DENVER | Main Development Thread #6 - Page 435

Agent Orange · #**8681** Posted **Jul 5, 2016, 7:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Dirt

I wrote that lot off a long time ago as undevelopable with current parking requirements. Glad to see that it's being utilized. It's great to see all of the new development along 15th Street filling up all of those gaps.

Didn't the new Arapahoe Square zoning get rid of minimum parking requirements? Why is it that AS has no parking mandate, but Lower Downtown, the best transit served and highest intensity mixed used neighborhood in Colorado, does? How odd.

Robert.hampton · #**8682** Posted **Jul 5, 2016, 7:50 PM**

http://www.businessden.com/2016/06/07/de...site-finally-finds-an-office-of-its-own/

Looks like the lot at 20th and Penn is under contract with the developer looking at for-sale condos. A lot of new units going in around Benedict Fountain......

corey · #**8683** Posted **Jul 5, 2016, 8:36 PM**

The lot Google Maps shows at 575 20th Ave. is extensively landscaped. I supposed it was landscaped for aesthetic purposes until it was developed? More elaborate than just a lawn. I'm waiting for something to be planned for 20th and Grant where a small parking lot and boarded up one story commercial building has stood forever.

Robert.hampton · #**8684** Posted **Jul 5, 2016, 8:56 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by corey

The lot Google Maps shows at 575 20th Ave. is extensively landscaped. I supposed it was landscaped for aesthetic purposes until it was developed? More elaborate than just a lawn. I'm waiting for something to be planned for 20th and Grant where a small parking lot and boarded up one story commercial building has stood forever.

I think the landscaping was a holdover from the development of the benedict park place project. The lot was always slated as for-sale by DHA I think but they hadnt found a developer until now.

Denver Dweller · #**8685** Posted **Jul 5, 2016, 10:29 PM**

http://www.businessden.com/2016/07/05/60m-officeretail-project-coming-to-rino/

Denver Dweller · #**8686** Posted **Jul 6, 2016, 4:34 AM**

http://www.denverpost.com/2016/06/30/whats-the-matter-with-aurora/

COtoOC · #**8687** Posted **Jul 6, 2016, 3:42 PM**

I took the kids to Elitch's yesterday and the Confluence is looking amazing! It'll have a big impact for a 35 (??) story building.

comoneymaker · #**8688** Posted **Jul 6, 2016, 5:37 PM**

34. You are close enough

DUPio · #**8689** Posted **Jul 6, 2016, 9:37 PM**

I'm not nearly as in-the-know as many of you guys so maybe you can shed some light on why Aurora is the way it is. I don't understand why the area around Anschutz hasn't even started gentrification, I would think there would be plenty of people wanting to live closer to the campus to shorten the commute. I also don't understand how Aurora has no centrality to it. It seems almost all Colorado towns have a main street of sorts while Aurora really has no "center". Anschutz is providing a hell of an opportunity for Aurora, but it appears it is being wasted.

PLANSIT · #**8690** Posted **Jul 6, 2016, 9:51 PM**

Another Alexan product. This time in Wash Park:

Quote:

Site Address and Description
2016PM0000395 - Alexan Wash Park

EngiNerd · #**8691** Posted **Jul 6, 2016, 9:58 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by DUPio

I'm not nearly as in-the-know as many of you guys so maybe you can shed some light on why Aurora is the way it is. I don't understand why the area around Anschutz hasn't even started gentrification, I would think there would be plenty of people wanting to live closer to the campus to shorten the commute. I also don't understand how Aurora has no centrality to it. It seems almost all Colorado towns have a main street of sorts while Aurora really has no "center". Anschutz is providing a hell of an opportunity for Aurora, but it appears it is being wasted.

Because Aurora has no clear plan for revitalization for this area like Denver did for LoDo, and there aren't many amenities around there to naturally draw people to that area. The land values are so depressed around there that there probably arent many (any) willing to take that risk right now. And hospitals aren't the best facilities to live next to with the constant 24 hr sirens and such.

I lived in SE Aurora previously, and goo 50% of my neighbors worked at Anschutz.

Robert.hampton · #**8692** Posted **Jul 6, 2016, 10:58 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by PLANSIT

Another Alexan product. This time in Wash Park:

BLAGGHHHH! The shittiest and yet most prolific product in the Denver market.

CherryCreek · #**8693** Posted **Jul 6, 2016, 11:24 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by DUPio

I'm not nearly as in-the-know as many of you guys so maybe you can shed some light on why Aurora is the way it is. I don't understand why the area around Anschutz hasn't even started gentrification, I would think there would be plenty of people wanting to live closer to the campus to shorten the commute. I also don't understand how Aurora has no centrality to it. It seems almost all Colorado towns have a main street of sorts while Aurora really has no "center". Anschutz is providing a hell of an opportunity for Aurora, but it appears it is being wasted.

Aurora has such abysmal branding, at times I almost think they ought to consider a name change.

The Colfax area of Aurora is the worst of it, though like you say, with the exception of DIA, the Anschutz medical campus is probably the largest investment in employment related infrastructure (1000s of high paying jobs) in the state's history. Denver has revitalized areas that were as bad or worse off than that (hello Five Points), with far less investment.

On the plus side, Aurora has open land all the way to Kansas, so it may well be the long term low cost alternative for the entire metro area as this huge area "inside the beltway" (directly west and adjacent to E470( is developed and the Aurora population ultimately swells.

jhwk · #**8694** Posted **Jul 7, 2016, 12:30 AM**

Aurora should merge with Denver. Unfortunately that would likely be impossible due to the three county situation.

Denver · #**8695** Posted **Jul 7, 2016, 12:38 AM**

Fencing is up at the Civic Center bus station and machinery is moving on site. I am pretty excited about this project!

transistor · #**8696** Posted **Jul 7, 2016, 12:57 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by DUPio

I'm not nearly as in-the-know as many of you guys so maybe you can shed some light on why Aurora is the way it is. I don't understand why the area around Anschutz hasn't even started gentrification, I would think there would be plenty of people wanting to live closer to the campus to shorten the commute. I also don't understand how Aurora has no centrality to it. It seems almost all Colorado towns have a main street of sorts while Aurora really has no "center". Anschutz is providing a hell of an opportunity for Aurora, but it appears it is being wasted.

Aurora is still stuck in the mindset that if it continue gobbling up plains all the way to Kansas, it will at some indeterminable point become a great city.

Look at this, there is a plan for 50000 single family homes in the middle of nowhere.

http://www.aurorasentinel.com/news/plans-auroras-new-eastern-frontier-come-heavy-cost-control/

It says right in the damn article this will cost more than it will give back in tax revenue but nobody in Aurora will listen, despite the facts that their city services are horrendously underfunded.

Fritzdude · #**8697** Posted **Jul 7, 2016, 2:36 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Denver

Fencing is up at the Civic Center bus station and machinery is moving on site. I am pretty excited about this project!

Why..? I can only imagine that this location will be full of 'travelers'.

bunt_q · #**8698** Posted **Jul 7, 2016, 3:03 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by transistor

Aurora is still stuck in the mindset that if it continue gobbling up plains all the way to Kansas, it will at some indeterminable point become a great city.

Look at this, there is a plan for 50000 single family homes in the middle of nowhere.

http://www.aurorasentinel.com/news/plans-auroras-new-eastern-frontier-come-heavy-cost-control/

It says right in the damn article this will cost more than it will give back in tax revenue but nobody in Aurora will listen, despite the facts that their city services are horrendously underfunded.

Do you have a better idea? There's not a lot of empty land closer than that, at least not enough to build single-family units affordably. We have outlawed condos. Are we all supposed to live in shitty apartments and rent for the rest of our lives? Because unless you are giving up on the aspiration of homeownership, we have no choice but to sprawl. I personally think Aurora has a much brighter future than we let on. Eventually we will run out of new millennials to pack into overpriced apartments, demographics don't lie. And people will not want to rent forever. Denver will become impossible for them.

seventwenty · #**8699** Posted **Jul 7, 2016, 3:40 AM**

Bunt, what are the legal problems with playing legislative chicken to demand denser housing? Legally, what's to stop a possible state bill stating that all unincorporated land within Colorado (or the Front Range) may not be used for housing tracts unless and until all incorporated land in Colorado (or the Front Range) has been filled in to some level of density (say it's related to water and preservation of resources)? How would Kelo and Nollan apply? If done administratively, is it arbitrary and capricious? Is such a law violating some homerule provision? Of course such a bill is dying in the statehouse, but I'm curious about the state's power to influence housing.

trubador · #**8700** Posted **Jul 7, 2016, 2:28 PM**

IMO, if Aurora wants to establish a renaissance, they need to embrace Colfax. They have a start with Anschutz, but instead of offering tax deals to hotels by the airport, they should be doing that for the colfax corridor. Start at 225 and move in both directions. Tear down the abandoned buildings, offer incentives to developers, and improve the street presence with trees and wide sidewalks.