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Denver Infill Blog
November 2005
Here's
where I will regularly share news, observations, rumors, ideas, or
anything else about urban redevelopment, infill projects or Downtown
Denver that doesn't fit into one of the other sections on this website.
Blog Archives
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
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November
28, 2005. Yet another new infill project is coming
to the Highland neighborhood! The vacant lot on the south side of W.
29th Avenue behind the Residence Inn, which sits at the corner of 29th &
Zuni, is the site for the Ayr Lofts on 29th. The project will
include 20 for-sale residential units in a 4 story building. You can
check out a rendering of it here:
Ayr Lofts. I'll also be
adding this project to the
Highland neighborhood page soon.
November
27, 2005. Downtown Denver's apartment market is
apparently strong enough for Archstone. I've heard from a regular
visitor to DenverInfill that Archstone plans to begin construction
in 2006 on Phase 2 of their Riverfront Park development! As you
probably know, Archstone's Phase 1 (see Project #9 on the
CPV North
neighborhood page) sits along 15th Street between the railroad tracks and
Little Raven. Their Phase 2 site (see Project 15 on the same page)
sits across 15th Street from Phase 1 and will occupy the undeveloped land
between 15th and the Riverfront Tower and Promenade Loft buildings.
What makes Archstone Riverfront Park Phase 2 interesting is that the
8-story building bridges over Bassett Circle not once, but twice.
Also of note is the old Moffat Station sits in the middle of the Archstone
Phase 2 site. The Moffat Station is on the National Register of
Historic Places and is vacant and in disrepair. I assume (hope) that
as part of the Archstone Phase 2 development, the Moffat Station building
will be restored and put to a good use. Many years ago I had heard
that it would become a community center for Archstone's Riverfront Park
buildings, but I don't know if that is still the case.
Denver's 15th Street,
from about Larimer to where it ends at W. 29th Avenue and Umatilla, is one
of city's best streets in terms of its urban character. The
Archstone Phase 2 project will greatly add to that character, further
strengthen the market for retail in the area, and add hundreds of more
people to the sidewalks and parks throughout the Central Platte Valley.
November
26, 2005. Everyone's always talking (including me)
about the need for grocery stores Downtown. How many should there be, and
where should they go? Today I'm going to run through a few
possibilities and offer what I think is the ideal arrangement for Downtown
grocery stores.
First, I think Downtown
should have, at a minimum, two full-sized grocery stores (one "regular"
grocery store and one "upscale/natural foods" grocery store), plus a
Target. The developers of One Lincoln Park have said they are very close
to sealing a deal to have Whole Foods anchor the ground floor of their
project on
Block 177. That would not have been
my first choice for a Whole Foods location Downtown if we're to have only
one, but it is a great site for a second natural foods store location
Downtown. Here's the way I see it:
The Central Platte Valley
and LoDo have undeniably the largest concentration of upper-income
residents in the Downtown area. As this northwestern end of Downtown
continues to build out, there's got to be a grocery store somewhere in
that area. I can't image East-West Partners will consider the Central
Platte Valley a success if they don't have a full-service grocery store
within convenient walking distance. And while I'm happy that Vitamin
Cottage is coming into the Valley where Shakespeare's is currently
located, I don't think that is going to cut it. So, if it is assumed
that Downtown can support only one full-size upscale/natural foods
retailer like Whole Foods, I'd say it should go in the CPV where it's a
natural fit. Where in the CPV?
Only one choice in my opinion: the ground floor of the future CPV parking
garage at the northwest corner of 16th & Delgany, where the Gates HQ
surface parking lot is currently located. That site is centrally
located between Riverfront Park and LoDo, it's convenient to the Mall
shuttle and the bridges connecting to the Highland neighborhood, and it'll
be a block away from all those future FasTracks commuters who can stop in
to pick up a few items before getting on the train to go home.
However, if Downtown can support two natural food retailers (which
I think in the long-term it certainly could), then put one in the CPV
(Wild Oats?) and a Whole Foods at One Lincoln Park which, at that
location, does nicely serve as the upscale/natural foods retailer for the
whole upper end of Downtown, plus it has direct access to
transit.
But not everyone is going
to want to do all their shopping at a Whole Foods. What downtown
also needs is a "regular" grocery store. This could come in two
forms: either a King Soopers or Safeway. or by making the Target into a
SuperTarget. If Downtown gets a SuperTarget, it should be centrally
located and somewhere convenient to the Mall shuttle, which still makes
Block 162 an excellent location.
But if the Target, wherever it ends up going, isn't a SuperTarget, then
where could a King Soopers or a Safeway go Downtown? I think, once
again, it's got to be on the 16th Street Mall. We want Downtown
residents to walk there, not drive. If you put a grocery
store at, say, 20th & Lawrence, then people from other parts of Downtown
who need to get there via the Mall shuttle are going to have to walk four
blocks twice just to get to the store and back. At that point, a lot of
people are going to say "screw it" and drive. So a grocery store
needs to be centrally located and on the Mall, or at least between 15th
and 17th. My choice:
Block 130.
This is the block with
the
Ross Dress for Less and Payless Shoes facing the Mall. Along Champa
Street all the way to 15th is a
windowless, vacant building that recently
was a telecom equipment facility and formerly was the back part of the old
Woolworth's store. This building kills any potential vitality or
pedestrian activity on Champa and, along with the adjacent
parking lot at
15th & Stout, only further contributes to the run-down blandness of that
stretch of 15th Street. The footprint of this L-shaped site (the
windowless building along Champa and the surface parking lot at Stout) is
53,125 square feet, exactly the size of your typical Safeway or King
Soopers. Of course, the project would have to include underground or
structured parking, and absolutely some kind of tower (preferably
residential) above. The advantages to Block 130: It is
geographically centered within the greater Downtown, it would be just a
few steps from the 16th Street Mall, only a half-block from the 16th &
Stout Light Rail station, only a block away from Target (assuming Target
goes on Block 162), and it would go along way towards revitalizing a
horribly drab section of 15th Street.
So, your DenverInfill
game plan for Downtown grocery/general merchandise stores: a Target on
Block 162, a King Soopers on
Block 130, a Whole Foods on
Block 177, and a Wild Oats at
16th &
Delgany. The Target and King Soopers are centrally
located, the Whole Foods and Wild Oats are distributed to serve opposite
ends of Downtown, and all four are a few steps from a light rail station
and/or the Mall shuttle.
November
21, 2005. Will the third time be the charm?
In an article (Expectations
Running High for Vacant Lot) published today in the Denver
Post, it was announced that Equity Office Properties is actively
marketing the undeveloped parcel at the southwest corner of 17th &
Larimer, the site of the long-planned Tabor II tower. The foundation
for Tabor II was set in place in 1984, but construction of the tower was
halted when it became apparent the office market was heading south.
Then, during the height of the 1990s boom, there was a lot of talk about
Tabor II finally happening but, once again, nothing ever came of it.
Now, with another Downtown boom underway, this prime corner is once again
getting some attention. But this time it won't be Equity as the
developer but someone else, so it's unlikely the tower, whenever it may be
built, will be called Tabor II. As the article mentions, there is no
height limit at the site and, theoretically, if the building were
developed to its maximum density with a majority of the building's square
footage as residential, it would easily surpass Republic Plaza as the
city's tallest. Sounds like a perfect spot for Mr. Trump to show us
what he can do!
November
19, 2005. I recently heard that RTD is exploring
the concept of running a short light rail spur line off the existing "D"
line from just north of the 20th & Welton station down 21st Street to end
at Blake Street at the entrance to Coors Field! This would not only
generate additional demand along the upper portion of the "D" line but,
once the FasTracks lines are built, would create what essentially amounts
to a loop around Lower Downtown. Despite whatever transportation
mobility and access benefits this rail spur would provide, from an
infill perspective, this could finally be the catalyst for what allows
Northeast Downtown
to finally redevelop. If there was an end-of-line station at 21st
and Blake, and a mid-line station at, say, 21st and Curtis, there would be
no excuse for Northeast Downtown to not explode with high-density
residential towers. Northeast Downtown is currently such a blank
canvas, with vast acres of surface parking lots and a meager building
stock that offers very few structures worthy of preservation. With an
investment like this, some visionary planning, and a willing investment
community, there's no reason why Northeast Downtown couldn't become
another Central Platte Valley!
November
18, 2005. So, just a few days after I post my big
rant about the failed Target project, I hear through the grapevine that
there's apparently a new effort underway to negotiate a deal for a
Downtown Target! I don't know if it's on the same block or for
elsewhere in Downtown but, regardless, it only reinforces the fact that
Target wants to be in Downtown Denver, and Downtown Denver wants a
Target! Let's hope this time it's a done deal. Hmmm... if it's not
on
Block 162, I wonder where it might go?
Thanks to my friend who
runs the excellent
www.Denver-Cityscape.com website (he's a
master at getting renderings of new projects before anyone else), here are
two new images of the proposed Spire project at the corner of 14th and
Champa:
Champa Street Elevation
•
Tower Base Close-up. Looks somewhat
Vancouver-ish with that all that green glass. All we need are just a
couple dozen of these to pop up in Downtown over the next few years, and
we'll have ourselves a 24-hour Downtown!
November
16, 2005. The new apartment building by Alliance
Properties slated for the vacant lot next to the Piggly Wiggly building on
Block 036 in Northeast Downtown, added to
DenverInfill.com on July 3 of this year, is now working its way
through the design review process--a good sign the project is moving
forward. The developers recently met before the Landmark
Preservation Commission and received approval of the mass, form, and scale
for the new construction portion of the project, which will cover the
entire vacant portion of the half block between the Piggly Wiggly building
and 22nd Street. The project also includes the renovation and
conversion of the Piggly Wiggly building into residential units, as well
as a 2-story addition to the top of that historic structure. The new
building will also include ground-floor retail along the entire Market
Street frontage. That, along with the new ground-floor retail
developing at the Premier Lofts on the next block (including a new Brix
Restaurant), will really begin to give that stretch of Market Street a
pedestrian-friendly urban character.
November
13, 2005. While 2005 has been an incredible year
for Downtown area infill and redevelopment, there has been one major
disappointment: Target. Plans for a 2-story urban Target store were
revealed in early 2004 when the local papers ran articles about
Target scouting Downtown for locations. Soon thereafter, additional
articles reported that a deal was in the works to put the Target store on
Block 162, a key block that lies between
the new Hyatt Convention Center hotel and the 16th Street Mall. The
Target project hit a
potential snag when it was learned that one of the buildings that would
have to be demolished for the Target had been purchased by Mercy Housing,
which planned to convert the building into 75 affordable residential
units. But that issue was apparently getting resolved as both
Mercy and the developer for Target agreed to work together to
incorporate affordable housing above the new Target. The critical
piece of the puzzle, however, was for Target's developers to be able to
acquire all of the land on the block, which consists of nine parcels.
I've recently heard that the developers for Target were successful
in reaching an agreement to acquire eight of those nine parcels,
but because they were not able to reach an agreement on the one
remaining parcel, the project is dead. This does not mean that
Target is no longer interested in Downtown Denver (quite the opposite), or
that a developer might not announce a Target store for a different
location in Downtown any day now. But it appears that a deal to put
an urban Target on Block 162 is not going to happen at this time.
Additional evidence the deal is off: Two of the buildings on the block
have recently seen some remodeling activity that would not make sense if
the buildings were soon to be demolished or reconfigured for a Target; and
several of the parcels on the block are up for sale.
So who owns that one
parcel? Who was the roadblock to Downtown getting its urban Target?
The Cook family. Which parcel is it? The parcel containing the
"Fontius" building, named for the Fontius Shoe store that once anchored
the building. The Fontius building is largely vacant and has been
for two decades! It is in significant disrepair and is
Downtown's #1 eyesore. It sits along the 16th Street Mall at Welton,
the epicenter of Downtown, a block from the new Hyatt, the Denver
Pavilions, and a Light Rail station. Entire boom and bust cycles
have come and gone Downtown with no effort on the part of its owners to
rehabilitate the building, lease the vacant storefronts, or sell the
building to a developer. The City of Denver has refused to use
eminent domain to remove this blight from one of its most prominent
Downtown corners. So what's up with this Cook family? Soon
after the Target announcement in early 2004, the Denver Post ran
this article about the Cooks:
Family Feud Stymies 16th Street Mall Projects.
Shortly after that article ran, the Cooks did close on the sale of their
land under 1616 Glenarm to RedPeak Properties, but according to a follow
up Post article, the Cook family's rift "is so deep that warring
factions insisted on signing the necessary paperwork in separate rooms so
they would not have to lay eyes on each other."
Will another twenty years
go by with the Fontius Shoe store sitting there empty, reeking of urine
from the homeless that congregate in its shadow, and deteriorating before
the millions of visitors who walk past it on their way to our shiny new
Convention Center and Hyatt Hotel? Will the Downtown community still
be wringing their hands and bemoaning the deplorable and embarrassing
conditions of Block 162 in the year 2025? Or will the City of Denver
finally exercise its powers of eminent domain and put an end to the Cook
family's stranglehold on the vitality of the heart of our Downtown?
The use of the government's condemnation powers to facilitate private real
estate development has certainly been a hot topic of late. And while
its use in this situation would probably stir some controversy, I can't
think of a more legitimate situation than this in which the use of eminent
domain to aid a private development would be justified. The Fontius
building clearly represents blight, and its redevelopment would clearly be
to the benefit of Downtown and the City as a whole. So when will the
City take control of this situation and resolve it once and for all?
I hope I'm wrong. I
hope that tomorrow we learn that a final agreement is in place to bring a
Target store to Block 162. But even if Target lands somewhere else
Downtown, something has to be done about the Fontius building and
the rest of that block. The private market has tried, repeatedly,
but has failed to make something happen with the Fontius building.
The status quo is unacceptable. Now's the time for the City to step forward and get the job done.
November
11, 2005. A "W" Hotel is in the works for the
Central Platte Valley! In an article in today's Rocky Mountain News
(W
May Be Looking to Put Hotel Downtown) it has finally been
revealed publicly that Starwood Hotels is working with East West Partners
to put their W Hotel brand behind Union Station (although neither party
would confirm this information). This is something I heard about
several months ago but was asked to keep confidential, so I'm glad I can
finally talk about it here! Anyway, what
a great way to kick off development of the "Commons" part of the CPV!
Not to be confused with Commons Park on the west side of the Central
Platte Valley, the
Commons part is the undeveloped area between
the mainline consolidated railroad tracks and Wewatta Street (see #24 on
the CPV
North neighborhood page). While the focus of East West
Partner's "Riverfront Park" development is residential, the focus of the
Commons master plan is commercial. Along with the coming FasTracks
transit hub at Union Station, the presence of a W Hotel would be a
powerful inducement for companies to locate their offices in the CPV. Once
the office market is finally at a point where speculative construction
makes sense, we're bound to see some of that go behind Union Station.
But in the meantime, we may see build-to-suit office construction (like
the EPA and Denver Newspaper Agency buildings now under construction)
occur in the Central Platte Valley.
November
9, 2005. Another major infill project is in the
works in LoDo! Not even a month ago, in the October 12 blog entry,
was the news about the proposed mixed-use project on the surface parking
lot at 16th & Blake (see
Block 019). Now there's news of a new mixed-use project
on the 1400 block between Wynkoop and Wewatta (see
Block 012). As you can see from the aerial photo on the
Block 012 page, this is the block with the SteelBridge Lofts. The
remainder of the block, stretching over to Wewatta Street and all the way
to Cherry Creek, is a surface parking lot. The project, to be
developed by Opus Northwest (which is currently developing the new EPA
Region 8 Headquarters building nearby) will cover the rest of the block!
The project will include several levels of parking, office uses along the
Wynkoop side, and residential uses along Cherry Creek and Wewatta.
The project will consist of two main towers up to about 130 feet (roughly
12 floors or so) with a courtyard/alley in between. On the upper
floors, a health club will bridge across between the two towers. The
building height will step down at it nears 15th Street.
The project received
preliminary "building envelope" approval through the LoDo Design Review
Board in October. At this time, no specific residential unit count
or office square footage figures are available. Several other
factors make this proposal exciting: The height of the project will be
similar to that of the Waterside Lofts across Wewatta Street.
Together, these two buildings will serve somewhat as of a gateway when
entering LoDo along Wewatta from Speer and the Pepsi Center. The
historic railroad trestle is also right at the corner of the project, at
Cherry Creek and Wynkoop, which serves as an important pedestrian
connection across the Creek. Finally, the tail tracks located along
Wewatta Street will be removed about the time this project is complete,
which should allow for the rest of Wewatta Street to be built and
streetscaped in concert with this project.
November
6, 2005. Sure enough, the Davis & Shaw building
started coming down yesterday! Here are a few photos of the action:
Photo 1 (Demolition begins in the back
corner at 8:45 AM in the shadow of the new Hyatt)
•
Photo 2 and
Photo 3 (Work progresses throughout the
morning)
•
Photo 4 (Close up of flying brick)
•
Photo 5
(Major wall section tumbles). When the demolition is finished in a
few more days, I'll present the best of the photos on a new page in the
Special Features
section where, by the way, I've just uploaded a new page featuring a photo
tour of Denver's
16th Street Mall.
Regarding the Spire, the
project to be built at the Davis & Shaw building site... Tentative
schedule update: Utility work in the street and site prep work is planned
from this November through January 2006, with the official
"groundbreaking" planned for March 2006.
November
4, 2005. Last week I reported on a rumored new
high-rise project for the Golden Triangle. Since then I've learned
it's apparently a done deal. Hanover, a national apartment developer
who is just wrapping up The Boulevard project at 8th and Bannock (where
Racine's restaurant used to be) has purchased the half block immediately
to the east... that would be the east side of Acoma between 8th and 9th
Avenues. There are a few small buildings there now. Those will
be razed and in their place will be an apartment tower that will look
virtually identical to
this one the company built in Dallas.
The tower will be around 22 to 24 floors in height and will have a shorter
wing that will cover the rest of the half block. The tower will be
all apartments and they plan to break ground in June 2006. Speaking
of apartments... there have been reports this week that Denver's apartment
vacancy rate is at a 5-year low! Good news... should prompt more
construction Downtown hopefully.
Now's the time to take
one last look at the old
Davis & Shaw furniture building on Champa
Street! A construction fence surrounds the building now and a crane
with wrecking ball is waiting nearby. Word is... demolition begins
Saturday, Nov. 5! The building is making way for the new 41-story "Spire"
condominium project planned by Nichols Partnership. Read all about
it on
Block 131.
Finally, how about a few
nighttime pictures of the top of the new Hyatt. It doesn't appear
the lighting scheme is yet fully installed, but the Hyatt's presence on
Denver's evening skyline is starting to have an impact!
Close
•
Closer
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Closest
November
1, 2005. Today we have renderings of two infill
projects. The first is of the "Flats
15" project mentioned in the blog of just a few days ago
(October 30), located at the corner of Shoshone and W. 33rd Avenue in the
Highland neighborhood. That project hasn't been added to the
Highland page yet, but until then, view the rendering here. The
other project was announced Spring 2005, the proposed
Best Western located
at the corner of 15th & Stout in Central Downtown. That project has
been working its way through the development review process, with
construction slated to begin sometime within the next few months.
This image is also available on the Best Western's block page (Block
138).
Also, the 31-story
condominium project by Richard Geller at Speer and Market continues to
move forward, despite the Landmark Preservation Commission's refusal to
de-designate the site (a parking lot) from the historic district.
The Denver Planning Board has recommended to the City Council that Mr.
Geller's proposed PUD (rezoning) for the site be approved. The
rezoning request is a necessary step separate from the historic district's
height restriction. For the project to more forward, the height
restriction/historic designation issue still must be resolved. It's
believed the developer's next step will be to ask the LPC to agree to move
the LoDo Historic District boundary to the center of Cherry Creek,
providing Mr. Geller the opportunity to build his tower at Speer and
Market, while maintaining the "Bell Park" site at 14th & Larimer as part
of the historic district. |
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