Quote:
Originally Posted by bunt_q
Depends on where obviously. In RiNo, a hot warehousey area, around $180/sf. For a project-sized parcel with most infrastructure in and 12 story zoning.
There are hundreds of undeveloped acres within 2 miles of downtown with that sort of zoning and economics. Between RiNo, Arapahoe Square, and now River Mile. There will be 42 acres more at the National Western Center (edge of RiNo, but transit and river-adjacent), probably 15 story zoning, and that is assumed to be a 25-year buildout. If we had a housing crisis borne just of pent up demand, and the barrier was just no land to satisfy it, we’d have a lot more cranes than we do. Seems to me the housing crisis we talk about here is very localized; everybody wants to live in the same three areas, and that just doesn’t work. As for the other housing crisis - lack of options for the very poor - well, the U.S. market has never been able to figure that one out.
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Yeah, I agree here. I think the answers to some of these questions are somewhere in-between. Yes, Denver has tons of land. However, I suspect one issue was earlier last decade, developers and the city were simply unprepared for the level of growth that occurred. I suspect no city can adequately plan and anticipate going from 600k people to 700k people in one decade. I feel like that created a huge bottleneck that escalated prices quickly. Prices are still rising, but not to the extend we saw five years ago.
However, we need to be careful not to go into full NIMBY mode and try to protect every single ugly ass post-war bungalow in this city. Yes, there are homes/buildings in some neighborhoods that shouldn't be scrapped, but not in neighborhoods west of downtown where they really don't have historical significance. Sorry..... but here in Jeff Park, I see houses getting scrapped all the time, and they aren't special.
Then there's the whole problem of zoning. We definitely need to make sure our zoning is up-to-date to reflect our growing needs. Folks who live here also need to understand this is a growing city, and will continue to do so. Trying to artificially cap that is a horrible idea, and doesn't benefit anyone (unless you own property).
And yes, we need to make sure we have affordable housing to mitigate the pain being put on those who can't afford the price increases.
Again, there aren't simple answers to all of this.