DENVER | Main Development Thread #7

[jhwk]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

Oh good, so you want to pump it up 9,000 feet. Brilliant.

EDIT: Did a rough for-fun calc, assuming something like 1,000 MGD pumped up 9,000 feet. I guess that’s only $3.5 billion/year in electricity costs. It’s certainly expensive - $78 per capita/per year ongoing spread across all 45 million people. That would probably be a 50-100% increase in water costs for your average Denver Water customer. But it is possible.

Minor swerve but I have always wondered if we could solve the renewable energy storage issue by turning Denver’s water supply into a giant pumped storage plant. I suppose you would want to be pumping at night when there is no wind or solar.

[TakeFive]

Modern upscale apartments aim to elevate neighborhood known for drugs, crime
JULY 27, 2023 By Rick Sallinger - CBS News

What had become a corner of blight is now going away. Piece by demolished piece. "It was horrible there are not enough adjectives to describe it," said Robert Smith who heads Lakewood economic development.

It was the holiday plaza shopping center at 10th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard in Lakewood. Once thriving, but for many years it became a center of decay in the Two Creeks neighborhood.

Props to City of Lakewood

This is just one location where Lakewood is providing loans to get old declining properties demolished to make way for the new. "There are places where that redevelopment needs to happen sooner rather than later, so the city is looking for ways to make that happen," Robert Smith explained.

Ten Sheridan Apartments - 955 Sheridan Blvd

..........
Images courtesy of T.O.D. Properties

Demolition Ceremony Marks New Beginnings for 10th and Sheridan Intersection in Lakewood
July 26, 2023 - Mile High CRE


Courtesy Trailbreak Partners.

On July 25, Trailbreak Partners and Lakewood’s Economic Development Division began the highly anticipated demolition of the Holiday Shopping Center at the southwest corner of West 10th Ave. and Sheridan Blvd. The demolition ceremony took place at 955 N. Sheridan Blvd., marking a significant milestone in the ongoing revitalization efforts of the area. This momentous occasion marks the beginning of a new chapter for the Two Creeks neighborhood and the West Colfax corridor of Lakewood.

A Collaborative Effort

In October 2021, Trailbreak Partners acquired the buildings and 2.5 acres. In partnership with TOD Properties, Davis Partnership and ARCO Murray, they plan to build a 361-unit apartment building that will breathe new life into the community.

The seven-story apartment building will include one level of underground parking, a pool, a full-sized fitness center, and multiple public amenity spaces for residents.

This will be a nice sized project and a huge improvement.

[TakeFive]

Ahh, they tried to sneak one by us

There was a June groundbreaking of a quite nice project in Denver.


Courtesy Davis Partnership Architects

Sounds Cool
They plan to integrate smart home tech with the residences, including smart thermostats, mobile guest entry and key fob access. The project will offer 234 units in studio, one- and two-bedroom units with some units in den or loft layouts. The apartments will be built with nine-foot ceilings, built-in shelving and desks, moveable kitchen islands, walk-in closets, double bathroom vanities, in-home washers and dryers and private patios or balconies.

First person to identify this project gets a Snicker's Bar

[laniroj]

Originally Posted by trubador

Do you mind sharing the math on this one?

no offense to bunt because I enjoy the banter, but I believe he's an attorney. Attorneys don't do math and they're not good at saying yes. Be that as it may, he has valid points outside of his Simpsons math.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by laniroj

no offense to bunt because I enjoy the banter, but I believe he's an attorney. Attorneys don't do math and they're not good at saying yes. Be that as it may, he has valid points outside of his Simpsons math.

Believe he was an engineer before going to the dark side. Math probably will check out.

Though I think his electrical rate cost is off.

[bunt_q]

Ha yes the math will check out. Obviously lots of assumptions around pump efficiency, and there’s probably another +/- 2,000 feet of head to overcome depending on the pipe. Really just order of magnitude. But yeah, while it would obviously be easy to mistake me for Harvey Specter, I’m not that kind of lawyer; I build shit.

Wong is probably right, though, on the going rate for electric, which I had to google. What do you think a good ballpark cost per kW hour is these days?

[mhays]

That Trailbreak Partners group-demo photo looks like a serious OSHA problem! These are DUMBSHITS, without grownup supervision apparently.

You don't put people below obvious collapse hazards. And anyone within a certain distance needs a hardhat, boots, etc.

I imagine the picture alone could be enough for a large citation and fine.

As for the Davis project, what's a "studio bedroom apartment"? Aggggh!

[TakeFive]

When you're serious about water you do serious things

https://www.azfamily.com/2023/06/29/phoenix-city-council-approves-water-rate-hike/

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) - The Phoenix City Council voted 7-2 Wednesday evening to raise water rates starting in October. The council hopes the rate hikes will battle inflation and promote water conservation. The city’s first water rate increase will be 6.5% in October (about two dollars a month for the average user), then another 6.5% this March, before a 13% increase in March 2025.

https://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/ph...ounced,within%20the%20Valley%20by%202030.

The city of Phoenix announced its plans Wednesday to recycle wastewater for drinking purposes in the near future as Arizona is on the heels of even more cuts due to the shrinking Colorado River. The plan is set to be implemented within the Valley by 2030.

The city of Phoenix has been operating a wastewater treatment plant for decades. The recycled water is currently used for cooling purposes at the Palo Verde nuclear facility and put back into the Salt River for agricultural or habitat use. Now, the city will be expanding the treatment plant to add new treatment technology.

https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/as-wat...ed-wastewater-as-a-drinking-water-source

"[It is] the city's largest infrastructure project," said Amy Dorman with the City of San Diego.

That is the future site of a very expensive water treatment plant that will turn sewer water into drinking water

Note: As of the mid-point of this year only 1% of the state of AZ is under drought conditions. That is the result of back-to-back years of cooler and wetter weather than normal.

Aurora ripping up 20+ acres of traditional grass in public spaces to replace with water-wise options

This is a $700,000 investment.

[TakeFive]

Thanks for Reading

Originally Posted by mhays

That Trailbreak Partners group-demo photo looks like a serious OSHA problem! These are DUMBSHITS, without grownup supervision apparently.

You don't put people below obvious collapse hazards. And anyone within a certain distance needs a hardhat, boots, etc.

I imagine the picture alone could be enough for a large citation and fine.

As for the Davis project, what's a "studio bedroom apartment"? Aggggh!

But you need to read more carefully. Notice the comma after 'studio' and the dashes after 'one' and two' and the grammar looks correct to me.

BTW, that photo op was OSHA pre-approved.

[TakeFive]

Denver plans to convert 194-unit, $26M hotel into city’s next homeless shelter
Jul 29, 2023 By: Landon Haaf - 7Denver News

Best Western hotel - 4595 Quebec Street


Photo by: Denver7

Denver’s Housing Authority hopes a 194-unit hotel in Central Park will become the city’s next permanent homeless shelter.

The DHA has approved the purchase of the Best Western hotel at 4595 Quebec Street for $26 million, with plans to convert it into what it calls “supportive housing.” The deal has not yet closed, but the housing authority – which is appointed by the mayor – believes the 194 units will make significant headway toward Mike Johnston’s goal of housing 1,000 unsheltered people by the end of the calendar year.

The city would start leasing the complex through its Department of Housing Stability (HOST) on Sept. 1.

Clearly, this project has been brewing for awhile.

[mhays]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Thanks for Reading

But you need to read more carefully. Notice the comma after 'studio' and the dashes after 'one' and two' and the grammar looks correct to me.

No. No.

They said: "...in studio, one- and two-bedroom units..."

They wrote it like a list of three nouns, but really it should be just two: studios and units. The one and two are just adjectives. You have to put "and" before the last noun.

Here are two easy options for correct wording:
--in studio and one- and two-bedroom units
--in studios and one- and two-bedroom units

Here's what probably happened. The writer heard somewhere that "and" shouldn't appear in a sentence twice. This is taught in the early grades so kids don't say "I like waffles and pancakes and umbrellas and green and purple." But they forgot that more complex sentences can need "and" multiple times to make sense. This is endemic in writing, including the mass media mostly (iirc) since they got rid of much of their editing staff.

[laniroj]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

When you're serious about water you do serious things

https://www.azfamily.com/2023/06/29/phoenix-city-council-approves-water-rate-hike/

https://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/ph...ounced,within%20the%20Valley%20by%202030.

https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/as-wat...ed-wastewater-as-a-drinking-water-source...

This is all great but it misses my specific point, which is that we don't generally have enough water (conservation or not) to continue to sustain both population growth AND agricultural production in the west (which is critically important to the country). We can conserve and take water from agriculture to sustain population growth, but we can't have both. We need it to snow more or rain more consistently or we need to pipe water from somewhere and prove the naysayers wrong.

[Curtis Park]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Ahh, they tried to sneak one by us


First person to identify this project gets a Snicker's Bar

2354 S. High
Mill Creek Project
https://www.multihousingnews.com/mill-creek-begins-construction-on-denver-property/

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by Curtis Park

2354 S. High
Mill Creek Project
https://www.multihousingnews.com/mill-creek-begins-construction-on-denver-property/

Give that man his goddamn candy bar.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by laniroj

This is all great but it misses my specific point, which is that we don't generally have enough water (conservation or not) to continue to sustain both population growth AND agricultural production in the west (which is critically important to the country). We can conserve and take water from agriculture to sustain population growth, but we can't have both. We need it to snow more or rain more consistently or we need to pipe water from somewhere and prove the naysayers wrong.

Exactly.

This is probably why you are starting to see places like AZ implement caps on growth because they know they can't continue to grow indefinitely. At the end of the day, agricultural production, and whatever else that solidifies our geopolitical dominance wins.

[TakeFive]

Thanks for reminding us

Originally Posted by laniroj

This is all great but it misses my specific point, which is that we don't generally have enough water (conservation or not) to continue to sustain both population growth AND agricultural production in the west (which is critically important to the country). We can conserve and take water from agriculture to sustain population growth, but we can't have both. We need it to snow more or rain more consistently or we need to pipe water from somewhere and prove the naysayers wrong.

that if we want to continue to eat then Farmers really are important. Farmer's Markets are a real thing; they sell locally grown produce etc.

What we are learning from Climate Change is that both extremes can have more intensity. For example (and credit La Nina), AZ ended up with an overabundance of rain and snow this spring. They had to close a couple of streets in So Phoenix (a few days) due to the Salt River flooding from the necessity to release water from the upstream reservoirs.

In addition to expanding Gross Reservoir, Denver Water has also been replacing some of their ancient underground storage tanks and usually doubling the capacity at the same time.

Not familiar with the geography but perhaps Colorado and Nebraska could team up to take water from the Missouri near Sioux City or Omaha. That could benefit both states and it's northern Colorado that could really use the water.

Well Done

Originally Posted by Curtis Park

2354 S. High
Mill Creek Project
https://www.multihousingnews.com/mill-creek-begins-construction-on-denver-property/

Here, have the whole box!





Yes, props to our new Dem Governor

Originally Posted by twister244

Exactly.

This is probably why you are starting to see places like AZ implement caps on growth because they know they can't continue to grow indefinitely. At the end of the day, agricultural production, and whatever else that solidifies our geopolitical dominance wins.

Basically what she has done is to put the breaks on Sprawl. Any developments that have already been approved can proceed. The City of Phoenix which still has copious amounts of land has long had their 100-year water approval. The metro area could still easily double in population within the already approved areas.

[BG918]

Originally Posted by Curtis Park

2354 S. High
Mill Creek Project
https://www.multihousingnews.com/mill-creek-begins-construction-on-denver-property/

Interesting location for a large apartment building, MCR must have bought out a bunch of homeowners

[jhwk]

1335 Grant affordable housing is back in front of the LPC. The design is actually much better but I still can’t believe the city council and mayor aren’t pushing back on the LPC restricting the building height. They should hold their meeting in the park among all the people living there in tents who need an affordable home.

[TakeFive]

A car-free apartment project?

Downtown, sure.
What about an upscale suburban 3-story complex?
Ha, I like your sense of humor.

Tempe car-free neighborhood seeks to change the way people live
Aug. 1, 2023 By Elliott Polakoff

TEMPE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) - It’s the first of its kind place, not just in Arizona but the entire United States. Culdesac Tempe is a car-free neighborhood built from scratch near Apache Road and McClintock Drive.

The first group of people has already moved into his community, which focuses on sustainability and promoting nearby local businesses. “What’s exciting are the opportunities that are unfolding each day,” resident Sara Hoy said.

Well done video and article.

It helps that there is a light rail station across the street.

[TakeFive]

Governor Jared Polis wants to attract more homeless people to Colorado

Just one of life's interesting ironies.

Originally Posted by jhwk

They should hold their meeting in the park among all the people living there in tents who need an affordable home.

As influx of people from Latin America continues, Colorado leaders want more migrants
Jul 31, 2023 By: Angelika Albaladejo - 7Denver News

The difference is that these homeless people want to work; they want a job.