DENVER | Main Development Thread #7

[mhays]

Those stats are apples to horses. No parallels whatsoever.

[TakeFive]

Quite Impressive

Originally Posted by mhays

Those stats are apples to horses. No parallels whatsoever.

In my refrigerator I have "Washington Natural Old Fashioned 100% Apple Cider" (it's very good) so nice choice to go with apples. Choosing horses on a day when the Denver Broncos won in front of the home crowd is also a nice touch (we won't talk about the Seahawks).

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by gopokes21

That's the same group that's failing to redevelop the El Jebel Temple.

The Dikeou's have failed at developing anything anywhere ever.

[TakeFive]

How to reverse the ‘urban doom loop’
SEP. 26, 2024 By Robert Steuteville -- Public Square

Note: Robert Steuteville, F-CNU, is editor of Public Square: A CNU Journal and senior communications adviser for the Congress for the New Urbanism. This article is based on, summarizes a book on the topic.

Walkable urban places (WalkUPs) have been declining since 2019 due to the pandemic, rising disorder (or its perception), and a shrinking office market—but a new nationwide report says a virtuous cycle can be restored by rebalancing real estate and uses.

Reiminaging Cities: Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop, written by Cushman & Wakefield with Christopher Leinberger and Places Platform, analyzes 208 regionally significant urban centers in 15 major metro areas across the US. These include four types of WalkUPs: downtowns, downtown adjacent, urban commercial, and urban universities.

Source: Reimagining Cities

Nothing terribly new here but still it's a pretty Good Read. Need more residential downtown for example which we already know. There is one concept I want to zero in on.

The findings are especially relevant to New Urbanism because WalkUPs are defined by their physical characteristics: walkability, connectivity, great streets, inclusivity, and a mix of live, work, and play—in addition to their regionally significant commercial real estate development.

The play component—sports, entertainment, museums, theaters, retail, restaurants, convention centers, hotels, and more—comprises only 14 percent of the real estate in WalkUPs. The optimum range is 17-31 percent, with a mean goal of 26 percent. That’s nearly double the current level. One surprising finding that helps to explain the importance of “play” is that nearly 70 percent of foot traffic in urban centers is visitors; they neither work nor live in the WalkUP. This foot traffic contributes to safe and attractive streets and helps drive the economy of urban centers. This is true, surprisingly, not just in downtowns but the other kinds of WalkUPs.

Key idea:

This reflects the emerging ‘experience’ economy layering on top of the existing ‘knowledge’ economy.”

Call it (partly) the Gen Z affect. I've also read similar thoughts with respect to various new often mixed-use developments.

Think about it: The Potential

With a few adjustments Denver's CBD has the perfect setup. On one side you have LoDo & the DUS neighborhood. For bookends you have Coors Field and Ball Arena. On another side you have the Auraria Campus. On the 3rd side you have cultural arts including the Denver Art Museum and Library, the Capitol and the Civic Center. For the last side you have Ball Park, RiNo, Five Points neighborhoods etc.

Best of all there's the mile long renovated 16th Street Mall going down the middle of the CBD.

[TakeFive]

The Downtown Denver Dirty Nitty Gritty

Generally I've found Reddit threads to be a waste of time but I happen to run a search I hadn't done before and ran into a couple of Reddit threads that provide fascinating insight and are worth some time, especially the first thread.

Downtown Denver's office vacancy rate rises to nearly 34%
1 mo. ago -- r/Denver Reddit

This thread was interesting since most of the comments come from people who work (or live) downtown. Many comments are from engineers - be sure to click on "more replies" or you'll miss a lot. Comments explore different angles but they're all relevant to downtown.

One interesting takeaway is the amazing amount of floor space that is barely used due to WFH etc. The good news is that in many cases the tenant signed a longer lease so they're stuck with more space than they might otherwise need. They also discuss why landlords (generally) are unwilling to lower asking rental rates. Mostly they don't want to lock themselves into lower rents, would rather 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 by playing the interest rate and time element game, hoping for better days. (Best of luck)

It could be seen as a bit 'depressing' but it is what it is and this is (mostly) from employees so it's only one take.

If you'd like to read even more that's similar with some variation there's also this:

Vacancy rate of Denver office space going up as empty space accrues in downtown
3 months ago -- r/Denver Reddit

[Fritzdude]

Does anyone know who puts together the DevelopingDenver Instagram feed? They do a pretty good job.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by Fritzdude

Does anyone know who puts together the DevelopingDenver Instagram feed? They do a pretty good job.

That is some pretty nice content. Throwing in the link:

https://www.instagram.com/developingdenver/

[TakeFive]

Upton Residences Now Accepting Ownership Reservations
October 9, 2024 -- Mile High CRE

Amacon’s Upton Residences — Denver’s largest for-sale mixed-use condo development located at 18th and Glenarm starting in the low $400s — will start accepting reservations for ownership tomorrow, October 10 at 10 a.m., by appointment at the Sales Gallery located at 1800 Welton St.

Interested buyers who reserve by putting down a $10,000 refundable deposit can lock in the lowest and best pricing incentives such as $10,000 off initial pricing at closing and a guaranteed parking space. Additionally, the first 25 buyers will receive the use of a storage locker, a $5,000 value.

Ownership contracts will begin being written in early 2025, ensuring ample time for buyers to prepare for their new investment

Upton Residences - 1800 Welton Street







......
Images courtesy Upton Residences/West + Main

Pricing for the residences:

• Urban one-bedroom – starting in the $400s
• One bedroom – starting in the $500s
• Two bedrooms – starting in the $700s
• Three bedrooms – starting at $1M

Available summer of 2025

[laniroj]

What do folks think about the City thinking big and instead of doing the same old, they build an elevated "high line" or "river mile" in our case above the tracks along the river mile frontage. We could add a ski lift as a nod to the former elitches. Tourist attraction in and of itself and huge neighborhood amenity.

Am I crazy?

[mhays]

Can you expand on that idea? Do you mean a full enclosed lid with park on top?

If the neighboring megadevelopments were built with the "high line" in mind, it could be a great amenity vs a few smaller crossings.

Without those things, or early in the buildout, it might not get much use. People don't go up 30' without good reason. The cost would be in the hundreds of millions at minimum.

Do the megadevelopments plan to connect a street or two across the rail lines? Would this mean pedestrian intersections at the high line level?

[TakeFive]

RyanD's favorite idea
was to run a Gondola between downtown and Cherry Creek

Originally Posted by laniroj

What do folks think about the City thinking big and instead of doing the same old, they build an elevated "high line" or "river mile" in our case above the tracks along the river mile frontage. We could add a ski lift as a nod to the former elitches. Tourist attraction in and of itself and huge neighborhood amenity.

Am I crazy?

Vancouver is working on an Urban gondola.

Seattle has been debating the topic for years.

it's a good way to save a ton of money over light rail.

[rds70]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

DOWNTOWNS: How BIG are they?


For starters, Denver's downtown is reported to have 28.3 million square feet of office space.

• Downtown Seattle is reported to have 50.7 million square feet of office space
• Downtown Portland is reported to have 44 million square feet
• Minneapolis--St Paul is reported to have 128 million square feet
• Minneapolis is reported to have 51.7 million square feet
• Austin is reported to have 15 million square feet
• Dallas is reported to have 33 million square feet
• Fort Worth is reported to have 36 million square feet
• Houston is reported to have 44 million square feet

Where did you get these numbers? They do not match anything I have seen.

Let’s look at the CBRE numbers:

Downtown Denver has 34 million (including RiNo) - 34% vacant

Downtown Seattle has 55 million sf (including all the surrounding districts, Lake Union, etc) - 35% vacant
Downtown Portland has 27 million sf - 39% vacant
Downtown Minneapolis has 27 million sf (the entire Minneapolis-SP metro has only 77 million sf) - 26% vacant
Downtown Austin has 15 million sf (with 1.7 million under construction) - 34% vacant
Downtown Dallas has 40 million sf (including Uptown) - 27% vacant
Downtown Ft Worth has 7 million sf - 14% vacant
Downtown Houston has 42 million sf - 30% vacant

Why not include downtown Phoenix - 15 million sf - 31% vacant

So Denver has a slightly above average vacancy, based on your list.

[TakeFive]

Thanks for your input

Originally Posted by rds70

Where did you get these numbers? They do not match anything I have seen.

The focus of my question and interest was Denver's CBD and vacancy was not of interest or concern.

The only thing I could think to do to keep it simple was to do a Google search. My search was "total office space in downtown Dubuque" etc. Sometimes I did a "-vacancy" to find what I wanted as Google had a tendency to provide other answers like "for lease" or "vacancy" instead of what I wanted.

My searches provided what I was looking for and the provider varied from city to city but usually from one of the major brokers. For my interests if I got a number I didn't pay attention to who was providing it. With respect to Denver (now that I've checked) the "number" was provided by the tenant rep "Premises." They do break out numbers for downtown, LoDo and RiNo. But again My interest was with the CBD.

Originally Posted by rds70

Why not include downtown Phoenix - 15 million sf - 31% vacant

In thinking of "urban downtowns" Phoenix didn't come to mind so I didn't bother. But out of curiosity I ran my question and CommercialCafe comes up with 8 million square feet and honestly this feels closer to reality. If I had to guess CBRE may have included the Biltmore/East Camelback corridor which is not al all downtown.

The most desired office space in the urban area down here would be Scottsdale (Blvd), Tempe, and the Biltmore area and NOT downtown Phoenix.

Note: I did guess that depending on what city I searched that definitions of the CBD or "downtown" could vary but I didn't want to spend weeks figuring out who was talking about what and where so I just went with what I got when I googled.

[laniroj]

Originally Posted by mhays

Can you expand on that idea? Do you mean a full enclosed lid with park on top?

If the neighboring megadevelopments were built with the "high line" in mind, it could be a great amenity vs a few smaller crossings.

Without those things, or early in the buildout, it might not get much use. People don't go up 30' without good reason. The cost would be in the hundreds of millions at minimum.

Do the megadevelopments plan to connect a street or two across the rail lines? Would this mean pedestrian intersections at the high line level?

It wouldn't need to be enclosed, necessarily and yeah, it wouldn't get much use early until buildout but Cities don't (or at least shouldn't) think short term. I thought I remembered 7th and 9th crossing the tracks.

It's 3,000 feet from pepsi center to the mile high light rail stop. I can't see how a pedestrian viaduct could cost hundreds of millions. CDOTs I70 expansion with the park cap cost about $100 mil per mile. This would be FAR less than that and only 3,000 feet max plus it'd be 150' wide not 250' wide like the central 70 covered park. It's a park though and it would be a huge tourist draw with a chair lift...then people can stop asking for a gondola between downtown and cherry creek!

[mhays]

I really have no idea about cost.

But building over an active rail line would be difficult, if even feasible if the heavy-rail side is controlled by a commercial railroad, as their whims can take precedence. I'd assume at least some very tight windows to perform any work in their ROW until safely covered, like stoppages anytime a train is nearby. (It's BNSF in my area...they're notorious for this.)

An all-new freeway tunnel next to a detour sounds easy compared to covering an existing roadway or railway.

For another comparison, a study about covering about 10 acres of I-5 in Downtown Seattle concluded that it would cost something like $1 billion to go the cheapest route. Or $3 billion if the lid had to support buildings on the edges. This seems all very unlikely to happen.

My region also builds a lot of freeway lids. Generally they're small...and even then they require a lot of short freeway closures.

[TakeFive]

More than one way to skin a cat
Cleaning up and cleaning out the DTC

Anybody heard of LBC3 Trust? Me neither.

This was announced back in January
Another Greenwood Village office building is facing foreclosure
January 24, 2024 By Freda Miklin -- the Villager

Solarium Building -- 7400 E. Orchard Road


Photo by Freda Miklin

On January 11, Ready Capital Mortgage Financing 2021-FL5, LLC (Ready Capital) filed suit in Arapahoe County District Court against CPVF II Solarium LLC (Solarium), owner of the building and improvements, including personal property, at 7400 E. Orchard Road in Greenwood Village, just north of Greenwood Village City Hall.

Fast Forward
Trust that bought loan forecloses on DTC office
October 15, 2024 By Thomas Gounley -- BusinessDen

The Solarium office building at 7400 E. Orchard Road in Greenwood Village has a new owner. A trust that purchased a distressed Denver Tech Center office building’s loan this summer has taken ownership of the property. LBC3 Trust, which bought the Solarium building’s loan in August, acquired the Solarium building in Greenwood Village...

----------------------------------------

Harlequin Plaza -- 7600 E Orchard Rd, Greenwood Village


Courtesy LoopNet

In July it was announced that Seattle-based Unico Properties the owner of Harlequin Plaza was facing foreclosure.

Another large office building near GV City Hall is facing foreclosure
July 31, 2024 BY Freda Miklin -- The Villager

On July 12, Wilmington Trust National Bank, Trustee for lender Wells Fargo, filed an action in Arapahoe County District Court requesting a receiver be appointed against Orchard & Greenwood LLC of Seattle, WA, Owner of Harlequin Plaza (Property) at 7600 E. Orchard Road in Greenwood Village due to non-payment of their mortgage.

Harlequin Plaza is next-door to Carson Park. The park is attached to Greenwood Village City Hall on Quebec Street, just south of Orchard Road.

Big Loss? Nah, not really; they paid $26 million for the property.

The complaint states that Wells Fargo loaned Unico $28 million on May 2, 2014, secured by the Property, and that the entire $28 million plus accrued interest, fees, and other charges provided for in the loan documents are due and owing as of June 13, 2024.

Note: I previously posted about The Triad office buildings also being foreclosed on. The Triad was on the north side of Orchard Rd while these two building are on the south side of Orchard Rd.

[TakeFive]

Introducing Galleria at Cherry Creek

Reimagined, Amenity-Rich Office Towers In Glendale, Colorado
October 9, 2024 By Marynia Kruk, Bisnow Content Partner

Galleria at Cherry Creek -- 720 S. Colorado Blvd.








Courtesy of Cushman & Wakefield

Following an $18M building restoration, Galleria at Cherry Creek offers small suites and full floors, as well as private and open offices, and includes a range of shared spaces for work and socializing. Many of the spaces feature mountain views or exposure to the bright, reimagined lobby atrium.

Enlisting Alan Colussy Architecture to spearhead the redesign, owners paid close attention to sustainability and wellness with eco-friendly features such as LED lighting, zero-volatile organic compound paint throughout, rainwater harvesting, improved glazing for thermal performance, increased natural light and bike storage.

I always hated the sun reflection in the afternoon. Consider that they paid $18 million for the renovation compared to the Dikeou Family paying $8.95 million for The Hudson’s Bay Centre office tower in downtown Denver.

They're asking low to mid-$20's per square foot for the space. I wonder how well the space is leasing up?

The renovation is yielding results: In the last six months, 11 tenants have signed leases for over 30K SF.

I have to admit that if you like the idea of being near Cherry Creek they may just do well enough. Who knows?

[TakeFive]

Western Stock Show Celebrates Topping Out of The Legacy
October 9, 2024 -- Mile High CRE

In partnership with Saunders Construction, the Western Stock Show Association (WSSA) has proudly announced the topping out of the highly anticipated project,
The Legacy, the organization’s forthcoming new home.

The Legacy will open its doors in time for Stock Show 2026, providing a space where tradition and innovation meet. This new facility will feature modern amenities and
flexible spaces while paying homage to the rich legacy of one of the country’s most historic stock shows.

Courtesy Tryba Architects

Legacy Building

• Headquarters of the Western Stock Show Association and Stock Show staff
• National Western Club, seating up to 700
• Gallery displaying the Stock Show’s permanent Western art collection
• 8,000 square feet of rotating exhibit space
• Heritage center to display archives and history
• Board room and conference spaces
• Terraces with fire pits and views of the National Western Center grounds

[Fritzdude]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBIIJusPSsV/?igsh=MThsZjl0dXU4dXV4aw==


It looks like Larimer is going to see a big development come to RiNo on the two blocks across from Central Market, including a new grocery store.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by Fritzdude

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBIIJusPSsV/?igsh=MThsZjl0dXU4dXV4aw==


It looks like Larimer is going to see a big development come to RiNo on the two blocks across from Central Market, including a new grocery store.

Nice update to the Eden's project that was proposed last year. The two major changes that I see is the inclusion of Block B at 2550 Larimer Street with 93 units and ground floor retail and the shift of the completion date to 2026 (probably more like 2027-28). Other than that, it's pretty much unchanged.


Anyone heard an update on the Carmel Partners project that takes up the entire 3300 block of Walnut?