DENVER | Main Development Thread #6

[COtoOC]

Originally Posted by comoneymaker

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DENVER BUSINESS JOURNAL - Twenty-five of the nation’s major metropolitan areas are expected to reach population milestones in 2017, based on new estimates by Business First.

A milestone is defined as any nice round figure that ends with five zeroes. The Denver-Aurora-Lakewood area is expected to reach its milestone on March 23, when its population will hit 2,900,000. By the end of 2017, the metro is expected to have a population of 2,939,339.

The DBJ's sister publication, Business First, has developed a computer formula that uses 15 years of demographic data to estimate the population of any community at any given moment. It focuses primarily on the 108 markets with more than 500,000 residents, which are defined as major metros.

The formula has generated each area’s populations for the beginning and end of 2017, as well as the anticipated dates when specific milestones might be reached.

Read more at the Denver Business Journal: http://bit.ly/2jkb3D0

I find it odd that we leave Boulder out of the metro area count. Just because there is a mandated green space between Boulder and the other Denver 'burbs. Counting Boulder, we're already over 3 million.

[COtoOC]

Does anyone know what's going up in the DTC just east of the ReMax building? I was out of town for a week, and noticed a big crane this morning.

[DenverPoke]

Originally Posted by EngiNerd

edit: The contractor's website also shows this one

http://www.jns.design/portfolio/20th-chestnut-hotel/

Should be pretty cool if the glass is light at night like it mentions.

[mr1138]

Originally Posted by COtoOC

I find it odd that we leave Boulder out of the metro area count. Just because there is a mandated green space between Boulder and the other Denver 'burbs. Counting Boulder, we're already over 3 million.

My understanding is that this has nothing to do with contiguous urban development, but rather employment and commuting patterns. An MSA is defined roughly as a county that employs people from other surrounding counties, and would therefore see a daily influx of workers. Morning and evening commuting patterns and traffic counts help determine which counties are the "bedroom counties" tied to a center of employment. All of Boulder County is included in the "Boulder" metro area, including Superior and Louisville, so the count definitely isn't related to Boulder's greenbelt buffer.

The flaw in this methodology is that it denies the reality that most modern metro areas are multi-nodal. Boulder sees a net INFLUX of daily workers, and is therefore considered the center of its own metro area. Ironically, the counties (like Broomfield) that send Boulder its daily workers actually send MORE workers into Denver each day, and are therefore lumped into the Denver rather than the Boulder MSA. If the Tech Center were all it's own city/county, it would likely be broken off from the Denver MSA as well; but thankfully for our sanity, Arapahoe county still sends a net influx of workers into Denver county, keeping the tech center firmly in the Denver MSA.

I am in full agreement that Boulder should ABSOLUTELY be included in the Denver Metro Area. Both cities share many of the same bedroom suburbs, and one could argue that the Boulder MSA is actually undercounted because many of the employees that fuel its economy are actually counted as part of the Denver MSA population (e.g. anyone, like myself, who works in Boulder and lives in JeffCo or Broomfield or Adams). But as long as the Census continues to assume that an MSA can only have one "mother" county of employment, Boulder will continue to be counted separately, open space buffer or not.

[COtoOC]

Originally Posted by COtoOC

Does anyone know what's going up in the DTC just east of the ReMax building? I was out of town for a week, and noticed a big crane this morning.

Edit: I found it. 5050 S. Syracuse. 12 stories, not that interesting.

[COtoOC]

Originally Posted by mr1138

My understanding is that this has nothing to do with contiguous urban development, but rather employment and commuting patterns. An MSA is defined roughly as a county that employs people from other surrounding counties, and would therefore see a daily influx of workers. Morning and evening commuting patterns and traffic counts help determine which counties are the "bedroom counties" tied to a center of employment. All of Boulder County is included in the "Boulder" metro area, including Superior and Louisville, so the count definitely isn't related to Boulder's greenbelt buffer.

The flaw in this methodology is that it denies the reality that most modern metro areas are multi-nodal. Boulder sees a net INFLUX of daily workers, and is therefore considered the center of its own metro area. Ironically, the counties (like Broomfield) that send Boulder its daily workers actually send MORE workers into Denver each day, and are therefore lumped into the Denver rather than the Boulder MSA. If the Tech Center were all it's own city/county, it would likely be broken off from the Denver MSA as well; but thankfully for our sanity, Arapahoe county still sends a net influx of workers into Denver county, keeping the tech center firmly in the Denver MSA.

I am in full agreement that Boulder should ABSOLUTELY be included in the Denver Metro Area. Both cities share many of the same bedroom suburbs, and one could argue that the Boulder MSA is actually undercounted because many of the employees that fuel its economy are actually counted as part of the Denver MSA population (e.g. anyone, like myself, who works in Boulder and lives in JeffCo or Broomfield or Adams). But as long as the Census continues to assume that an MSA can only have one "mother" county of employment, Boulder will continue to be counted separately, open space buffer or not.

Ah... thanks for the explanation. Makes sense. And that's what I figured, that many people drive in to Boulder for work from Denver suburbs.

In my mind, since RTD is in Boulder, and Denver TV stations cover Boulder, it's part of metro Denver.

[mr1138]

Originally Posted by COtoOC

Ah... thanks for the explanation. Makes sense. And that's what I figured, that many people drive in to Boulder for work from Denver suburbs.

In my mind, since RTD is in Boulder, and Denver TV stations cover Boulder, it's part of metro Denver.

As somebody who was raised in Boulder and spent most of my life there, I wholeheartedly agree. Boulder is no less part of the Denver metro area than is Golden. Hell, even Gilpin County (Black Hawk/CC) is part of the Denver metro. Boulder most certainly is too... then again if we start using the CSA that includes Boulder County, it lumps in Weld county as well giving us a number that's too HIGH. So for now, I guess we locals will just have to do the calculation ourselves... Denver Metro=Denver MSA+Boulder MSA

Edit: Another way of thinking about it would be to just use the DRCOG definition of the Denver Metro: http://gis.drcog.org/datacatalog/content/denver-region-municipalities-2016 Of course, the Census can't use this definition because it includes only PART of Weld county, and simply adding up the municipal populations of all these cities still leaves out many thousands of people who live in unincorporated parts of their county.

[BG918]

Originally Posted by COtoOC

Ah... thanks for the explanation. Makes sense. And that's what I figured, that many people drive in to Boulder for work from Denver suburbs.

In my mind, since RTD is in Boulder, and Denver TV stations cover Boulder, it's part of metro Denver.

If Clear Creek County all the way to the Continental Divide is counted as part of the Denver metro then Boulder should be too.

Speaking of Boulder, it almost needs its own thread like the Cherry Creek one to track all of the infill projects going up there.

[EngiNerd]

Originally Posted by COtoOC

Edit: I found it. 5050 S. Syracuse. 12 stories, not that interesting.

The one "interesting" aspect of this project is that it includes integrated parking, instead of a separate parking garage, which is unique for the DTC offices. Hopefully its a trend that continues down there.

[COtoOC]

Originally Posted by EngiNerd

The one "interesting" aspect of this project is that it includes integrated parking, instead of a separate parking garage, which is unique for the DTC offices. Hopefully its a trend that continues down there.

Down around the Arapahoe station, it's filling in nicely. The building on the east side of the fwy, while not that tall, gives a nice canyon feel through there. Especially once the building on the west side is up.

[DUPio]

Construction of a project (looks like apts) looks like it began a while ago on Asbury and Josephine near Brueggers. Do we know how tall this will be?

DU neighborhood slowly gaining density

[derek.berardi]

New Highland activity! It appears to be taking out a rather dull 2-story office building and a parking lot to replace with 3 and 5 stories tiered down the hill.

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2017/01/12/denver-developer-building-100-apartments-in.html

[seventwenty]

Legislative Bills from Day 1

Originally Posted by DBJ

One major bill introduced Wednesday that appears to have at least some bipartisan backing is SB 45 — sponsored by Grantham and Sen. Angela Williams, D-Denver — seeks to reduce the cost of insurance for condominium builders.

Cutting those costs, backers believe, will spur more development of affordable condominiums and create more housing for young professionals. Builders now say they are scared of how easy it is to file class-action lawsuits over purported condominium defects, and condos make up less than 5 percent of the new housing stock in the Denver metro area.

SB 45 would allow insurers to go to court to apportion defense costs equitably among liability insurers who are required to defend a defect claim through an expedited process. It could be the first of a number of bills addressing construction-defects reform.

“By targeting insurance rates, we’re addressing the problem without reducing consumers’ right to protect the property that they spent their life’s savings to buy,” said House Speaker Crisanta Duran, D-Denver, a co-sponsor of the measure in her chamber.

Added Assistant House Minority Leader Cole Wist, R-Centennial, who is the House co-sponsor with Duran: “This is the first step in a multi-tier process to help Coloradans attain a home of their own, and I am pleased to be a part of this critical legislation.”

Read SB 17-045 here: http://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb17-045

[comoneymaker]

Originally Posted by DUPio

Construction of a project (looks like apts) looks like it began a while ago on Asbury and Josephine near Brueggers. Do we know how tall this will be?

DU neighborhood slowly gaining density

There was stuff posted a long time ago. I think the most north that is almost done is 3 then the red crane 5 and green cranes 7?

[comoneymaker]

To Greely? WTF?

http://www.9news.com/news/hyperloop-proposed-between-dia-and-greeley/385594983

[transistor]

As someone with extensive experience working with vacuum, I strongly doubt that hyperloop will ever be economical to operate.

[RyanD]

DenverInfill has some info for Bell Park and the proposed W Hotel. Click this for all the info.


Here are some concept designs / massings:

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by RyanD

DenverInfill has some info for Bell Park and the proposed W Hotel. Click this for all the info.

Damn, Buzz is actually bringing serious developers on board to develop his land interests. This is a welcome change as the number of empty parcels he owns downtown is significant- hopefully a few see ground breakings in the next
24 months.

[Fritzdude]

This would definitely make Auraria campus feel much 'closer' to the city. I hope it doesn't appear so monolith when it goes through the design review. Good feeling about this one!

[SandSailor]

It would be kinda sweet if that connecting bridge had a glass bottom!