DENVER | Main Development Thread #7 - Page 443

TakeFive · #**8841** Posted **May 14, 2020, 3:09 AM**

Inclusionary zoning hurts middle-class renters
May 11, 2020 By CREJ

You would think this would be obvious but some people prefer to pretend otherwise.

Quote:

These policies have two unintended consequences that negatively impact housing. First, inclusionary zoning makes many new housing communities unfeasible to build. If you cannot make money on building a rental unit, you do not build it. No one can live in a housing unit that is not built.

Colorado’s population is growing rapidly every year, particularly in metro Denver. The state needs additional housing units to meet this demand, not increased barriers to construction, like inclusionary zoning initiatives.

Going forward, depending on the economy, I'm curious to see how Denver's great diversity as apposed to cities like Austin or Seattle with their Bell Cows, will play out.

During the current earnings reporting season there has been a number of newer tech companies that have grown their business as a result of 'work-from-home' policies. It's these types of smaller to mid-size companies that often prefer Denver.

Update:

Right idea as Zoom just announced it would open new R&D offices in Tempe, AZ and Pittsburgh PA.

Quote:

The move will help Zoom tap into the roughly 4,500 engineering graduates per year at ASU.

Also, a building being co-developed by Cousins (90% ownership interest) and Hines (10% ownership interest) at 100 Mill Ave in Tempe has signed leases with both Deloitte and Amazon.

rds70 · #**8842** Posted **May 18, 2020, 4:00 AM**

A new sign on the skyline:

In a row of signs:

rds70 · #**8843** Posted **May 18, 2020, 4:04 AM**

Second tower crane up at the 10th and Acoma apartment project:

Sam Hill · #**8844** Posted **May 18, 2020, 3:29 PM**

14-story apartment complex proposed at Arapahoe Square bus station site

laniroj · #**8845** Posted **May 18, 2020, 3:51 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agent Orange

YIMBY has focused its efforts on overturning Telluride to usher in mandatory inclusionary zoning. Despite being a group/ideology that believes that decades of artificially reduced supply is the primary cause of our housing crisis, they are embracing a policy that has a high likelihood of further dampening supply. When I pushed back against this seeming contradiction, the counterargument was based on identity and emotion.

They're a Robin Kneich when we need a Kevin Faulconer. (I'll follow up with a PM).

^^Great comparison with Kneich. You are spot on. Not only is there an overwhelming amount of evidence that inclusionary housing requirements do not work in Denver (we had it for for-sale units during the condo boom and it barely produced ANY units), BUT we have a giant amount of evidence in basically every major urban city in America where it has already failed. Most of those larger coastal cities have either dropped inclusionary housing requirements or amended their programs to incentivize affordable housing development through tax abatement, density bonuses, etc. In every single case, inclusionary requirements have failed and led to the same result - restricting development leading to less housing supply, increased cost of living, and acceleration/concentration of wealthy/white urban communities and yet, once again, Denver wants to go the wrong direction because "we are different from those cities". I will never understand why people cannot process facts - these are not opinions, they are facts supported by decades of data. I'd be happy to quit my job, go back to school for a PhD and process all of this data with a bow on it if I thought it had a 1% chance of affecting how policy was made, bu that's unicorn land and a complete waste of time. YIMBY's relentless pursuit of the overturning of Telluride is unfortunate and dangerous - repeal of Telluride would open the flood gates of supply restriction. When so many cities are taking small and large steps in the right direction, Denver seems to be going the other way, unfortunately.

Development related, maybe Cypress' defeat at Denargo may lead to better focus on their Sportscastle project - or it may make them say screw you Denver, there are better cities for us to invest our dollars and time and we'll loose another several hundred units...

mhays · #**8846** Posted **May 18, 2020, 3:57 PM**

Density bonuses are only a half measure. They're intended to offset (at least in part) the added cost of the inclusionary units or payments.

But why is that enough? The goal should be to make market-rate housing CHEAPER. Every single renter and first-time buyer would benefit.

TakeFive · #**8847** Posted **May 18, 2020, 5:46 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Hill

14-story apartment complex proposed at Arapahoe Square bus station site

When I read the developer was listed as Scenic Investments, I had a half-chuckle thinking it must be a new local group.

But no... Scenic Investments has offices in London, Zurich and New York. Still doesn't indicate much.

rds70 · #**8848** Posted **May 18, 2020, 6:54 PM**

A few other updates from this past weekend:

Aspire at 7th and Grant:

Hyatt Centric:

Thompson Hotel:

Market Station:

Tykendo · #**8849** Posted **May 18, 2020, 7:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhays

You've summed it up well.

Then what do you suggest to bring the cost of housing down to what a poor guy or lower end of the middle class can truly afford. The goodness in the heart rental owners hasn't played out. I had to leave. My wages were not keeping up with rising rents. And that was in a so so apt. complex where police were visiting on a regular basis in Northglenn.

wong21fr · #**8850** Posted **May 18, 2020, 7:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tykendo

Then what do you suggest to bring the cost of housing down to what a poor guy or lower end of the middle class can truly afford. The goodness in the heart rental owners hasn't played out. I had to leave. My wages were not keeping up with rising rents. And that was in a so so apt. complex where police were visiting on a regular basis in Northglenn.

Get rid of parking requirements, introduce density bonuses, revise group living requirements, etc. Work the way up the socioeconomic ladder in any way possible. The reality is that housing costs will not be going down and the likely solution is to get by with less.

Or go the Candi CdeBaca route just gnash your teeth at they system without producing any results. Seems like Chris Hinds is also going that route which is super disappointing given what he has said in the past.

bulldurhamer · #**8851** Posted **May 18, 2020, 9:03 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tykendo

Then what do you suggest to bring the cost of housing down to what a poor guy or lower end of the middle class can truly afford. The goodness in the heart rental owners hasn't played out. I had to leave. My wages were not keeping up with rising rents. And that was in a so so apt. complex where police were visiting on a regular basis in Northglenn.

The only hope is to elect politicians at the federal level willing to redistribute the wealth. If half of the population isn’t making enough to live off, we’ll always have these inequities. The lower end of the wage scale in this country is as low as it’s been in a century.

Amazon and Facebook should not own everything and pay little in the way of taxes. A trillionaire Bezos possessing nearly half of the country’s wealth should be a clue.

TakeFive · #**8852** Posted **May 18, 2020, 9:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tykendo

Then what do you suggest to bring the cost of housing down to what a poor guy or lower end of the middle class can truly afford. The goodness in the heart rental owners hasn't played out. I had to leave. My wages were not keeping up with rising rents. And that was in a so so apt. complex where police were visiting on a regular basis in Northglenn.

If you wouldn't mind sharing I'd be curious where you escaped to?

It's not like we haven't talked endlessly about supply and demand. But there's different dynamics that are a part of each of those. On the demand side, it's not just the number of bodies but also the number of $'s. Over the last decade Denver has become very upscale with its tech & millennial appeal and as the economy grew exponentially so did the number of $'s (or average earnings) chasing places to live.

My position all along is that there is no magic bullet, only stuff that can be done at the margin.

But this decade is starting out very differently as $'s are dropping like a rock. Given that consumers make up ~70% of the U.S. GDP things will change significantly, at least in the near term.

TakeFive · #**8853** Posted **May 18, 2020, 9:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by rds70

A new sign on the skyline:

In a row of signs:

I love that new camera that you got.

Those signs take me all the way back to 1971.

I'm really glad you got that shot of Aspire Apartments. I'm sure we've read about it but it certainly wasn't 'front of mind' and I didn't recall The Dinerstein Companies. Out of Houston they're not a particularly large developer but they do have projects, including the Aspire brand, all the way from Missshh ee 🞵🞵🞵 to So Carolina and California. In any case that Aspire project is quite nice.

Something tells me that the Thompson Hotel will survive and (eventually) thrive. Gotta love that location and they (only) have a couple of hundred rooms.

Can't help myself though from drooling over Market Station so feel free to wipe off any coronavirus leftovers.

TakeFive · #**8854** Posted **May 18, 2020, 10:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by bulldurhamer

The only hope is to elect politicians at the federal level willing to redistribute the wealth. If half of the population isn’t making enough to live off, we’ll always have these inequities. The lower end of the wage scale in this country is as low as it’s been in a century.

Amazon and Facebook should not own everything and pay little in the way of taxes. A trillionaire Bezos possessing nearly half of the country’s wealth should be a clue.

Funny becuz yesterday I spent a couple of hours unpacking the fallacies on the right. It turns out that a number of drivers on the Phoenix Uber forum are Trump acolytes.

Just to set the record straight, Jeff Bezos is currently worth $145 billion; MacKenzie Bezos is worth ~$47 billion. It's also fair to point out that Amazon employs over 575,000 people who are still getting paid. Bezos net worth is not cash sitting in a bank that he could spend however he wishes; most of his wealth is tied up in Amazon stock.

The government has appropriated nearly 3 trillion $'s just to keep the lights on for most people. Even if Bezos wealth was stored in cash it still wouldn't dent everybody's needs and if you erased Amazon and it's employees you would just add to the despair.

FYI, a whole lot of wealth is being redistributed each year. Take away that wealth redistribution and this country would be crushed by those in need.

Taxes will be going up. Who do you think is going to pay for that $3 trillion being borrowed to support the poor. Btw, I will include myself as I'm collecting some of that good government cheese.

mhays · #**8855** Posted **May 18, 2020, 11:16 PM**

...What Wong said, plus upzone enough that developable space is a lot cheaper on a per-unit basis.

TakeFive · #**8856** Posted **May 19, 2020, 5:15 AM**

Denver company moving forward with development...
May 18, 2020 By James Rodriguez – Reporter, Denver Business Journal

No, it's not a forty-story industrial tower but it is industrial and it's all about feeding the development machine.

Quote:

RMI's core business is extracting and transporting construction materials, mostly for infrastructure projects. Over the past five years, the company has increasingly focused on the industrial supply chain, Dangler said.

The company conceived of Rocky Mountain Rail Park as it was looking to supply materials to the Front Range by rail.

It's all about building supply chains.

Quote:

"What we quickly figured out a couple years ago was there wasn't a readily available transportation center to distribute products," Dangler said. "Once we inquired with other types of companies in our sector and tangential sectors, we quickly figured out that not only did we lack the supply chain access, but so did everyone else."

So what's the schedule?

Quote:

Construction on the project has been delayed by four or five months due to the coronavirus, Dangler estimates, but is still set to begin later this year once the company gains full approval from Adams County. Dangler said he hopes for the project to be shovel-ready after Labor Day, with construction expected to take a year.

Any other companies besides yourself interested in this project?

Quote:

Aaron Valdez, Alec Rhodes, Tyler Smith and Michael Flynn of Cushman & Wakefield are the exclusive listing agents for the property. Rocky Mountain Rail Park will offer the only Union Pacific rail sites available for development in the east Denver metro area, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

Dangler declined to identify companies that have signed on to be part of the development, but said they are all "Fortune 500 companies, significant institutional operators."

g-man435 · #**8857** Posted **May 19, 2020, 6:41 AM**

BG918 · #**8858** Posted **May 19, 2020, 3:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by g-man435

Looks great, like 1144 15th I wish this one was about 20 floors taller. Two slick looking buildings that are still lost in the skyline.

CONative · #**8859** Posted **May 19, 2020, 4:26 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by g-man435

Has it "topped off" yet? I am wondering how much more height we will see in the skyline from now -- especially with the facade that goes higher on the sides.

DenvertoLA · #**8860** Posted **May 19, 2020, 5:17 PM**

That’s one shiny building. I can’t wait to see how they light it up at night.