DENVER | Main Development Thread #6

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by enjo13

Another groundbreaking

http://denverinfill.com/blog/2016/08/union-station-the-coloradan-project-update-2.html

Image via The Denver Post

Are you serious? These look like they could be condos.
They are indeed.


..

[COtoOC]

Originally Posted by The Dirt

The map is deceiving because it has all of existing Denver-based Bluff Lake highlighted in blue. The Aurora development only includes the block wide area between 25th and 26th. I'm not sure it's going to make a whole lot of difference in terms of robberies or drive by shootings. The new area developing east of Bluff Lake will probably do a bit more to curb that a bit.

I heard that the MLK extension to Peoria was supposed to start in July, but it still hasn't started. Has anyone heard anything?

Also, is it just me, or is Stapleton way over-parked? The parks, open-space buffers, and super-wide drainage areas feel like they unnecessarily break Stapleton up and make it feel way more suburban. I'd rather see more connectivity between the neghborhoods instead of feeding all of the local traffic into MLK and Central Park Blvd.

I was mostly joking, but I have heard gun shots a couple times (over 11 years) from the area south of Eastbridge. Most theft is due to people leaving cars, garage doors and house doors open at night. Although one of my neighbors has a security camera and has seen men come through at night with backpacks checking every car parked on the street.

I've had that thought about open space as well. Mainly the "natural parks" just seem too big.

[bunt_q]

There is a fair amount of real drug activity over in old Aurora too. Like the Mexican cartel variety.

[The Dirt]

My in-laws have lived in Bluff Lake for a couple of years and they've heard plenty of gunshots, including a drive-by shooting (car-on-car) on Moline a few months ago. The area directly south of Eastbridge/Bluff Lake, between Montview and Colfax has got to be ground zero for Aurora's drug trade. There's been half a dozen shootings this year alone (that I've heard of). Unfortunately, this is also their old town/arts district that Aurora has desperately tried to revitalize. I just don't see that happening unless Aurora decides to do a DURA-style clearing of these neighborhoods. The concentration of poverty and the elements that feed off of it is just high to have any chance of gentrification taking hold and making this area successful. The fact that the city council was ecstatic about a 7-Eleven replacing a run down gas station on the corner of Colfax and Peoria as evidence of their redevelopment "success" is just sad.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

There is a fair amount of real drug activity over in old Aurora too. Like the Mexican cartel variety.

No argument with the Mexican cartel involvement; where it takes place I wouldn't know.

Originally Posted by The Dirt

The fact that the city council was ecstatic about a 7-Eleven replacing a run down gas station on the corner of Colfax and Peoria as evidence of their redevelopment "success" is just sad.

I think the new 7-Eleven was but one piece of a recent development trend that has started to occur, not a singular event that they are hanging their hat on. My guess is that there's many more 7-Elevens in Capitol Hill and downtown than in this area. 7-Elevens are by definition neither good or bad.

The bigger picture includes the newer convention hotel and office building as well as construction of new apartments and other misc. commercial projects. It seems that most of the redevelopment focus is currently south of Colfax.

FWIW, lower socioeconomic and immigrant neighborhoods don't have to be big crime areas although there does tend to be a correlation oftentimes. It will vary and depend on a number of things.

I believe on the south side of Colfax there is an African immigrant area. I also saw where Afrikmall recently opened along east Colfax and was part of "Twenty-one Tastiest Events on Denver's Culinary Calendar, for July 15-17" as noted by Westword.

Image courtesy of Aurora Sentinel

"Aurora’s continental cultural hub Afrikmall opening on Colfax"
July 15, 2015 By QUINCY SNOWDON - Aurora Sentinel/Biz

AURORA | Dishes, ditties and myriad other dashes of culture from across the African continent finally have a singular, permanent home along East Colfax Avenue in Aurora.

Over a year after city officials gathered for a ceremonial groundbreaking in front of the old Broyhill Furniture building at 10180 E. Colfax Ave., the developers of Afrikmall — a one-stop shop for all things north, south, east and west African — are officially opening their business on the site of the former furniture outlet this week

Additionally the Makola African Market at 2032 Clinton St. gets high marks on Yelp.

I would venture that one of the things that underpins the strength of the economy in Phoenix is its large and growing immigrant population. Over the last several years Asians have been the fastest growing segment. Not sure if that includes the growing number of immigrants from India that work in tech or not as India is often defined as eastern Middle East? The African immigrant area just east of downtown Phoenix is getting many good reviews for some of the new restaurants that have opened. It's on my bucket list.

[bunt_q]

I have never once heard of India referred to as eastern Middle East. It's South Asia. Heck, I've never even heard of Afghanistan (Central Asia) or Pakistan as being eastern Middle East. That makes about as much sense as calling China south Russia. And Costa Rica is South Texas.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

I have never once heard of India referred to as eastern Middle East. It's South Asia. Heck, I've never even heard of Afghanistan (Central Asia) or Pakistan as being eastern Middle East. That makes about as much sense as calling China south Russia. And Costa Rica is South Texas.

That's incorrect. You just heard me refer to India as being possibly eastern Middle East. But upon further consideration I concede that you are correct about India being in South Asia.

However... I end up reading a lot of misc. stuff from sources that can be wrong, imprecise or not specific as to the context and I did recall reading something somewhere... so I decided to ask my BFF. Apparently there is some discussion that revolves more around a cultural/religious context.

With respect to formal or official definitions and statistics it's determined by continents. For example, the Migration Policy Institute which I assume uses census data, defines India as being in South Central Asia which also includes Iran. Other countries normally considered part of the Middle East are actually in Western Asia, at least according to MPI.

In any case I'm glad to have my "thinking out loud" question answered. Counting immigrants from India as Asian goes a long way towards explaining why Asians are the top demographic for recent migration in metro Phoenix.

[comoneymaker]

YAWN!!!!!

[Stonemans_rowJ]

Originally Posted by comoneymaker

YAWN!!!!!

Interested to see how these prices compare to Lake House. Such a better location for Coloradan here in my opinion, it will be interesting what the market can bear $/ft.

[CPVLIVE]

Here's a couple shots from today -

Confluence making an impact




AC/LeMeridien





Eviva Cherokee

[trubador]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

There is a fair amount of real drug activity over in old Aurora too. Like the Mexican cartel variety.

Lol someone watched too much weeds.

[RyanD]

Nice photos! I have a bunch of DenverInfill posts coming up this week!

Also, I think this answers a lot of our questions about the Le Meridien:

[bunt_q]

Originally Posted by trubador

Lol someone watched too much weeds.

What's that, TV show I assume? No, I work with a DEA guy.

[comoneymaker]

I know 1776 Curtis Street broke ground. How far are we on that? Crane in or what?
And how much longer till we see steel beams on 1144 15th st?
And how much longer till we see a 900 ft'er ?? ROFL



(To answer the 3rd one I think once all these big projects are done in the next 2 years and the market remains strong without to much other new construction... I think we will finally see one.)

[mojiferous]

Originally Posted by comoneymaker

I know 1776 Curtis Street broke ground. How far are we on that? Crane in or what?

The cranes have been in for a while -- Ryan last updated pictures in May http://denverinfill.com/blog/2016/05/central-downtown-999-17th-street-update-5.html It's higher now...

[RyanD]

Originally Posted by comoneymaker

I know 1776 Curtis Street broke ground. How far are we on that? Crane in or what?
And how much longer till we see steel beams on 1144 15th st?
And how much longer till we see a 900 ft'er ?? ROFL

(To answer the 3rd one I think once all these big projects are done in the next 2 years and the market remains strong without to much other new construction... I think we will finally see one.)

I have both of those projects in line for DenverInfill this week. 1144 Fifteenth is still on the garage with 3 more floors to go.

999 17th / 1776 Curtis Street is also still on the garage and is now 6-stories up.

EDIT: About the 900+ ft building. I had a dream that Ramsay Bolton, a great villain in Game of Thrones, ran another Denver development blog and we were feuding about who was going to do a legitimate post about Denver's new 100-story tower. It was a really strange dream and sadly there are no 100-story proposals I know of at the moment.

I'll cross post them when I get the posts written. Here's what I have today, in addition to CPVLive's great photos:

Eviva Cherokee

We never saw renderings of the back side, so here's what it looks like as of late:


http://denverinfill.com/blog/2016/08/golden-triangle-eviva-cherokee-update-5.html


http://denverinfill.com/blog/2016/08/golden-triangle-eviva-cherokee-update-5.html

[COtoOC]

Originally Posted by The Dirt

My in-laws have lived in Bluff Lake for a couple of years and they've heard plenty of gunshots, including a drive-by shooting (car-on-car) on Moline a few months ago. The area directly south of Eastbridge/Bluff Lake, between Montview and Colfax has got to be ground zero for Aurora's drug trade. There's been half a dozen shootings this year alone (that I've heard of). Unfortunately, this is also their old town/arts district that Aurora has desperately tried to revitalize. I just don't see that happening unless Aurora decides to do a DURA-style clearing of these neighborhoods. The concentration of poverty and the elements that feed off of it is just high to have any chance of gentrification taking hold and making this area successful. The fact that the city council was ecstatic about a 7-Eleven replacing a run down gas station on the corner of Colfax and Peoria as evidence of their redevelopment "success" is just sad.

I don't see this area cleaning up much either. They'd need to bulldoze all the crack motels on Colfax, to start. Those are a HUGE problem. I drive through there daily and see the screwed up people, crime, murders. And the area south of Eastbridge has quite the sex offender population as well. And then there's the housing stock. Most of it is scrape-worthy. A lot of them look like hillbilly shacks.

[The Dirt]

Originally Posted by comoneymaker

I know 1776 Curtis Street broke ground. How far are we on that? Crane in or what?
And how much longer till we see steel beams on 1144 15th st?
And how much longer till we see a 900 ft'er ?? ROFL

(To answer the 3rd one I think once all these big projects are done in the next 2 years and the market remains strong without to much other new construction... I think we will finally see one.)

Here you go: http://www.workzonecam.com/projects/sheaproperties1/1776curtis/workzonecam
Looks like they've been done with the garage portion for a few weeks, and they're 2-3 stories up on the residential portion. Make sure to zoom out or scroll to the bottom right to see progress on the office portion. Spoiler alert: they haven't started and they're still using it as a staging area for the residential project.

If you think about it, it takes the better part of a decade for any of our significantly tall projects to go from rumors to ground-breaking. We knew about the Four Seasons and Hines projects for years before anything happened. Your only bet for a 900 ft tower is if Evan Makovsky magically finds someone to fund his observation tower on block 154. That doesn't seem likely since that version of the proposal was axed over a year ago. As far as I know, the Tabor 2 foundation wasn't built to accommodate a 900 ft. tower, so that's out. The latest rumors on the El Jebel tower are all over the place with heights, number of floors, funding sources, and potential start dates. Most of it sounds like hogwash. We're more likely to see that Persian rug merchant tower break ground. Other than that, there haven't been any rumors about a tall tower going up anywhere, so I don't see anything that tall going up in the next decade or two. It's much more realistic to look for another new 4th tallest in the next decade.

Side note: I'd still really love it if Cherry Creek could get away will building a tallish tower somewhere on the corner of 1st and Steele that's got a good 100+ feet over everything else and some sort of ornamental top. Something like a Austin's Frost Bank tower would be amazing.

[Robert.hampton]

23rd and tremont slated for 80 for-sale condo units. Just down the street on 20th they are developing more for-sale condos, and the Coloradan just broke ground. After so long with no new developments how are these guys finally becoming viable without anything to address construction defects?

[enjo13]

Originally Posted by Robert.hampton

23rd and tremont slated for 80 for-sale condo units. Just down the street on 20th they are developing more for-sale condos, and the Coloradan just broke ground. After so long with no new developments how are these guys finally becoming viable without anything to address construction defects?

I believe some of the steps the city took are contributing.