DENVER | Main Development Thread #7

[laniroj]

Originally Posted by rds70

The Paradise Land Company site at Speer and Market is back in play.

A new concept plan has been submitted to the City for a 37 story, 139 unit building. Not sure who the developer is this time, as the plan was submitted by the engineer - HKS.

I’m sure more information will be coming in the next few days in the media.

ha, no doubt the media blitz will be forthcoming, it's a Buzz Geller site! Unless the developer put a muzzle on him in the contract, which would have been smart.

[laniroj]

Have been in the Santa Fe corridor over the last couple weeks and hadn't been around there in probably 6 months. There is quite a flurry of residential development activity down there. Anyone have a good summary of the various projects currently under construction?

I am particularly excited for this part of town because there is so much great retail there that could use some more patrons nearby. There's also a huge opportunity for additional neighborhood infill retail in that area, good bones for it.

[seventwentyone]

Originally Posted by laniroj

Have been in the Santa Fe corridor over the last couple weeks and hadn't been around there in probably 6 months. There is quite a flurry of residential development activity down there. Anyone have a good summary of the various projects currently under construction?

I am particularly excited for this part of town because there is so much great retail there that could use some more patrons nearby. There's also a huge opportunity for additional neighborhood infill retail in that area, good bones for it.

Denver FUGLY will have a completely neutral write up. Probably.

[SirLucasTheGreat]

Yeah I think Santa Fe is pretty exciting. Here are some of the projects

1. 1058 Santa Fe - two residential buildings (6 stories and 7 stories)

2. 1275 Santa Fe


3. 625 Santa Fe


4. 1225 Santa Fe


There are a bunch of others but these were a few I found on the SDP spreadsheet.

[TakeFive]

I've got this one figured out

Originally Posted by rds70

The Paradise Land Company site at Speer and Market is back in play.

A new concept plan has been submitted to the City for a 37 story, 139 unit building. Not sure who the developer is this time, as the plan was submitted by the engineer - HKS.

I’m sure more information will be coming in the next few days in the media.

It's going to be a condo tower developed by KSE.

Just reading the tea leaves

HKS was one of the architects on the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood CA. (Big clue)

Rams’ Kroenke pays $23.8M for penthouse at Maybourne Beverly Hills
October 08, 2021 By Dennis Lynch - The Real Deal

Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke now has two units at the exclusive Maybourne Beverly Hills condominium building that’s part of the luxe hotel by the same name in the city’s Golden Triangle. The buy came a decade after Kroenke got his first condo at the 20-unit building at 225 N. Canon Drive. The latest deal was for a penthouse sold by L.A. Fitness founder Louis Welch and his wife, Michu, according to Dirt.

The 4,900-square-foot unit cost Kroenke and his wife, Anne Walton Kroenke, $23.8 million. It’s a record price for the Maybourne Beverly Hills–beating the previous mark set when the Welches bought the same penthouse in 2017 for $19.7 million.

Stan want Josh to get some hands-on experience in RE development. Plus, since KSE owns three of Denver's sports franchises, Stan want Josh to have his own downtown penthouse condo (I think he currently lives in the Pepsi Center when he's in town).

This only makes sense.

Originally Posted by laniroj

Have been in the Santa Fe corridor over the last couple weeks and hadn't been around there in probably 6 months.

Did anybody recognize you? Did you go incognito?

Holland is the latest to develop here with a couple of buildings.

[Arapahoe]

Originally Posted by rds70

The Paradise Land Company site at Speer and Market is back in play.

A new concept plan has been submitted to the City for a 37 story, 139 unit building. Not sure who the developer is this time, as the plan was submitted by the engineer - HKS.

I’m sure more information will be coming in the next few days in the media.

curious where you found this!

Here is the previous proposal for the site.

[TakeFive]

Breaking ground this month - reportedly

The Residences at Olde Town Station
7295 W. 56th Ave. Arvada


Image courtesy The Eisen Group/High Street Residential via Arvada Press

Olde Town Arvada to get 252-unit rentals designed to preserve mountain view
Oct 13, 2021 By Jensen Werley – Reporter, Denver Business Journal

The plans for a new apartment building with adjacent town houses and retail right across from the Olde Town Arvada transit hub have been finalized by developers. The Class A project features four levels with 252 residential units over two levels of structured parking. Construction is expected to begin this month and is slated to be complete in late 2023.

Interesting partnership group.

The Residences at Olde Town Station is a project planned by a joint venture between the Denver office of High Street Residential — the residential subsidiary for Trammell Crow Company — and CBRE Investment Management, on behalf of the CBRE U.S. Development Partners 5 fund. The Eisen Group is the architect that designed the residences. PCL Construction is the general contractor. Financing for the project was provided by Citizens Bank.

This project has quite the history

The project’s roots actually go back to 2015, said Bill Mosher, senior managing director with High Street Residential’s Denver office. Trammell Crow Company was the master developer for the transit hub. It was selected by the Executive Oversight Committee — which includes the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority, the City of Arvada and the Regional Transportation District. That committee oversaw the development of the hub.

When Trammell Crow worked on the design and planning of the transit hub, they also envisioned that the space near it could be developed into something that was both transit-oriented and took advantage of the proximity of Olde Town Arvada.

Briefly, the backstory is that Trammel Crow worked closely with the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority to come up with a suitable project. There was a group of Arvada NYBMY's that were active at that time and raised a stink about Arvada selling land to the developer for $6 million that was worth $30 million PLUS they didn't like the proposed project - too dense. Reason for the land 'discount' was an underground pipe would need to be dug up and moved out from under the development as well as other issues. In 2018 the Arvada City Council held a re-vote on the project and rejected the proposal by one vote.

Neither AURA nor Trammell Crow were happy so they took the case to court where the City Council re-vote was ultimately overturned by the Colorado Court of Appeals. High Five for the Good Guys.

This sounds like a well-planned, nice project.

The site is unique, he added, because there is a scenic 35-foot hill that will be at the back of the apartment building. The developers decided that they’d terrace the units into the hill, in order to not block the view of the mountains for anyone who is in Olde Town Arvada. It’s a more complicated and expensive effort, Mosher said, but it meets the needs of the community.

The apartments and seven two-story town homes will also include a lot of open space and sidewalks to make the area more pedestrian-friendly, Mosher said.

But that's not the whole story; there even more development.

Directly south of 56th Avenue, on another nearly-four acres, will be 15,000 square feet of retail. That project will begin construction at the beginning of the year and is expected to open in October of next year. It is about 85% leased... There are also plans for a 130-room hotel to be on that parcel of land.

That's what I'm talking about... more exciting TOD coming to light rail stations.

[Arapahoe]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Breaking ground this month - reportedly

The Residences at Olde Town Station
7295 W. 56th Ave. Arvada


Image courtesy The Eisen Group/High Street Residential via Arvada Press

wish these were condos, but finally some development in Olde Town!

[mhays]

Haven't we Office Spaced spellings like Olde Town by now?

(The movie Office Space lampooned restaurant waiters who were required to wear suspenders and at least 15 buttons ("flair"), causing the real-life most-offending restaurant chain to give up the concept.)

[mr1138]

^ I often joke with my friends that we'll know Old Town Arvada has really "made it" as an urban neighborhood when they remove the "e" from the names Olde Town and its main street "Olde Wadsworth." Kind of like how Gold Rush settlements in Colorado were often given names like "Denver City," "Boulder City," "Lake City," "Ohio City," "Central City," etc. and the ones that actually became cities later removed the term from their names.

I think the name actually goes back a couple decades well before the neighborhood had its modern cache and train connection to Denver.

[mhays]

Does it harken to its history in England centuries ago?

[mr1138]

Originally Posted by mhays

Does it harken to its history in England centuries ago?

Lol. I honestly don't know the story - though it became a historic district in 1998 so the Office Space reference is pretty spot on if this is indeed when they gave it its current name.

I do wish they would consider "Office Spacing" the name though as you say. The neighborhood actually has real history and character that should be easier for people to appreciate in our current era of urban revitalization. It has been seeing plenty of development over the past few years too. My street has been pretty much continually under construction with new townhomes since I've lived here. There is also another nice small infill project on Grandview across from the commuter rail station that is about halfway completed.

[EngiNerd]

Originally Posted by mr1138

Lol. I honestly don't know the story - though it became a historic district in 1998 so the Office Space reference is pretty spot on if this is indeed when they gave it its current name.

I do wish they would consider "Office Spacing" the name though as you say. The neighborhood actually has real history and character that should be easier for people to appreciate in our current era of urban revitalization. It has been seeing plenty of development over the past few years too. My street has been pretty much continually under construction with new townhomes since I've lived here. There is also another nice small infill project on Grandview across from the commuter rail station that is about halfway completed.

It would probably require filing with SHPO (state historic preservation office) to have the name changed now since it is listed with the historic office under that title. So in short, it will not change.

[Ich]

Originally Posted by Arapahoe

curious where you found this!

Here is the previous proposal for the site.

https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2021/10/14/bell-tower-concept-plan-downtown-denver.html

Sounds like it’s the same project

[SirLucasTheGreat]

Wait so Kairoi is jumping back in? Are they going to continue where they left off with design review?

[kemachs]

Originally Posted by mr1138

There is also another nice small infill project on Grandview across from the commuter rail station that is about halfway completed.

I do like the terraces/design, just seems a little squat. Do you know if it was originally proposed as only 3 floors, or was it screamed down a floor or 2 by neighbors?

Arvada's downtown is great; cool mix of businesses with some old-school flavor mixed in, and love that they closed off a few streets (semi?) permanently for pedestrians. But one thing it could use is a little more density nearby, especially with an RTD station right there...arguably the best integrated w/ the historic fabric of any Denver suburb. Hell, other than Downtown, the Olde Town station environment feels more organically urban than any train stop in Denver proper.

[Arapahoe]

Originally Posted by SirLucasTheGreat

Wait so Kairoi is jumping back in? Are they going to continue where they left off with design review?

apparently so, Their video shows a bit more brick than what looked like all glass before.

• Video Link

[DenverInfill]

The DBJ article is strange in that it fails to mention the fact that this project was an active proposal pre-pandemic that had gone through multiple rounds of review with the LDDRC and had even submitted a formal site development plan in January 2020. They even link to a video of the project that, in the first few seconds, shows a title slide saying "Lower Downtown Design Review Commission, December 5, 2019". Yet, not one word about Kairoi working on this project since 2018 or that they walked away from the project in July 2020.

Why would the reporter have such selective amnesia?

It's because the DBJ failed to cover, at all, the Kairoi project from 2018–2020 (search their website and you'll see this is the case). If they had, the reporter certainly would have followed the DBJ's habit of awkward self-citation by stating "According to previous DBJ reporting..." to reference the previous iteration of Kairoi's Bell Park project. But since they couldn't do that, the DBJ just pretends that it never happened and instead, does an awkward self-citation to their coverage of Buzz Geller's original Bell Park tower from 2008, with rendering! And of course, they would never lower themselves to cite coverage of the previous Kairoi proposal on this site by the Denver Post, BusinessDen, or DenverInfill.

[SirLucasTheGreat]

Yeah those seem to be curious omissions. I'm curious how quickly Kairoi expects to be able to move forward on this project if they have already given through several rounds of design review. I think their original contract required design review approval before they would own the land.

[mhays]

The reporter's beat description has no mention of real estate. Her article history from the past few months suggests she took on real estate coverage in the last month or so. Commercial real estate seems to require familiarity to do well. I'd guess it's about not really knowing where to look, and no recollection about the project.

You could send an email noting a couple basics about the project history and where it's been covered. She might appreciate the background, and hearing about resources to check next time. Often they'll even put a clarification into the online article, so the archives will at least be right. This might even get some mention of Denver Infill.