DENVER | Main Development Thread #7

[jhwk]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

260 Units to Replace the Wells Fargo Building at 17th and Grant

Yikes, a 5+1 on a C-MX-12 lot. I guess that's where we are at in the cycle but it's a shame that only 260 units are being built here.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Other than Populus which is scheduled to open mid-October is there any other other hotels still under construction.

New RiNo Hotel Marks Local Real Estate Company’s First within its Hometown
August 1, 2024 -- Mile High CRE

Highside Companies, a Colorado-based real estate company, has collaborated with Choice Hotels International, Inc. to open the Cambria Hotel Denver Downtown RiNo.

Set against the backdrop of industrial buildings and colorful street art in the River North Art District at 3601 Brighton Blvd...The hotel offers 153 guestrooms with premium bedding, contemporary decor, spa-style bathrooms and Bluetooth mirrors. Guests also enjoy a second-floor rooftop garden with outdoor seating; a full-service restaurant and bar, the “Painted Rino;” a state-of-the-art fitness center; and two event spaces totaling 1,192 square feet of meeting space.

Cambria Hotel
3601 Brighton Blvd

Image courtesy Cambria RiNo/Highside Companies

Click here to see a much better recent photo.

I thought this was completed a couple of years ago but obviously not. Rooms became available about the 20th of July. Phoenix has three Cambria's, two of which I'm familiar with; this looks like the one that's in downtown Phoenix in an area similar to LoDo.

It's across the street from this building.

Rev 360
3600 Brighton Blvd


Image courtesy Anderson Mason Dale Architects

[TakeFive]

We should ELEVATE this conversation

I'm not sure what to think of today's values? Does anybody know anybody who has heard about anybody that during May paid their last respects to the Alameda Bridge over the South Platte River? That bridge has been a Workhorse since 1911; it's the oldest bridge in the state. Apparently it will be discarded like trash and replaced by one of those new fancy multi-modal things. Apparently there will be enough room for two friends on bikes to meet in the middle and share a bag of popcorn er make that Kettle Corn.

Per CDOT

• Reconstructing the South Platte River Trail - there will be improvements in sight distance, increased 12-foot concrete trail, a four-foot finely crushed stone trail, and 3-foot vegetated shoulders for an overall trail width of 22 feet
• Constructing an on-street two-way cycle track on the north side of Alameda between South Lipan and South Kalamath streets with a connection to the South Platte River Trail
• Installing a water quality pond and associated South Platte River outfall
• Improving sidewalks on both sides of Alameda

CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew said: "We love historic bridges, we don't want them to be historic while we're driving on them," Lew said. "We have a lot to do to update to make Alameda Avenue work for people for the next one hundred years."

This project should be completed in 2025 or whenever they get around to finishing it according CDOT.

[TakeFive]

Let's ELEVATE some more

Denver breaks ground on $16 million West Colfax improvements designed to reduce pedestrian risk
Jun 7, 2024 by Alexander Edwards -- Denver Gazette

The project got its money from the voter-approved Elevate Denver Bond, the Colorado Department of Transportation’s Safer Main Streets program, as well as other city sources, according to the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.

The groundbreaking and upcoming construction project are another phase in the agency's efforts to improve safety along the vital economic corridor. Previous improvements have included “adding signage and treatments to make intersections safer” and changing traffic light timing that DOTI said would reduce vehicle speeds to the posted limits.

Earlier they had dropped greenery in the medians due to not enough funding. People in the neighborhood went bonkers.

According to Westword

But it was disheartening. Community members had seen the budget for the 16th Street Mall construction project go from $149 million to $172.5 million in the last year — but the city couldn’t find $2 million more for West Colfax.

Council President Jamie Torres, who represents much of the project area, heard them loud and clear.“ The need for this not just to have transit and pedestrian safety infrastructure but green infrastructure was such an important part,” she says.

Kuhn says DOTI is still working out the exact funding strategy that will make it happen, but on February 22, community members learned that the project would go forward as originally planned.

Just Sayin'

You won't find any so-called 'bulb-outs' down here (that I'm aware of). Phoenix prioritizes 'right turn only' lanes at intersections as often there's enough road width to narrow the lanes at intersections to accommodate this. This cuts down on rear-end crashes. For buses they often provide carve-outs for them to pull over from the main road lanes. NO, it isn't hard for buses to pull back into traffic. For roads as narrow as West Colfax that would be harder to do.

What Phoenix has done is to create a 100 new crosswalks in recent years where they install HAWK or high intensity beacon lights that are pedestrian activated. They might put a cross-walk mid-block or they might put one at a lesser intersection where there happens to be foot traffic perhaps a couple of blocks from a major intersection.

[TakeFive]

Share the Love; Share the Heartbreak

Originally Posted by mhays

Downtowns don't reflect population within city limits. One point is basically irrelevant to the other. Also, Seattle's core downtown stats are worse than its greater downtown or regional stats.

Leaseless In Seattle: Lab Real Estate’s Struggles With Space
July 31, 2024 Patrick Sisson, Bisnow National

Centered in the tech hub of South Lake Union, Seattle’s life sciences real estate market has suffered from the same supply glut hurting other large lab markets across the country. And it’s likely to get worse in the short term.

“It's difficult to identify a lot of trends because there's not much activity,” CBRE Executive Vice President Chris Moe said. “We have a client demand problem. And we're oversupplied with a significant amount of space that has been delivered into a demand cycle that has been extremely restricted at this point.”

Of course you know that the Boston area is like the Mecca of Life Sciences; I recently read where two rather nice projects literally stopped their construction. For one thing there were a couple of other projects that had started ahead of them and they were finding zero interest in leasing their space.

Boulder/Boulder County has built some lab/Life Science space in recent years but most of it was either 'Build-to-Suit' or preleased afaik.

Microsoft Joins Google In Shift To Data Centers, Away From Offices
August 1, 2024 Bianca Barragán, Southern California Bisnow

Microsoft has steadily increased its spending on data centers as tech giants begin investing heavily in the infrastructure that supports growing areas of their businesses and pulling back from occupying office space. “Cloud and AI-related spending represents nearly all of our total capital expenditures," Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said on the company's latest earnings call.

On the same call, Microsoft told analysts it expects its annual operating lease liabilities, which include future rent payments, to drop by as much as 54% in the next few years. The decrease, which translates to about $2.2B, would be the result of Microsoft's earlier decision to move out of millions of square feet in offices near its headquarters in Washington as well as other locations.

For those who are unaware Microsoft's HQ is located in Redmond, WA, 15 miles east of Seattle.

Just for grins

UBS Sells NYC Office Tower Via Online Auction For 97.5% Loss
August 1, 2024 Sasha Jones, New York City Bisnow

Earlier this summer, Swiss bank UBS’ real estate investment arm opted to auction off a Midtown Manhattan office rather than go through the effort of finding a buyer.

In 2006, UBS Realty Investors bought the 920K SF building for $332M. The bidder spent just $8.5M to scoop it up, a 97.5% haircut from the previous price.