DENVER | Main Development Thread #7

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by RiNo Randy

From the article:

"Jill Hansen, who uses a motorized wheelchair, said running her weekly errands has become more stressful.

“Nowadays it's not safe and all that because people don't pay attention where they're driving through,” she said."

That's not a traffic engineering problem, that's a traffic enforcement problem.


Something that the City of Denver hasn't made a priority post-2020.

[RiNo Randy]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

That's not a traffic engineering problem, that's a traffic enforcement problem.


Something that the City of Denver hasn't made a priority post-2020.

It's both.

And something that can, and should be addressed.

I'm still baffled how some busy corridors, like Colo Blvd as an example, don't have better timing on lights to allow traffic to flow. Especially during the "rush hours".

But alas, our reliance on cars is far too great.

[TakeFive]

With respect to the West Side

Originally Posted by RiNo Randy

It's both.

And something that can, and should be addressed.

But alas, our reliance on cars is far too great.

South of Sloan's Lake the demographics change. Various Asian residents and a boatload of Hispanics.

Going West from Federal along Alameda, drive down/along Morrison Rd. That stretch is rich with culture. One could live and work there without having a car. It's also an intense area for Food Banks' need. The long planned street improvements are to start this year. The funds for that date back to the Elevate Denver Bond Program which voters passed in 2017. The planned safety/road improvements are specifically designed for the needs of that neighborhood.

On the whole Hispanics love their cars; they do all kinds of fun things with their cars.

AI Overview

The Hispanic love affair with cars in Denver centers deeply on lowrider culture, an iconic movement of art-on-wheels, community identity, and mechanical craftsmanship deeply rooted in Chicano heritage. Centered around historic cruise routes like Federal Boulevard and 38th Avenue, this passion has evolved from a grassroots lifestyle into a celebrated cultural institution.

Partly... my concern with your approach is that you'd be happy to Gentrify everywhere.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by RiNo Randy

It's both.

And something that can, and should be addressed.

But alas, our reliance on cars is far too great.

You and I are "single;" wong has a family. Families have a whole different mindset than we have. To a degree the needs of children (always) come first. Central Park was built to be family-friendly... and that's a good thing.

As young adults get a little older (like near their 30's) and become families they tend to move out of Denver, especially the city center. It's all about their changing mindset. It's why the Denver School District is shrinking and having to close schools and more of that is ahead. Gentrification adds to this, partly because it has made the city center a more expensive place to live.

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It's a logistics quagmire.

Originally Posted by RiNo Randy

'm still baffled how some busy corridors, like Colo Blvd as an example, don't have better timing on lights to allow traffic to flow. Especially during the "rush hours".

The need for cross traffic is nearly as important as traffic flow along Colorado Blvd. Plus the volumes change at 1st Avenue; much heavier to the south, less so on the north side.

[TakeFive]

Heading out to the SE suburbs at Meridian International Business Center

AI Overview --Credit BusinessDen

Denver-based Knightbridge Capital and Pennsylvania-based Argosy Real Estate Partners purchased two office buildings in Douglas County's Meridian International Business Center for $14 million.This represents a roughly 55% discount from the combined $30 million the seller, Mark IV Capital, paid in 2013 and 2015

AI Overview

The Meridian International Business Center (located in Douglas County, southeast of I-25 and C-470) has an office vacancy rate of approximately 22%. While this is higher than the suburban average, it is performing significantly better than the greater Denver area...

• Leasing Activity: Major entities continue to secure large spaces. For instance, Douglas County recently leased a whole 82,000-square-foot building in the park

Vacancy of 22% hardly sounds that positive (compared to Lone Tree for example) but there are many companies who prefer being in such business parks.

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UPDATE:

CU to buy Independence Plaza at 80% discount
June 24, 2026 By Thomas Gounley -- BusinessDen

The University of Colorado will pay $29.75 million to purchase Independence Plaza, the downtown Denver office tower. That’s according to documents prepared for the university’s system’s Board of Regents, which also state that the deal will close Friday.

This has been in the works for some time but apparently this deal is going to 'close.'

[TakeFive]

An innovative approach to more affordable housing

Modular Affordable Housing Project Marks Major Milestone
June 25, 2026 -- Mile High CRE

Blue Room Housing, a Denver-based impact-first developer creating affordable mixed-use communities through innovative modular construction, alongside RISE Modular, today reached a major construction milestone at Blue Room House One, its flagship residential modular development in Denver’s Santa Fe Arts District.

Located at 817 W. Eighth Ave., the project celebrated the “setting” of its modular housing units. This milestone refers to the time when modular units are lifted into place by crane and assembled on-site.

The modular units were designed by Studio K2 Architecture.

Blue Room House One -- 817 W. Eighth Ave


Courtesy Studio K2 Architecture

[TakeFive]

Everybody's favorite TOD (transit oriented development)

Tempo Nine Mile Station in Aurora Reaches Stabilization
June 25, 2026 -- Mile High CRE

National full-service real estate firm Draper and Kramer, Incorporated, has announced that its Denver-area multifamily property, Tempo Nine Mile Station, a 255-unit rental community located within the 22-acre “The Point” master-planned development in Aurora, has reached stabilization. Located at 12150 E. Dartmouth Ave., Tempo Nine Mile Station was developed by a joint venture... The five-story property welcomed its first residents in early 2025.

The property’s location within The Point puts residents steps from retail and grocery stores, restaurants, a future park and planned pedestrian bridge across Parker Road that will provide access to Regional Transportation District (RTD)’s Nine Mile station, served by the H and R light rail lines.

KTGY is the project architect for Tempo Nine Mile Station... PGIM is the project lender, utilizing the HUD 221(d)(4) multifamily new construction loan program. (PGIM is the global asset management business of Prudential Financial, managing over $1.4 trillion in assets.)

Tempo Nine Mile Station -- 12150 E. Dartmouth Ave.





Images courtesy Draper and Kramer

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Vacancy of 22% hardly sounds that positive (compared to Lone Tree for example) but there are many companies who prefer being in such business parks.

Yeah, but nobody is looking at Lone Tree and salivating over developing speculative space there because, as previously mentioned, it's office developments have all been built-to-suit with nothing proposed since before the Pandemic.


Lone Tree =/= Cherry Creek

[TakeFive]

Nothing compares to Cherry Creek

Originally Posted by wong21fr

Yeah, but nobody is looking at Lone Tree and salivating over developing speculative space there because, as previously mentioned, it's office developments have all been built-to-suit with nothing proposed since before the Pandemic.


Lone Tree =/= Cherry Creek

I have no clue when the last office building was developed in Meridian ?

IIRC it was EngiNerd that alerted us to arrival of new hospitals about a year ago.

AI Overview

CommonSpirit Health is developing a new 42-acre medical campus in Denver's Meridian International Business Center. The project required the demolition of the former 270,000-square-foot TTEC Holdings headquarters at 9197 S. Peoria St., paving the way for a full-service hospital and medical offices.

• Demolition Project Details: Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health purchased the 42-acre former TTEC site in late 2024 for a $62 million investment.
• Campus Construction: Construction on the new campus, which includes a full-service hospital, ambulatory surgery center, and physician clinics, is currently underway. The project features architecture by SmithGroup and is being built by DPR
• Broader Healthcare Expansion: Healthcare providers are capitalizing on distressed office real estate in the Meridian submarket. Intermountain Health also purchased the nearby 142,000-square-foot Gateway Plaza building at 9800 S. Meridian Blvd. to expand its south metro Denver footprint.

[TakeFive]

The topic is "Parking"

RIP to Magna Kainan and the original 1UP
June 27, 2026 By Antony Bruno -- Westword

And one of Denver’s few Filipino standouts, Magna Kainan, just shuttered after an eighteen-month run. Chef Jodee Reyes and the team were putting out some highly praised dishes, but ran into the realities of bad timing. RiNo very much remains an in-development area, with all the traffic and construction limitations that come with it. The takeaway — parking matters!

Mayor Mike to the rescue

How (and why) Denver’s mayor got private parking lots to set $5 prices
un. 29, 2026 By Andrew Kenney -- Denverite

Mayor Mike Johnston has a plan to get people back to downtown Denver: They can drive. And they can park. For five bucks. The mayor on Monday announced a new program called “Mayor’s Park $5.” It offers $5 parking at about 3,000 parking spots in privately owned lots around Denver.

“The idea is one simple, very affordable flat rate and one very easy-to-use process,” Johnston explained... The discounted rates are available on weekends, nights, Mondays and Fridays — basically, anytime except the core of the working week.

Johnston described it as a response to calls for help from downtown restaurants struggling to get people to eat at their establishments. A lot of restaurants have been pushing me to say, ‘You know what? It's too hard to find a place to park downtown, so they're not going to come eat down here,’” he said.

One thing that may be acknowledged but underappreciated is the widespread ongoing inflation. While there's no way of measuring the impact it is likely changing people's habits. Whether it the 'price' of meals at restaurants or people just pulling back on eating out in general the impact is there.

[TakeFive]

Backtracking...

Denver's City Center Sees Major Office Sale and Transformation
November 8, 2025 By Naked Denver Staff

Brookfield Property Group has officially unloaded its two-building City Center portfolio in downtown Denver for $57.35 million, marking one of the steepest losses in recent memory for a major office asset.

The sale includes 707 and 717 17th Street, totaling 1.41 million square feet across 2.26 acres. Brookfield bought the pair in January 2020 for $400 million, financing with a $230 million loan from Wells Fargo. The buyer, Wayzata Investment Partners, is a Minnesota-based private equity firm led by Patrick Halloran, known for acquiring distressed commercial properties in major metros.

Today, they are about 50% leased, down from 94% when Brookfield acquired them. Anchor tenants include Johns Manville, which renewed 121,000 square feet, and the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, which recently took 131,000 square feet.

707 & 717 17th Street


Credit Naked Denver

Note: I had no clue who Patrick Halloran managing partner of Wayzata Investment Group was? His backstory is fascinating. For those with a curiosity Check Out the AI Overview.

UPDATE ON REPUBLIC PLAZA

AI Overview

Brookfield Properties and MetLife failed to pay off the maturing $243 million commercial real estate loan for Denver's tallest skyscraper, Republic Plaza, by its maturity date. This marks the second major maturity default for the 56-story tower, which previously failed to pay off its original December 2022 loan.

The loan was extended in 2023 for not quite three years. At this point it's being sent to 'Special Servicing.'

I'm also aware that Brookfield has been in the process dumping a ton of losers and assume they're ready to move on from this property. So at some point it will be interesting to see who ends up scooping up this skyscraper.

[RiNo Randy]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

The topic is "Parking"

RIP to Magna Kainan and the original 1UP
June 27, 2026 By Antony Bruno -- Westword


Mayor Mike to the rescue

How (and why) Denver’s mayor got private parking lots to set $5 prices
un. 29, 2026 By Andrew Kenney -- Denverite

One thing that may be acknowledged but underappreciated is the widespread ongoing inflation. While there's no way of measuring the impact it is likely changing people's habits. Whether it the 'price' of meals at restaurants or people just pulling back on eating out in general the impact is there.

Did Magna Kainan offer validated parking in the Novel parking structure?

I haven't a clue.

But they should have if they didn't...

[RiNo Randy]

More housing planned for Denver...

This time it is adjacent to York Street Yards, which has been quietly leasing out to near capacity.

https://www.developingmycity.com/denver/news/3897-steele-street-affordable-senior-housing-denver

Here is an image, courtesy of Naked Denver. Note, that space is currently being used by Rivian as overflow parking/new inventory storage.

[TakeFive]

Central Park is on a Roll

Grocery chain Aldi proposes first store in Denver
July 2, 2026 By: Thomas Gounley -- BusinessDen

Aldi plans to open a store in Denver’s Central Park neighborhood.

It’s the first known store proposal within the state. The grocery chain said in January that it planned to enter the Colorado market, with 50 stores in and around Colorado Springs and Denver.

Plans submitted to Denver this week call for a 19,500-square-foot store to be built on 2.3 acres at 9111 E. 40th Ave., between a Cracker Barrel and a Chick-fil-A.

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Marczyk’s Burger Night gets a permanent home in Northfield

After 24 years, Pete Marczyk’s famed Burger Night has found a permanent home. The founder and CEO of Denver grocer Marczyk Fine Foods, which hosts the regular cookouts during the summer at its Uptown and Colfax outposts, is set to introduce a new concept next week at 7980 E Northfield Blvd.

“We know it’s a competitive space and very crowded,” Marczyk said of the burger industry. “But we think we can do it differently and better, just like the ethos of our whole company.”

When Marczyk FineBurger opens Wednesday, it will be an “incredibly faithful” version of the original Burger Night, Marczyk said. But he won’t be running the place. The operator is Tom Sprung, who owns the local firm Sprung Construction.

Photos credit Max Scheinblum/BusinessDen

[TakeFive]

It was bound to happen sooner or later

Contractor sues DDDA-backed theater over unpaid work
July 2, 2026 By: Matt Geiger -- BusinessDeen

There’s drama unfolding at the Denver Immersive Repertory Theater before the first performance. The theater at 15th and Blake streets, backed by a $400,000 loan from the Denver Downtown Development Authority, was sued last week by the general contractor building it out.

Littleton-based Beaver Construction Consulting alleges that the theater at 1431 15th St. owes the firm $269,000 for unpaid work.

The theater owned by Steve Wargo and Blair Russell said in a statement that DIRT “has endured some unforeseen challenges that have caused significant operational delays and financial impacts towards completing construction on our building as originally envisioned.”

[TakeFive]

New City of Westminster Courthouse Under Construction
June 30, 2026 -- Mile High CRE

The new facility, which is being designed under the leadership of Anderson Hallas Architects with FCI Constructors serving as the construction manager and general contractor, will replace the existing structure, which is more than 60 years old and is no longer suited for modern courthouse operations.

The new courthouse is being built on the same site as the existing courthouse while the existing courthouse remains in full operation.

Courtesy Westminster/360 Engineering

[TakeFive]

Interesting proposal

Originally Posted by RiNo Randy

More housing planned for Denver...

This time it is adjacent to York Street Yards, which has been quietly leasing out to near capacity.

I like the York Street Yards so good to hear leasing is going well; I assume the lease rates are attractive to prospects.

I'm the last to understand 'design' but that looks a bit depressing to me.

While we're on the topic

The Housing Bill Sitting On Trump's Desk Isn't The Game-Changer Many Hoped — Or Feared
June 30, 2026 By Noah Zucker, Philadelphia Bisnow

The federal housing bill... is the most significant housing policy in a generation. But while it is a step toward expanding supply, the 21st Century Road to Housing Act will not be a game-changer for the commercial real estate sector.

This should give more juice to the low-income housing tax credit program, which was expanded via the reconciliation bill passed last summer, Enterprise Community Partners Vice President of Policy Liz Osborn said.

“There’s a lot of goodies in the bill,” TruAmerica CEO Bob Hart said. “I’m not saying they’re significant, but they’re sending the right message to the development community and small cities.”

... manufactured housing players will score a big win with the removal of the permanent chassis mandate. ... It is expected to reduce construction costs by up to $10K per unit and open up the sector to new lenders.

"manufactured housing" is more challenging in Denver due to land costs. But perhaps some of the surrounding areas can benefit. There's a ton of Mobile Home Parks down here but when built land was "dirt (sand) cheap." They do provide nice horizontal density at least. Nicer parks have grassy, treed park areas with pools and or tennis courts.

[TakeFive]

A noteworthy "passing of the torch" is worth a post

Whether you were a reader of Westword or not -- imagine nearly fifty years.

The long goodbye: Westword editor Patricia Calhoun enters the next era
June 30, 2026 By Patricia Calhoun

Yesterday, I climbed the staircase at the Denver City & Council Building to the just-renovated Denver City Council chambers on the fourth floor. When I first made this trek (a lot more nimbly), Bill McNichols occupied the Mayor’s Office and city council consisted mostly of good old boys, who’d enjoy schmoozing over cigars and Scotch after meetings.

This time, I walked over from the Westword office to hear the promised proclamation, and to think about all the people who’ve climbed those steps as they worked to make this city a better place, whether as a public official…or as a journalist pestering public officials.

She's “leaving the operational issues in the hands of a capable team” but will still do some writing as editor emeritus.

Happy Trails

[TakeFive]

Denver’s Newest Luxury High-Rise Opens its Doors in the Golden Triangle
June 30, 2026 -- Mile High CRE

Greystar... has announced that The Parson, its new luxury community in the thriving Golden Triangle neighborhood, is now open for in-person tours. Located at 990 N Cherokee, the high-rise community offers panoramic views of the Rocky Mountains and the Denver skyline...

The Parson comprises 309 luxury residences, including 21 studios, 161 one-bedrooms, 95 two-bedrooms, 9 three-bedrooms, and 23 penthouses, available in two- or three-bedroom floor plans, with square footage ranging from 547 to 3,260.

Designed by Ziegler Cooper Architects with interiors by ESG Architecture and Design, The Parson features elevated finishes, including custom light fixtures, engineered hardwood flooring, quartz countertops, and tiled backsplash.

The Parson -- 990 Cherokee Street








Images courtesy Ziegler Cooper Architects

From your home to the amenities and the moments in between, The Parson is an inspired experience. The residences feature trend-forward interiors with curated finishes and the latest appliances. While the amenity collection makes this a destination in itself – from impressive lounges and gatherings to an Instagrammable pool and sun deck, to calm retreats and thoughtful wellness features. All set against the ever-present backdrop of panoramic views, spanning from the city skyline to distant mountain ranges.

Two months base rent free...

Note: While it seemed like forever to finish this project, it is the twin building to the earlier project next door.

[TakeFive]

AI Overview

The Civic Lofts apartments at 360 W 13th Ave in Denver's Golden Triangle were recently sold for $30 million—a 48% drop from their previous purchase price in 2021. The massive discount was driven by an excess of apartment supply in the submarket.

The 14-story high-rise building includes 9 floor plans ranging from 328 to 961 square feet. However, the property has a history of operational and regulatory challenges. Local reports have highlighted issues with expired elevator and residential licenses, along with extended maintenance outages.

Civic Lofts -- 360 W. 13th Ave.




Images per Zillow.com

CBS Denver News carried one story about this miserable place back in January, 2025.

Great location if you like eating breakfast at Dozens


Courtesy Dozens