DENVER | Main Development Thread #7

[PLANSIT]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

As wong likes to repeat, Buzz has never developed anything because he's not a developer; he's a land banker.

One of Buzz'a sites has now been sold but if and what the new owner, Harbinger Development, succeeds in building is tbd.

My hunch is that this site on Santa Fe has a reasonable good chance.

I'm reminded I forgot to mention I enjoyed your drive-by photos. That Element Hotel looks fine - given I didn't have high expectations to begin with. And as EngiNerd pointed out the high cost of the Art Museum Entrance - it was worth every penny.

Trivista at 14th Ave. and Speer was a Buzz property. It's now complete.

[Matt]

Is 1144 15th Street lighting its crown? I saw the "Bachus and Schancker" live Sky Cam during last night's weather forecast segment on Fox 31 News...

Sorry for the poor quality images. They were taken with a phone from a TV showing a grainy webcam...

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by laniroj

$27.5mm for a site with that density isn't crazy. On 1,300 units, that's only $21k per unit, super cheap for downtown Denver. The problem in this instance wasn't Buzz Geller, it was a joke of a developer (not because they can't develop, but because not just anybody can build skyscrapers). Townhome entitlements in Louisville are just a tad different than wind sheer, vortex, and pressurized building systems for high rises. Comical that dude thought he could build a skyscraper. Comical Buzz gave him a contract.

That's assuming you can squeeze 1,300 units on that site that aren't all micro-studios- I'm going to call BS on the higher number and say that this lot can support 1,000 units top. Which makes for $28K per unit. Comparatively, Ubuntu paid $18K per unit for their lot.

Is a 55K sq ft lot with a 17:1 FAR (a bit over 900K for an envelope) and a 400-ft height limit worth $500/sq ft? Or should it be more in the $400/sq ft range? I'd still say the problem is Buzz Geller and that's why project announcements for his properties tend to be low-tier developers (excluding the machinations with Bell Park). The cream seems to take a loooong time to rise to the surface with Buzz.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by PLANSIT

Trivista at 14th Ave. and Speer was a Buzz property. It's now complete.

Excellent; I had missed that one so thanks for filling in the blank.


It's not a problem today
and likely won't be for a few years but time and things can change.

According the the DBJ:

Charles Schwab Corp. will move its headquarters from San Francisco to the Dallas area. The move was announced Monday as part of Schwab's acquisition of TD Ameritrade in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $26 billion.

"As part of the integration process, the corporate headquarters of the combined company will eventually relocate to Schwab's new campus in Westlake, Texas,"

The Cost of Doing Business and Politics often go hand-in-hand, at least to a degree.

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/..._news_headline

It was a no-brainer for Clark when he decided to move Zovio's headquarters from San Diego to Chandler in April. Clark said he was paying $8 million in annual leases to rent space in San Diego.

According to Thomas Brophy, research director at Colliers International, rents in the Chandler area hover around $18 a square foot, which would put Zovio's annual lease payments in the $2.3 million range.

So costs were important, a deciding factor?

"I have a list of running things that are so much less expensive in Arizona than they are in California," said Clark, who is excited about how many more square feet he can get in his Phoenix home for the price he paid in San Diego. "Everything from the price of a home, property tax, registration for my car."

Gov Hickenlooper was a fine Democrat and state leader. He knew that Job 1 was preserving Colorado's business friendly reputation. So what does that even mean, exactly? Let's let the decision maker give his own view.

But it's more than just the lower prices, he said, pointing to how he was welcomed by the business community.

"The business friendliness of the state and the way in which we were welcomed when we were looking at different states and different cities where to locate the headquarters of the company, certainly the mayor of Chandler, the whole Chandler community and the chamber — everybody was just so welcoming," Clark said.

I feel Denver has been historically competitive in this regard - so far.

Zovia isn't a high-flying tech start-up; rather it's a successful Ed-tech firm concerned with costs as they directly impact profitability. The City of Chandler is an upscale area that years ago was negatively impacted when tech manufacturing gravitated to Asia. Today, it's a modern city example similar to (in many ways) the combination of the DTC, Inverness and surrounding area. Like Scottsdale it has employed lots of safe-streets ideas throughout the neighborhoods.

In the near term, Denver has too much positive momentum to be too concerned. But time and things can change.

[SnyderBock]

What I would like to see, is a federal corporate tax on profits of 20%. But, companies would be able to deduct any special district, local or state tax from that.

So if a company in Denver pays a total of 5% of its profits to local/state taxes, then they would pay an additional 15% to the feds, for a net total tax rate of 20% of profits.

Likewise, if a company moves to New Jersey and gets a $500 million tax incentive, resulting in a net local/state tax of 0%, then they pay 20% of their net profits in Federal tax.

Likewise, if a company in Los Angeles pays 20% of its net profits to local/state tax, then they pay 0% in federal tax.

The scale would not go negative, so if hypothetically a company was paying 25% of profits to local/state taxes, they would not receive a federal refund equal to 5% of their net profits to put them back down to a net 20% tax rate.

Would this tax include US corporate profits being held in other country?

Yes and an additional 10% penalty tax rate on profits in other countries would be applied in addition to the 20% tax rate and no deductions for local/state/federal foreign taxes paid, if the profits are left abroad. If the profits are brought back to the US, then they will receive the deduction for taxes already paid in foreign countries and have the 10% penalty tax waived.

So what if a US company moves it's headquarters to another country?

In this case, that company would have a 50% tariff tax imposed on any US transactions/sales.

Business ethics abroad:
All US Headquartered companies with operations abroad must abide by all US Federal regulations, EPA standards, workplace conditions requirements, Labor Laws, full US Constitutional compliance and Federal minimum wage laws. If laws of a foreign country contradict, restrict or prohibit full compliance to US law, then the US company will be forbidden from having operations or having business partnerships with 3rd parties, in those countries, until that country reforms it's laws allowing for full compliance with US law/requirements.

[Stonemans_rowJ]

Originally Posted by twister244

With regards to the "Evolve Towers", I like this part from the article:

"The residential units would be in two narrow towers, which would extend an additional 18 stories above the podium. The goal is for 80 percent of the units in the building to list for no more than $565,000."

Granted, $565k is still a ton for a condo, if 80% of the building is below this price, that's actually not bad considering how nice some of the renderings look. It's much better than the McGregor Square condos which start around $500k for a piddly studio.....

So basically all the units will all be <1000' definitely on the small side for a 2bed unit. Makes sense though, conforming loan limit is currently like $562,000.

[Sam Hill]

Originally Posted by Matt

Is 1144 15th Street lighting its crown? I saw the "Bachus and Schancker" live Sky Cam during last night's weather forecast segment on Fox 31 News...

Sorry for the poor quality images. They were taken with a phone from a TV showing a grainy webcam...

Good eye! It sure looks like it in those grainy images. I don't know what else it could be.

I can confirm though that the crown is not currently lit.

[SirLucasTheGreat]

I really wonder what is taking so longer for Amacon to demolish Shelby's. For people more familiar with these matters, is there an easy way to check to see if a site development plan has been approved by the city?

[twister244]

Originally Posted by SirLucasTheGreat

I really wonder what is taking so longer for Amacon to demolish Shelby's. For people more familiar with these matters, is there an easy way to check to see if a site development plan has been approved by the city?

The city site says it's still under review, but who knows if that's up-to-date or not. I still think this project may not be as close as we think to construction. I have zero insider information, and I understand the developer has a solid portfolio under their belt. But...... Their website still doesn't have a rendering posted. Also, I have yet to see a sales website of any kind. I would expect a sales site to be up if construction was imminent.....

[The Dirt]

According to ePermits here are the latest statuses:

Date		Record Number		Record Type			Status
4/19/2019	2019-SSPR-0000062 	Storm and Sanitary Plan Review	In Progress
4/15/2019	2019-EC-0000061 	Erosion Control			Ready to Pay
11/6/2018	2018-SDP-0000319 	Site Development Plan Review	Review in Progress
8/6/2018	2018-PROJMSTR-0000415 	Project Master			In Progress
8/6/2018	2018-CONCEPT-0000272 	Project Concept Review Plan	Closed - Complete

Here's the project description (emphasis mine):
Site Plan - XREF 17PM455 Two multi-family dwelling towers, one 38-story and one 32-story, in the D-C UO-1 zone district: Ground level includes residential lobbies for the north and south towers, retail fronting 18th Street, Glenarm Place, and Broadway, service zones, and access to parking garage levels. Parking two levels of below grade parking, as well as a seven-level parking podium across the full site (levels 2-8), accessed from the alley. South residential tower fronting 18th Street. 275 for-sale condominiums at levels 9-38, ranging from studios to three-bedroom units. North residential tower fronting Broadway. 202 for-sale condominiums at levels 9-32, including, ranging from one-bedroom to three-bedroom units. Residential amenities for both towers and pool deck at Level 9. The project intends to comply with the applicable design guidelines through the design review process, particularly related to the lower 80 feet of the building.

- 2 below grade parking levels means that there's going to be quite a bit of digging before anything goes vertical. That's a shit ton of parking though.
- Garage access will be through the alleyway so no more/no new curb cuts!
- Sounds like we'll see 2-3 bedroom units, so we'll actually get some family housing. Not likely to be affordable for most, though.

[twister244]

Thanks for the info Dirt! I am semi-confident this will get underway.....

I badly want to see that parking lot waste-land get developed. We will slowly, but without a strong catalyst (like US) it will probably happen one lot at a time over the years.

On a separate note, based on this article, I would totally expect more apartment projects to get underway - https://milehighcre.com/denver-apart...t-record-high/

I go by the 26th/Alcott site daily on my way to work and still no movement there. I would expect that project to get underway soon.....

[rds70]

Originally Posted by SirLucasTheGreat

I really wonder what is taking so longer for Amacon to demolish Shelby's. For people more familiar with these matters, is there an easy way to check to see if a site development plan has been approved by the city?

The project is still progressing through the review process.

A variance for increased FAR was approved on November 5th.

An encroachment permit for overhangs over the sidewalks is under review.

Hopefully, construction will start in early 2020.

[The Dirt]

Originally Posted by twister244

I badly want to see that parking lot waste-land get developed.

Same. I hate that no matter my route from Uptown to downtown, I end up walking through as much as 4 blocks worth of parking craters. It feels like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. It's gotten much better in the last 5 years, but it still has a long way to go.

[RyanD]

The new 26th and Alcott has a construction permit issued for it but nothing is happening, still a dead tower crane on the site.

The Ace Hotel in Uptown has had a construction permit out since March but it still has no activity, I was hoping for that one.

18th and Glenarm still has a lot to go on the permits side, especially if they want to break ground in the next couple months. I'm still 50/50 on that one.

Let's see... Couple other dead ones: Two Tabor - Dead, "Love this City Tower " / 1901 Arapahoe - Dead.

Still a lot going on though, and a crap ton up in River North. There are some good quality projects going on along Brighton and around 38th and Blake.

[Robert.hampton]

Originally Posted by RyanD

The Ace Hotel in Uptown has had a construction permit out since March but it still has no activity, I was hoping for that one.

At least there has been some activity last year -- feels like its been a couple years since anyone talked about it. Really hope that building gets a good rehab....the renderings look fantastic and Ace hotels are awesome.

[rds70]

Here are the latest renderings of the Bell Tower project. As a reminder it is 36 stories, 390 feet:

[The Dirt]

The Ace Hotel project is still moving forward, but they're asking for some DURA(?) money. I think they're having a hard time getting it to pencil out without some assistance. I'm sure the historic building is in worse shape than it looks (and it looks like it's in really bad shape).

On another note, the El Jebel Temple in Uptown has been going through a facelift for the last year or so. I was under the impression that the proposed El Jebel tower was going to somehow fund the restoration of the historic building and that the two were intrinsically linked.

In other Uptown news, the nearly full block town adjacent to the old Uptown Tavern (17th and Penn) had topped out a few months ago and the southern third of the building has the brick facade nearly done.

The condo tower proposed directly to the east of Benedict Fountain Park appears to be dead.

No news on the two projects along 17th, across from the old Hamburger Mary's/M's Uptown.

The new hospital office building and parking garage at 18th & Park Ave have both topped out. The parking garage looks particularly atrocious.

[rds70]

Originally Posted by RyanD

The new 26th and Alcott has a construction permit issued for it but nothing is happening, still a dead tower crane on the site.

The Ace Hotel in Uptown has had a construction permit out since March but it still has no activity, I was hoping for that one.

The 26th and Alcott project foundation permit has all the approvals except one. It was last resubmitted on October 18th.

The Ace hotel permit has been extended until 1/31/2020.

[Robert.hampton]

Originally Posted by The Dirt

The condo tower proposed directly to the east of Benedict Fountain Park appears to be dead..

Thats a huge bummer, do you know why? NAVA's stuff looks great but I notice they are having a hard time selling all of the Lakehouse units......1.2 million for a 2 bedroom 1200 square foot condo with an $800 monthly HOA might have somehting to do with that.......

[CherryCreek]

Originally Posted by RyanD

Let's see... Couple other dead ones: Two Tabor - Dead, "Love this City Tower " / 1901 Arapahoe - Dead.

With Ryan formally writing the obituary on Two Tabor (our favorite Black Swan),
I'd be interested in people's thoughts on the failure of this one to get done in this cycle. What's the best explanation? Is it:

(A) Owners/developers too slow, too cautious, or lacked sufficient resources to get a "sure winner" in a five star location developed in one of Denver's greatest boom cycles. Shame on them.

(B) This development didn't happen for good reason: The market dynamics were never there to support it. Downtown can't support another structure of this size at the moment and the owners/developers should be congratulated for having avoided a loser project.

(C) A combination of (A) ad (B): this project could and should have been built, and the owners/developers could have had a great, successful project if they had gotten their sh*t together earlier, but by the time they were ready to take a serious look at going forward it was too late in the development cycle (plus, the development elsewhere (RiNO) had beat them to the punch).