Post confirms:
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_7501540
Transit team revises Union Station plans
All rail lines will now be above ground, and a regional bus facility will be underground.
By Margaret Jackson
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 11/18/2007 11:59:08 PM MST
A year after being selected to redevelop Denver's historic Union Station and the surrounding property into a mixed-use transit hub, Union Station Neighborhood Co. has drastically altered its plan.
The biggest changes include building the commuter- and heavy-rail tracks above ground and realigning the connection at 18th Street into the underground regional bus facility.
Reasons for the changes go far beyond the financial, officials said.
For one, technology for the FasTracks system's Gold Line changed from light to commuter rail, making it necessary to add more tracks to that portion of the plan. Additionally, the Federal Railroad Administration indicated it would be unlikely to approve putting Amtrak tracks underground.
Union Station is the hub for FasTracks, the region's $4.7 billion transportation-expansion plan approved by voters in 2004.
"Obviously, when you rework a plan, you're looking at all the factors, and cost is one of the factors," said Cole Finegan, a partner at Hogan & Hartson who is representing the Regional Transportation District in negotiations with the developers. "The FRA is a factor. It's a significant factor, but it's not a predominant factor."
Finegan declined to discuss the specific cost of the modified project because the plan is still in the works.
The original plan was expected to cost $420 million, but the number has likely increased because of rising construction costs. People familiar with the new plan have said it also will cost more than $420 million.
About $280 million in funding had been identified for the original plan. It included $213 million from FasTracks funding, $16 million in state money and $50 million in federal highway funding. At the time, Union Station Neighborhood Co. said it would pay $29 million for the right to develop the 19.5 acres around the station into shops, restaurants, hotels, offices and residences.
While it deviates from the proposal the developers unveiled to the public more than a year ago, the new plan gives the transit components more capacity - eight tracks instead of six - and the ability to expand.
"We can build what we need now, but we've built in the flexibility to expand that we didn't have before," said Mike Reininger, managing partner at Union Station Neighborhood Co., which beat out a development team that included Cherokee Denver LLC and Trammell Crow Co. for the right to develop the station.
The other team's plan would have cost more than the $420 million Union Station Neighborhood Co. bid but would have put all the tracks underground.
By not putting all the tracks underground, the 19.5 acres surrounding the station can be developed at the same time as construction of the transit portion, rather than when it's finished. It also will be easier, faster and cheaper to build the transit portion of the project, officials said.
"It's still expensive, but it's leaner," said Peter Park, the city's community planning and development manager. "It's a better solution in terms of transit functioning and connections."
An extension of 18th Street from Wynkoop Street to Wewatta Street envisioned in the original plan has been eliminated to accommodate buses coming into the station from 20th Street. They'll cross 18th Street and descend into a tunnel where the regional bus facility will be located.
The new plan extends an underground pedestrian plaza, including a moving sidewalk, from the station to the light-rail platform about 500 feet away. The old version stopped the tunnel at Wewatta.
The 18th Street circulator shuttle bus and the 16th Street Mall Ride will deliver passengers directly to the commuter and light-rail platforms, features not included in the original plan.
The new plan also opens 16th Street to traffic between Wynkoop and Chestnut.
Because it deviates from the master plan conceived by the 100-member citizen group known as the Union Station Advisory Committee, the new plan must go through another public process before construction can begin. It also still needs an approved environmental-impact statement, expected to be finalized next summer.
"The master plan as it came down is one that was our best wishes or best shot for what would be a really good combined transportation and development package," said Jim Graebner, co-chairman of the advisory committee. "Since that time, an awful lot has happened. The funding is not there to make it happen, and I think the team is looking at ways to cut the cost to fit the project."
Construction could start by next summer. The initial plan called for the depot to be renovated and the light rail built by 2009.
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A lot is riding upon what goes on in other parts of the world. Regardless, it is not the "norm" in historic terms and it took the highway folks by surprise as much as those building transit facilities, airports, office buildings, and just about anything else needing, concrete, steel, asphalt, etc.
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