion in that
district, but the Wellington Webb administration specifically disallowed
properties in an economic-development zone around the CCC from being on
the list."
It was a handsome
building. So let's remember it with a few scenes from the
building's demolition:
The Start -
Action Scene 1
Action Scene 2 -
Panorama 1 -
Panorama 2 -
The Facade -
Window to the Future -
Not Much Left -
The End
June
22, 2006. Plans for the Archstone Phase 2 project in the
Central
Platte Valley are definitely moving forward, as the
applicant, Belfour Senior Care, does intend to implement the plan as a
senior assisted care facility. The historic Moffat Station, which
has been vacant for a long time and even suffered a fire a few years
ago, will be fully restored and made into the project's community
center. Construction is planned to begin in 2007.
There is only one
undeveloped parcel fronting 15th Street, from Lawrence to the end of the
Downtown grid where 15th becomes W. 29th Avenue at Umatilla, that does
not have an active or proposed infill project associated with it.
That would be the small surface parking lot at the corner of 15th and
Blake next to the Kinkos. Otherwise, all others are either
developed or have a project planned or underway. Let's take a
look:
After 15th and Blake, at
Wynkoop we have the Hines project, now planned as a 6-story office
project (see my
May 8 blog), on the former Postal Annex
site, and across the street at Wewatta, a 7-story office building
planned as part of the larger Opus mixed-use project. A block down
at Delgany, we have the proposed 1490 Delgany project, a 6-story
office/residential building. Across Delgany is the site of the new
Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver, which is nearing construction.
Next door to that is the nearly-completed Art House Townhomes and the
recently-completed Monarch Mills. Across 15th Street on the Gates
parking lot site is the future CPV Parking Garage (see my
January 20 blog). Across the
tracks, we've got the completed Archstone Phase 1 and the proposed Phase
2 on the other side of 15th. At Little Raven, the run-down
building next to the new Confluence Plaza is planned to be razed and
replaced with the 9-story Confluence at Cherry Creek project. With
the recent completion of the Dakota Lofts, all the rest of 15th Street
is developed except for the REI parking lot at Platte Street. I
suppose the REI parking lot could count as a developable site if REI
found a way to replace that parking somewhere else.
All of this is what makes
15th Street, from Lawrence north, one of my favorite urban streets in
Denver. What a stark contrast, however, to much of 15th Street
through the rest of Downtown. But at least with the new Hyatt and
the new Makovsky project announced yesterday, there is hope.
June
21, 2006. Very positive news for Downtown Denver in
today's Rocky. In the article (Developer
Hopes to Revitalize Block) we learn that developer Evan
Makovsky is in the process of assembling all of
Block 162 except the McClintock
Building and everyone's favorite, the Fontius Building. Mr.
Makovsky's vision is to do something there, he just isn't quite sure
what. But his motivation is to remove the eyesore of parking lots
and run down buildings that dominate Block 162. While his plans do
not include the Fontius Building, there's at least a glimmer of hope
there, in that Mr. Mokovsky states he would love to buy the building
from Mr. Cook and incorporate it into his plans. And to put a
little more sparkle on that glimmer, Mr. Cook is apparently hinting that
something might be in the works for his Fontius Building!
The one disappointment in
all this is that Target is not in the picture. But if, in the end,
we're left with a big new development that covers 80% of the block and a
revitalized and renovated Fontius Building, that's a disappointment I
can certainly live with! We'll just have to find another place for
Target to go.
June
20, 2006. Don Hunt of The Antero Group had a great guest
column in Saturday's Rocky Mountain News. In case you
missed it, here's the article (A
Vision for Downtown). The topic, of course, is the
Fontius Building and the obvious need for our community to do something
about it. Mr. Hunt's thoughts are exactly in line with mine and he
articulated the issue perfectly.
As a follow up to Mr.
Hunt's article and my several other blogs on this topic, I thought I
would elaborate a bit on this whole eminent domain issue. I have
stated that I believe eminent domain would be justifiable in this case,
and Mr. Hunt apparently agrees, although we both recognize that its use
by the city is unlikely. Nevertheless, I think it's important to
explain why condemnation would be appropriate for the Fontius
Building. For economic development purposes, I believe eminent
domain should be used only as a last resort, and typically only when the
free market is unable to "solve the problem" on its own. In the
Fontius situation, is it reasonable to think that in twenty years, there
simply was no free market attempt to rehabilitate and reoccupy the
building? No. We know, in fact, that over the years several
developers have approached the Cook family seeking to purchase the
Fontius Building, but in every case the family was unwilling and/or
unable to sell. In a free market environment without the unusual
barrier of a property with ownership split among family members who hate
each other, the Fontius Building would have, in time, been redeveloped.
Some sites take longer than others, but eventually, the market reaches a
point where it becomes economically viable and attractive for a
developer to invest in the redevelopment of a property. With the
Fontius Building being located at the crossroads of Downtown, one would
expect the time it would have taken to reoccupy or revitalize the
property after Fontius Shoes closed to be a few years at best. But
twenty years? That abnormal length of time clearly indicates the
presence of an unusual barrier preventing the free market from doing its
job. In those situations, I believe it is in the best interests of
the entire community for the local government to step in and remove the
barrier.
As Mr. Hunt pointed out,
during the time the Fontius Shoes space has been vacant, we have
invested billions of public and private dollars in making our Downtown
into an attractive and vital place. To me, it doesn't make sense
for us to permit something to exist that has such a negative presence of
disinvestment while we simultaneously make significant levels of
positive investment. It's sort of like aggressively saving money
in the bank while simultaneously maintaining a lot of high-interest
credit card debt. It just doesn't make sense. You do both:
create positives and eliminate negatives. The use of condemnation
is appropriate as a public means of eliminating the negative influence
of the Fontius Building in its present condition.
But, since our city
government won't go there apparently, it is up to us, the citizens of
Denver, to do something about it. Thus, my little rants here on
this blog, and Mr. Hunt's article, and your emails to the Mayor and City
Council, and so on. We can't, however, just make our voice heard
once and hope that is enough. We have to keep hammering away at
this issue until it rises to the point where the demand for change
becomes irresistible. So, please send another round of emails to the
Mayor and City Council, send another letter to the editor of the papers,
and tell your friends and coworkers to do the same.
June
18, 2006. At the Landmark Preservation Commission meeting
scheduled for this Tuesday are three items on the agenda that will be of
interest to Downtown infill fans:
First, a design review
application for the historic Moffat Station at 15th Street and Little
Raven will be discussed. The Moffat Station is surrounded by land
designated for Phase 2 of the Archstone at Riverfront project (see
Project #15 on the
CPV-North neighborhood page). The
possibility of the second phase getting started this year is something
that's been rumored for several months now, and in my
January 17 blog, I reported that I had
heard that Phase 2 would be developed by a different developer than
Archstone and that it was going to be "senior housing." Now along
comes this LPC design review application called "New Moffat Station"
that includes residential conversion and new construction. The
project owner is listed as... Balfour Senior Care. So, looks like
Archstone Phase 2 will be getting started in the near future after all,
that it will be marketed at seniors, and that it will include the
renovation/conversion of the historic Moffat Station. This is
great news... particularly knowing that Moffat Station will finally be
getting a little TLC.
Another project to be
discussed by the LPC on Tuesday is 2229 Blake, listed as Project #1 on
the
Ballpark neighborhood page. This project consists of a
36-unit, 7-story building on the site of the current non-historic
nightclub building at 22nd and Blake. While we've known about this
project for a few months now, its appearance before the LPC is a good
sign that it is still moving forward.
Finally, a commercial
signage application for a storefront at 1426 Larimer will be reviewed by
the LPC this Tuesday. The proposed sign's text is simply "You are
Here." That just happens to be the
marketing slogan for Spire, the
41-story condo project planned by the Nichols Partnership for the corner
of 14th and Champa (Block
131). Looks like a sales office for Spire will be
coming soon to Larimer Square.
June
15, 2006. Let's look back at another project that never
made it out of the ground. The location is the corner of Broadway
and 8th Avenue, at the southern tip of the Golden Triangle neighborhood.
In 1998, developer George Thorn and auto dealer Kent Rickenbaugh planned
a $60 million, 6-story, 120,000 SF office building at the northeast
corner of that intersection where the White Spot restaurant used to be
located. I don't have a rendering of that proposal to show you,
but after several years of marketing it, the project never took off.
Meanwhile, in 1999, Bill
Mosher, formerly the head of the Downtown Denver Partnership, joined
George Thorn to form Mile High Development. After canceling the
proposed office project, in January 2001 they announced for the same
site plans for a condo development consisting of twin 15-story towers
with ground-floor retail. I do have a rendering of that project: (800
Broadway). The plan was for the first tower, containing
134 units, to go at the White Spot location along Broadway, with the
other tower, containing about 120 units and approximately 60,000 SF of
office space, as a second phase where the Seven-Eleven is located at 8th and
Lincoln. In the summer of 2001, the White Spot restaurant was
demolished to make way for the proposed development.
However, due in part to a
combination of 9-11, the worsening economy, and the tragic death of Kent
Rickenbaugh in a March 2002 plane crash in Douglas County, the
condominium project was cancelled. Today, the prime corners of 8th
and Broadway and 8th and Lincoln sit awaiting development.
June
14, 2006. There's a new infill retail project going up in
the
Jefferson Park neighborhood. The
location is the southwest corner of Speer and Alcott, just a block west
of Zuni. The project is known as the Creekside Retail Center and
will feature approximately 8,000 square feet of space on two levels.
The ground floor will be retail and the upper floor will be office
space. Here's an image of the design (Creekside
Retail). A rather bland development I would say, but...
better than a parking lot?
Since we're talking about
Jefferson Park, the Rocky Mountain News has an article today (Neighbors'
Wish List Overlooked) that discusses the proposed Spanos
project where Baby Doe's and the Chile Pepper restaurants are located.
I've written about this project on several occasions, the most recent
being in my March 14 blog, which was quoted in this article. The project
is still being negotiated and reviewed by the city and as the article
indicates, Spanos isn't budging on adding a for-sale component or any
neighborhood retail. The developer is now apparently pursuing a
rezoning for the property which, if that's the case, will at least
require a public hearing before City Council. At that time, I'm
sure the Jefferson Park residents will be out in full force to let
Council know what they think this project means to their neighborhood.
Let's hope Council listens.
Hey, a couple of building
permit applications were filed with the city yesterday: the Broadstone
Lofts on
Block 036 and the New Sugar Building on
Block 019. These are two key
infill projects that will be eliminating a weedy undeveloped site a
block from Coors Field and a dumpy parking lot right on the 16th Street
Mall!
June
13, 2006. In this week's issue, the Denver Business
Journal reports that Charlie Biederman's BWAB Ventures LLC, which is
redeveloping the Embassy Suites hotel into a Ritz Carlton, would like to
acquire and redevelop the Greyhound Bus Terminal site on
Block 094 (Ritz
Owner Wants To Buy Bus Terminal). While this is good
news, it's also a bit premature. The current plan for the
development of the multi-modal transit hub at Union Station has the
commercial bus facility component there being completed sometime around
the year 2015. That's a long way off. However, if you're
trying to sell expensive condos as part of your Ritz Hotel development,
then I guess getting the word out now about the redevelopment of
the Greyhound bus terminal can't hurt.
Back in my June 7 blog I
featured a rendering of the Central Street elevation of the proposed
Highland Bridge Lofts project at the corner of Central Street and 16th
Street in the
Highland neighborhood. Today I'm
happy to feature a preliminary rendering of the 16th Street elevation, which shows
the grade change as the hill climbs up towards Boulder Street (16th
St. Elevation).
Speaking of the Highland
Bridge, you can check out construction photos of the bridge by visiting
the
Highland Bridge page on the website of
Alpine Light Pictures. When you get to the seventh photo, you'll
see the first of several images of some of the sections of the big white
arch laying disassembled nearby.
Finally, here's a
rendering of the Strada Flats project
in the
Capitol Hill neighborhood. This
rendering appears on the project banner hanging on the construction
fence around the site, but for some reason the image isn't yet available
on the project's website,
www.stradaflats.com. Strada Flats
is planned for the corner of 11th and Grant.
June
12, 2006. Things are starting to move right along at the
One Lincoln Park site. For a construction staging area, the
developers have now fenced off the northern portion of
Block 001-B and the short section of E.
20th Avenue in between that block and the One Lincoln Park site on
Block 177. There's now also a
temporary crane on site and some additional excavation equipment.
By this fall we should see a permanent tower crane rising above the One
Lincoln Park site!
The Denver Business
Journal is reporting that Spire, the 42-story condo tower being
developed by the Nichols Partnership at 14th and Champa is scheduled for
an August groundbreaking. Last I had heard, it was July, but that
was a few months ago. Good to see Randy Nichols publicly
announcing a date. With his success with Clayton Lane in Cherry
Creek, I have confidence this project will happen. Finally, the
Denver Business Journal also reports a fall groundbreaking for 1800
Market.
A building permit
application has been filed for the "Union Center Hotel and Residences"
project, known to everyone else as the W Hotel behind Union Station.
East-West Partners is playing it really tight on this project.
We're likely to have the big public announcement of this project one
day, and then the groundbreaking ceremony the next!
June
10, 2006. Thank you to all of you who sent me an email
saying you agree about the Fontius Building. The response was
remarkable! Many of you asked what you can do to help.
Here's what you should do:
1. Send an email to
the Mayor. It doesn't have to be long, just something like: "I think the
city should make the redevelopment of the Fontius building a top
priority. It's an embarrassment to Downtown and something needs to
be done about it!" It's my understanding that the Mayor's staff
tracks all emails and phone calls by topic, so the more calls or emails
he gets on this, the bigger the impact. You can email Mayor
Hickenlooper at this address:
MileHighMayor@ci.denver.co.us
2. Send a similar
email to Councilperson Elbra Wedgeworth, in whose district the Fontius
Building is located, and Councilpersons-At-Large Doug Linkhart and Carol
Boigon. I know they are all very sympathetic to this cause, but
it's important that you send them a quick email anyway to register your
support with their office. Their email addresses are:
elbra.wedgeworth@ci.denver.co.us, linkhartatlarge@ci.denver.co.us,
carol.boigon@ci.denver.co.us.
3. Write a letter
to the editor of the Rocky Mountain News in response to the
story. It doesn't have to be long, and I would avoid the eminent domain
aspect since that was taken out of context anyway. Again, just a
short note that says you think the time has come for the people of
Denver to demand that the city makes the redevelopment of the Fontius
building a top Downtown priority... something like that. You can
email the News editor at this address:
letters@rockymountainnews.com. You should put "Letter
to the Editor" in the subject line. Your letter must contain your name,
daytime phone number and mailing address to be considered for
publication.
4. Please ask any
family, friends, and co-workers that agree with us about this Fontius
issue to send a quick email to the Mayor. The volume of email the
Mayor gets on this topic is very important!
If enough heat is put on
city officials and the Cook family, something might happen. This is the
only tactic that hasn't been tried yet over these 20 years, so it's
worth a shot.
===========================
Now, how about some
non-Fontius news for a change...
There's a new
infill project planned for the
Curtis Park-Five Points neighborhood!
It's called Upper Larimer, and it will be located at the corner of 34th
and Larimer. The project consists of 16 townhomes, with 11 units
located on the vacant lot at the east corner of that intersection, and 5
units located across the street on the north corner. The townhomes
will range in size from 1,100 to 1,900 square feet and include rooftop
decks. Here are a few images:
Site Overview
Rooftop Terrace.
June
9, 2006. In today's Rocky Mountain News, John
Rebchook has an article (Vacant
Store Stirs Angry Blog) about my blog entry from yesterday.
I think it's important to clarify that while I said that I think the
city would be justified in using eminent domain, I doubt that
they will. I've spoken with the folks at Denver Urban Renewal
Authority and the Downtown Denver Partnership about this, and I agree
with them that it is very unlikely the city will use their eminent
domain powers in this situation. If they were likely to, they
probably would have done so already. Plus, as I noted, right now
the notion of using eminent domain is an extremely sensitive and
politically-charged topic. That's exactly why I'm saying we need
to have a unified effort that includes a "fed-up" public to find another
way to get it done. You don't need citizen outcry to use eminent
domain; the city can do that all by themselves. We need Denver
citizens to speak up about this matter to cause it to rise as a
community priority and, for one thing, to put pressure on the Cook
family.
I know that leaders at
DURA, the Partnership, and the city are equally as frustrated with the
Fontius Shoes block as I am. They have tried on a number of
occasions to make something happen there. But so far the missing
ingredient in all of this has been an angry public. While the Cook
family has had to deal with frustrated government leaders and
developers, for the most part they've managed to avoid the public
spotlight on this issue. If we keep this topic at the forefront
and push it as a priority for Downtown, maybe the Cook family will start
to feel the heat and find a way to get their house in order. If
they are constantly cast publicly in a negative light on this issue,
maybe they'll just want to rid themselves of the whole mess and sell the
property. For 20 years nothing else has worked, so let's try
something different!
June
8, 2006. How many of you are sick and tired of the
Fontius Shoes Building at the corner of
16th and Welton sitting there vacant and in disrepair? I am.
In fact, I'm pretty angry about it. Here we have a nice historic
building--yes, it does have some attractive qualities to it and it is
part of the
Downtown Denver Historic District--that
has been sitting vacant for what... 15 years? 20 years? Does
anyone out there actually know the year the shoe store closed, because I
really would like to know? I've lived in Denver since 1985 and I
don't ever remember seeing the shoe store open, but I may be mistaken.
Please email me if you know when it closed.
Anyway, for now let's
just say 20 years. So for 20 years, that space has had a "for
lease" sign in the window. Funny, here you have a vacant
storefront at what could be described as the epicenter of Downtown
Denver, 16th and Welton, and in 20 years no one has wanted to lease it?
No, I'm sure there have been several offers, but I've heard that the
property owners, the tragically dysfunctional Cook family, will lease
out only the entire building, not just the one retail space. Or
perhaps it's just that they are incapable of leasing it to anyone
because of their internal family squabbles. (For some history on
the Cook family, here's an article from the Post back in 2004:
Family Feud Stymies 16th St. Mall Projects).
So except for the wig store and a souvenir shop, the rest of the
building sits vacant. Take a close up look at the building next
time you're there. It is literally falling apart, and it reeks of
urine from the homeless people who relieve themselves in its corners.
This is what we've been putting up with at the same corner as the
Masonic Building and the Denver Pavilions. This is what the
thousands of conventioneers walk past on their way to and from the 16th
Street Mall. It's embarrassing to say the least.
The topic of eminent
domain has been a hot one over the past few years, and a lot of people
are very sensitive to the concept of a city using its condemnation
powers for economic development purposes. Yet, if there was ever a
situation in which it would be justifiable, it's got to be this one.
How long can our city and its leaders and influential businesspeople sit
there and accept the status quo on this blighted embarrassment to our
Downtown? At some point, you've got to say enough is enough and
just do something about it. We, as a community, can build a $5
billion airport, new stadiums and arenas and museums, and a metro-wide
rail transit system, yet we cannot figure out a way to do something with
a dilapidated 48,000 square foot building in the heart of our Downtown?
Tragic.
If we really want to do
something about this issue, we can, but we need to make it a priority
and get all the Downtown players united in the effort: the City and
County of Denver, the Denver Urban Renewal Authority, the Downtown
Denver Partnership, a few prominent community-minded developers, and a
lot of fed up citizens. That's a good place to start. I am
going to make this a personal campaign of mine. If you feel
likewise, please let me know, and please tell those with influence in
the organizations listed above that the time has come for Denver to do
something about the Fontius Shoes Building.
June
7, 2006. A few days ago it was announced that the state
had selected Trammell Crow to serve as the project management consultant
for the development of the new Colorado Center of Justice and Colorado
History Museum projects. Here's a copy of the press release: (State
Chooses Firm to Manage Building Projects). I don't have
these projects listed as official infill projects yet since they haven't
been funded and, in the case of the new History Museum, a site hasn't
been selected yet. But if you're looking for more information on
these developments, read my blogs of
February 16, 2006 and
December 6, 2005.
In other news, I now have
a preliminary rendering of the Highland Bridge Lofts project slated for
the corner of 16th and Central in the booming
Highland
neighborhood. Here's the
Central Street elevation of the first
building, a 27-unit, 4-story building at the corner. The second
phase will consist of two 5-story buildings that will complete the
half-block development site to the corner of 16th and Boulder.
Speaking of the Highland
Bridge (see Project #1 on the
CPV-North page or check out the project
website
here), a big section of the massive
white arch that will span I-25 is now sitting along Central Street down
a few blocks at about 19th or so! I'll try and get a photo to
upload tomorrow.
June
6, 2006. In continuing our look back at Downtown projects
that never happened, let's revisit the proposal from 2001 by developer
Bill Pauls to build a 9-story, 190,000 SF office building and an
11-story 50-unit condo building on the vacant half block of
Block 049 along Market Street between
18th and 19th Street in Lower Downtown. I don't think I ever had a
rendering of what the condo portion was supposed to look like, but
here's a rendering of the office building that would have sat
at the corner of Market and 18th: (Bill
Pauls 18th Market). Also, here's an article from the
Rocky Mountain News on November 15, 2001 announcing the cancellation
of the project (Project
Near Coors Field Killed). Now, of course, the same half block
will be developed starting this fall with Corum Real Estate's 13-story,
300-unit mix of apartments and condos. Here's what that project will
look like:
(Corum
18th Market).
June
5, 2006. Today I'm happy to announce the newest
Special Feature
on DenverInfill: the
Downtown Denver Historic District page.
When people think "Downtown Denver" and "historic," they think of LoDo,
and there's certainly good reason for that, as Lower Downtown represents
one of the finest intact districts of late-19th Century commercial
architecture in the country. But not to be overlooked are the
historic buildings of Denver's central business district, of which 43
were designated by the City of Denver in 2000 as comprising the Downtown
Denver Historic District. Some of the most ornate and compelling
buildings can be found here: the remarkable Art Deco facade of the
Buerger Brothers Building; the Victorian charm of the Navarre; the
elaborate opulence of the Equitable Building; the handsome majesty of
the Kittredge Building. These 43 buildings represent some of the
finest examples of a variety of architectural styles including Gothic
Revival, Richardsonian Romanesque, Art Deco, Chicago Commercial, Italian
Renaissance Revival, Neoclassical, and Art Moderne--and they're all
within a few blocks of each other in Downtown Denver.
The new Downtown Denver
Historic District page is a unique online resource. No where else
on the Internet will you find anything like it on this topic because, believe me, I've
looked. I hope it will encourage you to explore the historic
buildings of Downtown Denver and, next time you're walking down the
sidewalks of Downtown, to stop, look up, and appreciate the remarkable
artistry, craftsmanship, and beauty that's above you.
June
3, 2006. To pick up from where I left off yesterday, the
second infill project reviewed on Thursday by the LDDRB was a proposed
project for the corner of 18th and Blake on
Block 021. If you take a look at
the aerial photo on that block's page, you'll note that the Blake Street
side is in sad shape, with about 80% of that half of the block as
surface parking lot. Two buildings exist on the Blake Street side.
The one in the center of the block, 1725 Blake, is a handsome 3-story
historic structure with a nice storefront. The other is a tiny
2-story structure closer to 18th Street that has less-evident historic
qualities. Its address is 1755 Blake. The plan by the developer is
to demolish 1755 Blake and to build a 5-story office building with
ground-floor retail beginning at the side wall of 1725 Blake and
stretching over to the corner at 18th Street.
In order for the LDDRB to
consider a building demolition, the application must include a
fully-developed proposal for the replacement structure. The
developer didn't want to go to the time and expense of fully developing
their office building proposal if the board had no intentions,
regardless of the quality of the replacement structure, of approving the
demolition. So Thursday's presentation by the developer was more
informal, and was intended to get an answer from the board on the
general question of "If we were to submit a demolition request for 1755
Blake, would the board be inclined to approve it?"
The developer presented
their research on the history of 1755 Blake. No known historic
photograph of the structure could be found. Its original date of
construction could not be identified through the city's records.
What was discovered about the building is that it apparently has had a
sketchy past, with it sitting vacant for lengths of time over the past
decades. The most recent information about the building was that
in the early 1980s it received a substantial renovation with over 50% of
the building being replaced. A current survey of the physical
structure reveals that the 1980s renovation left little evidence of any
remaining original or historic elements to the building short of its
four walls.
After lengthy discussion,
the board advised that they most likely would not approve the
demolition. While they agreed that the architectural quality of
the building is weak at best, the building's very existence--its size
and form, its checkered past and physical evolution--represents a piece
of LoDo history that should be preserved.
The board recognizes,
however, the dead zone along that block created by all the surface
parking lots, and is excited by the prospect of a development at that
location. So, the board encouraged the developer to go back to the
drawing board and develop a plan which would include saving and
restoring 1755 Blake and wrapping it with new infill buildings on either
side. The board noted that it is even possible to excavate
underneath 1755 Blake and construct a common underground parking
structure that spans the entire length of the project.
Additionally, the board felt that a project that consists of what
essentially is three buildings in a "new-old-new" pattern becomes much
more interesting from an architecture and urban design perspective than
a single new building facade that stretches half a block in length.
The developer seemed
quite receptive to the board's recommendations, and promised to return.
Hopefully, this won't be the last we hear of 1755 Blake, since that
block really needs some help!
June
2, 2006. Yesterday the Lower Downtown Design Review Board
(LDDRB) met and considered two projects related to infill development.
The first was the mixed-use 1400 Wewatta project on
Block 012. While this project has
been reviewed by the LDDRB before, due to some of the neighbors in the
area not receiving notification of those previous LDDRB meetings about
this project, the board started over and heard this project yesterday as
if it was their first time reviewing it. Representatives from the
developer, Opus Northwest, and Chris Shears, the project architect,
presented the project in full.
The 1400 Wewatta project
will feature three buildings that are all connected by a common
underground and structured parking garage. Facing Wynkoop Street
and along the Wynkoop half of the Cherry Creek elevation, the project
will consist of a 9-story residential building, with mostly brick on the
first seven floors up to the height of the neighboring Steelbridge Lofts
building, and then two additional floors set back 25-feet with mostly a
metal and glass facade. On the Wewatta half of the Cherry Creek
elevation and facing Wewatta about two-thirds of the way towards 15th
Street, will be a 9-story office building with a similar arrangement of
mostly brick on the lower floors and the balance stepped back and clad
in glass and metal. Finally, at the corner of Wewatta and 15th,
right next to the patina-green Steelbridge Annex, will be a 7-story
office building with a facade that combines darker brick, metal and
glass.
The meeting was attended
by about 50 or so neighbors, mostly from the Steelbridge and Waterside
loft developments, who were there to express their opposition to the
project. Their arguments included a number of technical issues
related to traffic, setbacks, the right-of-way along Wewatta, etc., but
their primary argument was that the height of the proposed buildings is
not compatible with the surrounding historic structures. Despite
the neighbors' well-presented opposition, the LDDRB approved the mass,
scale, form, and height for the entire project. The board noted
that with the upper floors set back 25 feet from the building face and
being clad in a lighter material, the buildings will appear visually as
being compatible with the nearby historic structures. They also
noted that this site is located in a special review district that allows
for buildings up to 130 feet in height, and that the original creators
of the Lower Downtown Historic District guidelines must have felt that
it would be appropriate (desirable even) for buildings of that height to
be built next to the shorter historic structures nearby and still
maintain the integrity of the district.
There were a few
conditions to the board's approval however. The board was unhappy
with the design of the corner of the building at Wewatta and Cherry
Creek and requested a redesign of that. They also required the
developer to restudy how the pedestrian walk along Wewatta will interact
with the building. The next time this project is back before the
board, in addition to addressing these remaining issues, the developer
will present in more detail and seek approval of the facade expression
and articulation, fenestration, and building materials. I suspect
in the end this project will happen, as the developer has cleared the
big hurdle of neighborhood opposition to the building heights, and the
board already seems to like much of what they see in the project's
facade expression and materials. Looks like another big nasty
parking lot in LoDo is about to be eradicated!
The second project heard
by the board, a brand new infill project for LoDo, was.... oh, this blog
is getting a little long, so let's cover that tomorrow, OK?
June
1, 2006. First, looks like there's
another project in the works for the
Curtis Park-Five Points neighborhood.
According to the website at Village Flats (www.villageflats.com),
developers of the successful Village Flats on Navajo project and the
upcoming Village Flats
on Lawrence project, their next project will be a 12-unit project on
Stout Street. More info on that should be available soon...
In the
Highland
neighborhood, the Highland Bridge Lofts project at the corner of 16th &
Central planned by Urban Ventures (www.urbanventuresllc.com)
is nearing the start of their pre-construction sales phase.
They're in the process of setting up a sales office on site and have a
preliminary project website up and running too (www.highlandbridgelofts.com).
With all that is going on in the Central Platte Valley, along Platte
Street, and in the historic Highland neighborhood, the Highland Bridge
Lofts project is located essentially at the center of the action in Northwest Downtown.
The Ethiopian Orthodox
Church located at the corner of E. 17th Avenue and Emerson in the
Uptown
neighborhood is history. The building was recently razed to make
way for the Emerson Street Lofts, just one of many projects that's
helping make E. 17th Avenue into an incredibly vibrant urban corridor.
The proposed 1800 Market
Street project, a 300-unit apartment/condo project by
Corum Real Estate planned for
Block 049 in
Lower Downtown
is planning a September 2006 groundbreaking. That 1800 block of
Market is simply one of the biggest holes in the urban fabric of
Downtown, and the Corum project's eventual presence on that block will
be a huge improvement. Now if we could just find someone to
develop something similar on the other side of the street...
To continue what I
started yesterday, let's take a look at a few images of another
high-rise office project proposed for Downtown Denver in the late
1990s/early 2000s that never got off the ground. Today, I've got a
few images of the 1100 15th Street project proposed by Hines for the
corner of 15th & Arapahoe. The 42-story building would have had
about 600,000 SF of space. Duke Energy signed up as an anchor
tenant, but that apparently wasn't enough to allow the project to move
forward, then 9/11 and the recession hit and the project was pulled.
With the 50-story Four Seasons project and the 55-story Great Gulf Group
project planned for next door, it seems to me the former Hines
office tower site becomes an exceptionally hot site to develop.
Anyway, here are some images from the DenverInfill archives:
1100 15th Rendering1
1100 15th Rendering2
1100 15th Rendering3
1100 15th Rendering4
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