DENVER | Main Development Thread #6

[bcp]

Originally Posted by RyanD

Love the CoCl towers, they are going to be awesome for that location. Very prominent. Now I guess we get to see how the neighbors react.

Also...

245 Columbine!

Cherry Creek: 245 Columbine Project Update #2


http://denverinfill.com/blog/2014/08/cherry-creek-245-columbine-project-update-2.html

I like! It's a bit 16M...but with better colors.

BTW - 16M looks like it's really close to complete...and it's looking pretty sharp - love that it coincided with renovating the historic-ish building to it's south too.

[Denver]

Demolition is underway for the addition to the Denver Rescue Mission in Ballpark. Love it or hate it- this has the potential to be an important development for the area.

[comoneymaker]

Originally Posted by DownhomeDenver

BWAHAHAHAA this is your comparison??? OK talk about apples to oranges. But nice try.

Please fill me in on how this is apples to oranges. It is a city with less population but 10x the skyline. Hell maybe even the best skyline in the world for a city so small.

[comoneymaker]

Originally Posted by DenverPoke

Via Denver-Cityscape

Country Club towers. Nice!!

It is just so pretty I want to cry. I envision over many many years the Washington Park hood will be like Manhattan. Only ours has the potential to spread all the way over to City Park as well. Only problem is there are so many historical or soon to be historical homes in the way.

Anyone know of some good historical info on how Manhattan overcame this or was there just so much growth so fast nothing was historical ?

[TakeFive]

DBJ has the latest city ratings from Cvent HERE. Denver is listed 14th.

By way of comparison Phoenix is rated 11th. What's interesting about this is that their downtown convention center has struggled. Phoenix also doubled the size of their facilities to roughly the same size as Denver's shortly after Denver did. Bookings have suffered partly from politics but more from the fact that downtown has less than 3,500 hotel rooms. They will occasionally get a larger convention like the National Rifle Association or a religious group. Clearly the strength of their rating comes from several traditional resort hotels along the Camelback Corridor and their newer 1,400 room JW Marriott Desert Ridge resort hotel.

I only belabor this comparison because Denver has a much smaller footprint of convention facilities than many other cities and the Colorado Convention Center does most of the heavy lifting (which is good). As downtown continues to grow and broaden its appeal I would expect Denver to remain very competitive in a competitive business.

[bunt_q]

Originally Posted by comoneymaker

It is just so pretty I want to cry. I envision over many many years the Washington Park hood will be like Manhattan. Only ours has the potential to spread all the way over to City Park as well. Only problem is there are so many historical or soon to be historical homes in the way.

Anyone know of some good historical info on how Manhattan overcame this or was there just so much growth so fast nothing was historical ?

Historical isn't the problem, homes are the problem. To my knowledge, Manhattan never had miles upon miles of single family homes like Denver has. And you're basically never going to turn neighborhoods of single family homes into anything much more than what they are, with pockets of density. Maybe 50 years ago, when wholesale bulldozing was still possible, but not today, not unless Central Denver takes a serious turn toward the ghetto (and then, any neighborhood that doesn't fight back probably also isn't one where anybody wants to build.) "Areas of stability," indeed.

[bunt_q]

http://insiderealestatenews.com/2014/08/14/highlands-square-saga-drawing-to-a-close/#more-32743

This is hilarious. We could only be so lucky as to have Black Plague ravage West Highland.

I mean, I don't disagree with the premise that growth can stifle itself without infrastructure to match - I say the same thing regarding the lack of transportation options in central denver. But for God's sake, it's one project.

[CharlesCO]

Originally Posted by comoneymaker

It is just so pretty I want to cry. I envision over many many years the Washington Park hood will be like Manhattan. Only ours has the potential to spread all the way over to City Park as well. Only problem is there are so many historical or soon to be historical homes in the way.

Anyone know of some good historical info on how Manhattan overcame this or was there just so much growth so fast nothing was historical ?

Yes, let's destroy the village in order to save it (or in this case, densify it).

[RyanD]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

http://insiderealestatenews.com/2014/08/14/highlands-square-saga-drawing-to-a-close/#more-32743

This is hilarious. We could only be so lucky as to have Black Plague ravage West Highland.

I mean, I don't disagree with the premise that growth can stifle itself without infrastructure to match - I say the same thing regarding the lack of transportation options in central denver. But for God's sake, it's one project.

3 buildings. IT'S 3 LITTLE BUILDINGS!!!! If we're in a NIMBY universe, the West Highland folks are getting a good deal. Cherry Creek and Country Club are totally getting shafted by the evil real high-rise development.

For the lazy:

“The growth fantasists don’t seem to realize that without infrastructure to support it, it eventually collapses into itself.”

“Narrow streets, lack of intelligent provisions for employee parking, cultural indifference to (alternative) transit is a recipe for mid-term failure induced by short(term) greed.”

“This is a lesson learnt over and over since density allowed the black plague to ravage urban Europe centuries ago.”

“It is important to realize that no matter what side your on, the sky is not falling, even though some might shout otherwise."

[SOURCE]

I feel like I'm reading over a battle where West Highland is a control point that has been shifting between axis and allies for many years. Ununnecessary drama. That's what all this is. And good on Alliance for using the same exact design RedPeak was going to use.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by comoneymaker

It is just so pretty I want to cry. I envision over many many years the Washington Park hood will be like Manhattan. Only ours has the potential to spread all the way over to City Park as well. Only problem is there are so many historical or soon to be historical homes in the way.

It's looks like a mentally impaired midget was shitting out Jenga blocks. It's big, it's blocky, and it makes 100% use of the envelope. Plus it's a great tower in the garden concept. Efficient is what I would call it.

As for Washington Park being like Manhattan, there's no way that will happen. There's too much money in the neighborhood to ever let the towers enroach on the single-family neighborhoods. The problem isn't history- it's thousands of rich folks with access to great lawyers.

[bcp]

I'd have to agree...we should focus on developing DT to park avenue first to create anything similar to an east coast feel.

This CC tower building...is it one or two buildings? I just cannot tell, and if it is 2, seems there would be some value in shifting them apart a bit to break things up from the N/S. Probably comes down to the footprint, but it's one heck of a long wall.

Also, "learnt" is a word??

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by bcp

I'd have to agree...we should focus on developing DT to park avenue first to create anything similar to an east coast feel.

This CC tower building...is it one or two buildings? I just cannot tell, and if it is 2, seems there would be some value in shifting them apart a bit to break things up from the N/S. Probably comes down to the footprint, but it's one heck of a long wall.

Also, "learnt" is a word??

It's two towers on a seven-story parking podium. You're right, the existing buildings' footprints dictate the towers placement. The development cannot go outside of the existing buildings' footprint per the development agreement with the City.

"Learnt" is a perfectly cromulent word.

[PLANSIT]

More soil testing for Skyhouse. Had several sections of the surface parking area blocked off.

Originally Posted by DenverPoke

PLANSIT updated a lot of the Denver proposals in the Highrise and Supertall Proposals section of this forum. A couple of things of interest... another dual brand hotel at 15th and Calif is possible, Skyhouse will be 282 ft, and 1144 15th is now 625 ft.

Thanks for the updates PLANSIT!

No prob!

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

"Learnt" is a perfectly cromulent word.

Wait, wut? I know of this learnt thingy but cromulent? That's a whole other kettle of fish methinks.

BTW, what you got against squares? They're just a salute to the iconic and beloved "Denver Square."

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by RyanD

I feel like I'm reading over a battle where West Highland is a control point that has been shifting between axis and allies for many years. Ununnecessary drama. That's what all this is. And good on Alliance for using the same exact design RedPeak was going to use.

Sure looks to be a situation that will play out with much hilarity.

It is nice as well that they are giving RedPeak a chance to recoup some of their costs. And why not? I suspect Alliance Res. still likes Denver and this may be a more doable size for them at this time as I know they have been building/proposing in Phoenix/Scottsdale more recently where they didn't bother during the recession. I never have figured out why their Broadstone Blake Street has been building out so slow?

[DownhomeDenver]

From the Denver Business Journal, more development for Ballpark.

Aug 14, 2014, 1:21pm MDT
Commercial development breaks ground on Denver's Blake Street

Developer River North Investment Co. has broken ground on Backyard on Blake, a commercial development in Denver's River North District.

The project will redevelop a 12,500-square-foot warehouse building originally constructed in 1932. The development will include a restaurant with patio seating, retail, and studio and office space.

A residential component is planned as well, but the scope of that portion of the project is not yet known, said Dana Pluss Parks, spokesperson for the project.

Backyard on Blake, located at 3030 Blake St., will be built around a courtyard which will be available to the public...

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/r...evelopment-breaks-ground-on-denvers.html

[denconyny]

Originally Posted by DownhomeDenver

From the Denver Business Journal, more development for Ballpark.

Aug 14, 2014, 1:21pm MDT
Commercial development breaks ground on Denver's Blake Street

Developer River North Investment Co. has broken ground on Backyard on Blake, a commercial development in Denver's River North District.

The project will redevelop a 12,500-square-foot warehouse building originally constructed in 1932. The development will include a restaurant with patio seating, retail, and studio and office space.

A residential component is planned as well, but the scope of that portion of the project is not yet known, said Dana Pluss Parks, spokesperson for the project.

Backyard on Blake, located at 3030 Blake St., will be built around a courtyard which will be available to the public...

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/r...evelopment-breaks-ground-on-denvers.html

IIRC, River North were the folks who were supposed to build the Beleza (is there a difference between River North Properties and River North Investment?) which at Brighton Blvd and 31st Street I thought would have been fantastic if it were to be built.


(thanks to DenverInfill)

My only concern was that Beleza wasn't tall enough (but I guess it was too tall since it didn't get built) so I did my own pic editing to get a 50+ story building........



and the second one I though would have been perfect for 31st and Brighton.....

[RyanD]

^ Hahahahahaha!! I say build it!

In other news...

"Hey Ryan, check out Speer and Washington!"

"Ryan, did you know Speer and Washington is complete?"

"You take better pictures than me so you need to photograph Speer and Washington"

"Whoa man, that's a great looking building that needs your camera. When are you posting on Speer and Washington?"

"Dude, Speer and Washington is done, have you seen it yet?"

So, it has finally been done. All I can say is, for a 5-story building, Wow! Amazing! I'll take about 745 more around the neighborhoods / districts where 5-story buildings belong, please!

Speer: Speer & Washington Apartments Final Update
via DenverInfill

[DenverInfill]

Nice sun flare!

[Denver]

I think someone had mentioned this previously, but it looks like "Z Block" will have a hotel component.

http://www.denvergov.org/Portals/646/doc...ndas/082014_LDDRB_Agenda.PRELIMINARY.pdf