DENVER | Main Development Thread #7

[SirLucasTheGreat]

Looks like the River Mile is looking to break ground in the next 18 months.

https://www.9news.com/mobile/article/mon.../73-357d2cc3-e77e-46e5-85cc-0180f189c87c

[coolmandan03]

Originally Posted by SirLucasTheGreat

Looks like the River Mile is looking to break ground in the next 8 months.

I think you mean 18 months.

[SirLucasTheGreat]

Originally Posted by coolmandan03

I think you mean 18 months.

Thanks! Typo

[twister244]

Originally Posted by coolmandan03

I think you mean 18 months.

I would assume "break ground" probably means more on the infrastructure side of things. The article mentions dredging the river, and there will be other improvements that need to be made first to accommodate any new towers that actually get built. Makes sense. I wonder if that kind of work can occur regardless of macro economic conditions, assuming some kind of recession ensues in the next year or two.

Either way, I am super excited about this project. It's definitely a place I could see myself living in someday if I am still in Denver when the first condo tower completes

[TakeFive]

Nice to see much needed urban density coming along


Credit: Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Need all the help we can find to finish on time.


Thanks Deke

By the end of 2020?


Credit: Workshop8

[BG918]

Originally Posted by twister244

I would assume "break ground" probably means more on the infrastructure side of things. The article mentions dredging the river, and there will be other improvements that need to be made first to accommodate any new towers that actually get built. Makes sense. I wonder if that kind of work can occur regardless of macro economic conditions, assuming some kind of recession ensues in the next year or two.

Either way, I am super excited about this project. It's definitely a place I could see myself living in someday if I am still in Denver when the first condo tower completes

I saw a presentation about this project. You are correct there is a LOT of infrastructure/enabling work that has to be done before they actually build anything. Dredging the river and lowering it by as much as 8 ft is no simple task and involves close coordination with the Army Corps of Engineers. Not sure how this affects the dam/whitewater flume by Confluence Park.

[TakeFive]

Bespoke Uptown goes from 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 to topped off


Photo courtesy Southern Land Co via Mile High CRE

https://milehighcre.com/residential-development-in-uptown-denver-tops-out/

November 1, Southern Land Company (SLC), a national real estate developer of award-winning mixed-use developments and master planned communities, held a Topping Off celebration for its new residential development in Denver’s Uptown neighborhood. Bespoke Uptown, located at 17th Avenue and Pearl Street, will feature 316 apartments and more than 10,000 square feet of restaurant space. Leasing is scheduled to begin next spring, with the first apartments due to open in the summer of 2020.

How novel.

and a resident-only parking garage.

Props and fond memories.

Southern Land Company worked with Historic Denver to preserve two historic early-20th-century commercial structures that anchor the development on 17th Avenue. Maintaining these structures lends pedestrian scale to the project on 17th Avenue.

“We are grateful to Southern Land for working with our organization and the community to find a way to save these buildings, which are well over 100 years old,” said Annie Levinsky, Executive Director of Historic Denver Inc. “Southern Land was incredibly responsive from the first call we made to express concern about the historic buildings, and clearly recognized that a project that respected and honored its context would be more successful in the long run.”

[TakeFive]

Courtesy of Bryan Construction

Bryan Construction Completes All Copy Products’ Headquarters in Denver
November 19, 2019

Bryan Construction, Inc. (BCI) recently completed construction of All Copy Products‘ new Denver headquarters. All Copy Products is a top office solutions provider that offers office technology services from copiers, document management & managed IT Services. Bryan Construction was contracted as the design-builder to construct the 136,877-square-foot, 5-story building at 1635 W. 13th Ave., in Denver’s Lincoln Park.

No need for window coverings? Does this mean I could stand naked in front of the windows?

The All Copy Products headquarters is one of the first buildings in Denver to use electrochromic glazing. Electrochromic glass removes the need for interior window coverings by tinting the window based on the time of day and sun exposure.

C'mon over Metro State University.

The on-site Bryan Construction team at the project also enjoyed using the building as a learning opportunity for the Civil Engineering Technology students from Metro State University’s nearby Auraria Campus. The team toured with the students and taught them about the post-tension cabling being used in the parking structure and the importance of proper installation.

And when it's time to party...

The 5th floor boasts an entertaining kitchen, which overlooks Mile High Stadium, for daily use and special events.

[TakeFive]

Off-topic Suburban-urban synergies and mixed-use

I happen to notice that Vestar Development bought Bowles Crossing in 2016. Vestar specializes in what's called either "open air" or lifestyle shopping centers or lifestyle centers which are mixed-use areas but often separated into specific uses. Examples in Denver would include the redeveloped Belmar or Streets of Southglenn.

Vestar's crown jewel is Desert Ridge Marketplace in NE Phoenix. To the immediate west is medical, office and smaller hotels. To the immediate north are apartments and condos. To the north of these lies the 950-room JW Marriott Resort-Hotel which does a ton of conference business. This area is a hot spot for ride-share. To the east is 100 acres of vacant land which spent 5 years in bankruptcy following the recession. In January it was bought by Crown Realty & Development out of Irvine CA and best known for developing Century City. A true mixed-use development is now under construction.

I also see where Allied Res will build Broadstone apartments at Bowles Crossing which is not surprising given their offices are in the same building as Vestar. It's one example of a nice urban/suburban office investment in an area very comparable to Cherry Creek.

[TakeFive]

QUICK: Somebody wake-up The Dirt

https://businessden.com/2019/11/25/devel...oject-in-arapahoe-square-closes-on-land/

The residential units would be in two narrow towers, which would extend an additional 18 stories above the podium. The goal is for 80 percent of the units in the building to list for no more than $565,000.

And they now own the land - which is a good place to start and promising.

The new development firm planning a 23-story condo project in Arapahoe Square has closed on the land. Denver-based Ubuntu Partners purchased 838 Park Avenue West and 2250 Champa St. on Friday for $5.53 million, according to Newmark Knight Frank, which represented the sellers.

Originally Posted by Robert.hampton

Oh no, another Buzz Geller property under contract falls through. NEVER saw this coming.

Dude... this one never had a chance from the get-go. Either Buzz was reserving a future deposit forfeiture or he was giving a friendly 6-month free look to enable a nascent developer to create some buzz for himself. There was never anything to see here; there was no there, there.

[SirLucasTheGreat]

Arapahoe Square is heating up. Can anyone provide any examples of successful developments attached to Buzz's name?

[twister244]

With regards to the "Evolve Towers", I like this part from the article:

"The residential units would be in two narrow towers, which would extend an additional 18 stories above the podium. The goal is for 80 percent of the units in the building to list for no more than $565,000."

Granted, $565k is still a ton for a condo, if 80% of the building is below this price, that's actually not bad considering how nice some of the renderings look. It's much better than the McGregor Square condos which start around $500k for a piddly studio.....

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by SirLucasTheGreat

Arapahoe Square is heating up. Can anyone provide any examples of successful developments attached to Buzz's name?

As wong likes to repeat, Buzz has never developed anything because he's not a developer; he's a land banker.

One of Buzz'a sites has now been sold but if and what the new owner, Harbinger Development, succeeds in building is tbd.

My hunch is that this site on Santa Fe has a reasonable good chance.

I'm reminded I forgot to mention I enjoyed your drive-by photos. That Element Hotel looks fine - given I didn't have high expectations to begin with. And as EngiNerd pointed out the high cost of the Art Museum Entrance - it was worth every penny.

[laniroj]

Originally Posted by iNfill

This guy really 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵.

He has the lot valued at $27.5M. I'm not an expert on real estate, but that seems extremely high. Especially since his lot on 17th, which doesn't have a height limit, sold for $10M less...and this guy use to preach about affordable living.

I bet they could get the greyhound station for less.

$27.5mm for a site with that density isn't crazy. On 1,300 units, that's only $21k per unit, super cheap for downtown Denver. The problem in this instance wasn't Buzz Geller, it was a joke of a developer (not because they can't develop, but because not just anybody can build skyscrapers). Townhome entitlements in Louisville are just a tad different than wind sheer, vortex, and pressurized building systems for high rises. Comical that dude thought he could build a skyscraper. Comical Buzz gave him a contract.

[PLANSIT]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

As wong likes to repeat, Buzz has never developed anything because he's not a developer; he's a land banker.

One of Buzz'a sites has now been sold but if and what the new owner, Harbinger Development, succeeds in building is tbd.

My hunch is that this site on Santa Fe has a reasonable good chance.

I'm reminded I forgot to mention I enjoyed your drive-by photos. That Element Hotel looks fine - given I didn't have high expectations to begin with. And as EngiNerd pointed out the high cost of the Art Museum Entrance - it was worth every penny.

Trivista at 14th Ave. and Speer was a Buzz property. It's now complete.

[Matt]

Is 1144 15th Street lighting its crown? I saw the "Bachus and Schancker" live Sky Cam during last night's weather forecast segment on Fox 31 News...

Sorry for the poor quality images. They were taken with a phone from a TV showing a grainy webcam...

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by laniroj

$27.5mm for a site with that density isn't crazy. On 1,300 units, that's only $21k per unit, super cheap for downtown Denver. The problem in this instance wasn't Buzz Geller, it was a joke of a developer (not because they can't develop, but because not just anybody can build skyscrapers). Townhome entitlements in Louisville are just a tad different than wind sheer, vortex, and pressurized building systems for high rises. Comical that dude thought he could build a skyscraper. Comical Buzz gave him a contract.

That's assuming you can squeeze 1,300 units on that site that aren't all micro-studios- I'm going to call BS on the higher number and say that this lot can support 1,000 units top. Which makes for $28K per unit. Comparatively, Ubuntu paid $18K per unit for their lot.

Is a 55K sq ft lot with a 17:1 FAR (a bit over 900K for an envelope) and a 400-ft height limit worth $500/sq ft? Or should it be more in the $400/sq ft range? I'd still say the problem is Buzz Geller and that's why project announcements for his properties tend to be low-tier developers (excluding the machinations with Bell Park). The cream seems to take a loooong time to rise to the surface with Buzz.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by PLANSIT

Trivista at 14th Ave. and Speer was a Buzz property. It's now complete.

Excellent; I had missed that one so thanks for filling in the blank.


It's not a problem today
and likely won't be for a few years but time and things can change.

According the the DBJ:

Charles Schwab Corp. will move its headquarters from San Francisco to the Dallas area. The move was announced Monday as part of Schwab's acquisition of TD Ameritrade in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $26 billion.

"As part of the integration process, the corporate headquarters of the combined company will eventually relocate to Schwab's new campus in Westlake, Texas,"

The Cost of Doing Business and Politics often go hand-in-hand, at least to a degree.

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news...-after.html?iana=hpmvp_phx_news_headline

It was a no-brainer for Clark when he decided to move Zovio's headquarters from San Diego to Chandler in April. Clark said he was paying $8 million in annual leases to rent space in San Diego.

According to Thomas Brophy, research director at Colliers International, rents in the Chandler area hover around $18 a square foot, which would put Zovio's annual lease payments in the $2.3 million range.

So costs were important, a deciding factor?

"I have a list of running things that are so much less expensive in Arizona than they are in California," said Clark, who is excited about how many more square feet he can get in his Phoenix home for the price he paid in San Diego. "Everything from the price of a home, property tax, registration for my car."

Gov Hickenlooper was a fine Democrat and state leader. He knew that Job 1 was preserving Colorado's business friendly reputation. So what does that even mean, exactly? Let's let the decision maker give his own view.

But it's more than just the lower prices, he said, pointing to how he was welcomed by the business community.

"The business friendliness of the state and the way in which we were welcomed when we were looking at different states and different cities where to locate the headquarters of the company, certainly the mayor of Chandler, the whole Chandler community and the chamber — everybody was just so welcoming," Clark said.

I feel Denver has been historically competitive in this regard - so far.

Zovia isn't a high-flying tech start-up; rather it's a successful Ed-tech firm concerned with costs as they directly impact profitability. The City of Chandler is an upscale area that years ago was negatively impacted when tech manufacturing gravitated to Asia. Today, it's a modern city example similar to (in many ways) the combination of the DTC, Inverness and surrounding area. Like Scottsdale it has employed lots of safe-streets ideas throughout the neighborhoods.

In the near term, Denver has too much positive momentum to be too concerned. But time and things can change.

[SnyderBock]

What I would like to see, is a federal corporate tax on profits of 20%. But, companies would be able to deduct any special district, local or state tax from that.

So if a company in Denver pays a total of 5% of its profits to local/state taxes, then they would pay an additional 15% to the feds, for a net total tax rate of 20% of profits.

Likewise, if a company moves to New Jersey and gets a $500 million tax incentive, resulting in a net local/state tax of 0%, then they pay 20% of their net profits in Federal tax.

Likewise, if a company in Los Angeles pays 20% of its net profits to local/state tax, then they pay 0% in federal tax.

The scale would not go negative, so if hypothetically a company was paying 25% of profits to local/state taxes, they would not receive a federal refund equal to 5% of their net profits to put them back down to a net 20% tax rate.

Would this tax include US corporate profits being held in other country?

Yes and an additional 10% penalty tax rate on profits in other countries would be applied in addition to the 20% tax rate and no deductions for local/state/federal foreign taxes paid, if the profits are left abroad. If the profits are brought back to the US, then they will receive the deduction for taxes already paid in foreign countries and have the 10% penalty tax waived.

So what if a US company moves it's headquarters to another country?

In this case, that company would have a 50% tariff tax imposed on any US transactions/sales.

Business ethics abroad:
All US Headquartered companies with operations abroad must abide by all US Federal regulations, EPA standards, workplace conditions requirements, Labor Laws, full US Constitutional compliance and Federal minimum wage laws. If laws of a foreign country contradict, restrict or prohibit full compliance to US law, then the US company will be forbidden from having operations or having business partnerships with 3rd parties, in those countries, until that country reforms it's laws allowing for full compliance with US law/requirements.

[Stonemans_rowJ]

Originally Posted by twister244

With regards to the "Evolve Towers", I like this part from the article:

"The residential units would be in two narrow towers, which would extend an additional 18 stories above the podium. The goal is for 80 percent of the units in the building to list for no more than $565,000."

Granted, $565k is still a ton for a condo, if 80% of the building is below this price, that's actually not bad considering how nice some of the renderings look. It's much better than the McGregor Square condos which start around $500k for a piddly studio.....

So basically all the units will all be <1000' definitely on the small side for a 2bed unit. Makes sense though, conforming loan limit is currently like $562,000.