DENVER | Main Development Thread #7

[Arapahoe]

Originally Posted by The Dirt

My money is on 700 17th St. The floor plans are tiny (9,350 sf unfinished) and the ceilings are low for modern typical office spaces. You could probably fit 4-6 units per floor, which means that less plumbing needs to be added than buildings with larger floor areas.

my money is on 1200 Lincoln, ye olde Art Institute (ok, maybe I cheated)

[The Dirt]

Wow, they're really doing the bare minimum with that facade, eh?

[Arapahoe]

Re: More adaptive reuse

Originally Posted by The Dirt

Wow, they're really doing the bare minimum with that facade, eh?

want a new facade eh? ok

Here is another adaptive reuse of a truly ugly office building at Broadway and Speer near Denver Health that will become affordable housing.

Both this and my previous post are currently under construction with 110 & 194 apartments respectively.


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[coolmandan03]

Originally Posted by The Dirt

My money is on 700 17th St. The floor plans are tiny (9,350 sf unfinished) and the ceilings are low for modern typical office spaces. You could probably fit 4-6 units per floor, which means that less plumbing needs to be added than buildings with larger floor areas.

As someone that works in this building and just resigned a 5 year lease - My money is not. There isn't the required fire egress for residential and you couldn't install one without a full building tear-down.

[Curtis Park]

Originally Posted by bulldurhamer

about these one-way street conversions...

Do you guys know that when you take away the one-way street, it makes it virtually impossible for the pedestrian to cross the street if there's any kind of traffic at all? At least that's the case in Rino where you've made Walnut two ways and now crossing the street safely is nearly impossible in what's an extremely busy part of town. Where is the consideration for the pedestrian? What are we doing here?




edited to add - if we're taking cars off of Larimer, getting them off up in Rino should take priority. That's got to be one of the most pedestrian-dominated areas in the city now and only growing, and yet nothing is being done for the pedestrian of note. It's actually getting worse as they move away from the one-way streets without providing more crossings. Why not at least have traffic calming lights as they do on Stout? Anything all all. I'm telling you, crossing most of those arterial streets is scary as hell. i thought we were doing a vision zero thing. All they have done is make it even more dangerous.

I've noticed that you guys have added even more crossing time in recent years for pedestrians in the central business district, making it take forever to go three blocks by car. that's fine and all, except this is still happening in the middle of the night. there are no people there really, aside from the people sleeping there, and yet they have days to cross the street. meanwhile up in rino, you need a miracle to cross safely. and that's where the people actually are! so you have routed all traffic through walnut now going both ways, you have loads of drunk people and otherwise wandering around in the dark, and you have nowhere for them to cross. DISASTER waiting to happen. act now or get ready to see post sent everywhere when tragedy strikes, which it will if nothing is done.

First, wow!
Second, I've noticed the exact opposite. Crossing Walnut, Larimer, Lawrence, Curtis, and California are easy and traffic moves slower on the two-ways. More four-way stops might be better, just like they have in Cherry Creek. But I'm no expert.
And who are you referring to when you say "you guys"?

[COtoOC]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

I get the organic feel with the Stanley, but let's admit that the #1 way that people get there is by pouring the family into their high-end SUV and driving down there. I was talking to one of the Stanley owners and they said that, unfortunately, finding a way to increase parking was a huge concern of theirs. Though they are excited for the hundreds of new apartment units going in just south- that should net a big increase in pedestrian traffic both to the the Stanley and the Montview corridor.

It's great that you can walk to a ton of independent restaurants located in a single building, but I would argue that's it put more people into cars than out of them being on the edge of Central Park (which is no knock on the Stanley, they have to work with what they have). Heck, I've tried to convince my wife to move south of I-70 but have failed thus far due to 1) the school location argument and 2) she is convinced that the plots are smaller south of I-70.

True... parking is bad at the Stanley, but I'm happy it's been successful. I know their events attract people from all over the metro area, causing traffic. I'm just lucky I can walk to it.

Lots probably are smaller on the south side. I don't personally care because I don't have much grass to maintain and have a park across the street.

You could always buy an "old" South End or Eastbridge house and be the first scrape-off We did quite a bit of interior remodeling this past year since we plan on being here at least 10 more years.

[Denver]

Originally Posted by Arapahoe

Re: More adaptive reuse



want a new facade eh? ok

Here is another adaptive reuse of a truly ugly office building at Broadway and Speer near Denver Health that will become affordable housing.

Both this and my previous post are currently under construction with 110 & 194 apartments respectively.


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I just drove by there yesterday. I does not look like they are doing anything to the facade except painting it. I hope I am wrong but...

[Arapahoe]

Originally Posted by Denver

I just drove by there yesterday. I does not look like they are doing anything to the facade except painting it. I hope I am wrong but...

interesting, I did find another render floating in the interwebs.. Does this look like the paint you saw? Seems like more than paint though.

[Denver]

Originally Posted by Arapahoe

interesting, I did find another render floating in the interwebs.. Does this look like the paint you saw? Seems like more than paint though.

It does not. WhatI saw was them repainting the silver siding a turquoise blue but not changing the window line at all. Hope I am wrong but for a homeless housing project I find it hard to believe they will reskin the building.

[Denver]

Originally Posted by Denver

It does not. What I saw was them repainting the silver siding a turquoise blue but not changing the window line at all. Hope I am wrong but for a homeless housing project I find it hard to believe they will reskin the building.

I found a new rendering. Get ready for the new ugliest buildings in Denver!!!!

[Arapahoe]

Originally Posted by Denver

I found a new rendering. Get ready for the new ugliest buildings in Denver!!!!

OMFG -- I walked over there to look, its even WAY uglier than your render. They are indeed just painting the current facade a sickly greenish-blue like a hospital scrub.

I was dumbfounded how bad it looks...like who would pick that color?

Guess the interior rebuild of the building cost more than expected and the facade was axed from the budget.

[Denver]

I do not think this has been discussed.

New apartment at Buchtel Blvd & S Pennsylvania. 42 units. Targeting 2022 completion. Being developed by Confluent Development

[Arapahoe]

Golub / Rockefeller demolition permit for the Greyhound station has been issued!!!

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by SirLucasTheGreat

The federal infrastructure bill passed. Maybe now we will get the Front Range Passenger Rail and the rest of FasTracks

Politically, it's a bit anti-climatic since it came about two months too late to help Virginia; but we can send our political condolences to Cirrus.

With respect to RTD

Nathaniel Minor/CPR reports from RTD:

A spokeswoman for the state’s largest transit agency, the Denver metro’s Regional Transportation District, said it’s not yet clear just how much of a bump RTD will see. But the agency is “thrilled” by the bill’s passage, she said.

“Expected funding increases are eligible for capital operating expenses and will greatly assist RTD in reducing the substantial maintenance backlog by providing funding assistance for fleet and operating equipment replacement,” RTD spokeswoman Laurie Huff wrote in an email.

There will also be some competitive grant money available.

RTD could also seek competitive grants to fund projects like the long-planned bus rapid transit line on East Colfax Avenue, Huff said.

$66 billion for passenger and freight rail

Slate has the splits:

The deal includes $22 billion in “grants” for Amtrak, another $24 billion specifically for the Northeast Corridor, and another $20 billion for intercity service, safety grants, and grade crossing improvements.

The takeaway from Axios:

Amtrak CEO Bill Flynn told "Axios on HBO" the $66 billion coming to rail through the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill will be "absolutely transformational" and "more funding than we've had in our 50 years of history combined."

And props to President "Amtrak Joe" Biden:

Details: About half of the money targeted for Amtrak would go to expanding intercity passenger rail across the U.S. — targeting places where there are now few or no routes.

• "Phoenix to Tucson is a great example," Flynn said. "Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati. Los Angeles to Las Vegas."
• As for a dream stop that doesn't currently exist: "I think Nashville would be a great place to stop. I mean, how many country-western songs involve trains?"

Note: Tucson to Phoenix is a no-brainer as it's a much easier lift than many proposals meaning easier to do and not expensive.

[TakeFive]

I was curious what you were referring to but had an idea.

Originally Posted by RyanD

Same! I was commuting 40 hours a month from downtown to the tech center. WFH has saved my sanity, until Union Station started doing whatever it's doing right now. I feel like I have more of my life back, especially during dark season starting next week and I don't have to commute in the dark anymore which is the best.

https://www.thedenverchannel.com/new...id-crime-spike

DENVER — People living in and around the Union Station area are worried they are losing their neighborhood to rampant crime and they are trying to take it back.

The bright lights of downtown Denver are being drowned out by blue and red ones around Union Station.

I'd be frustrated as Hell, too.

"It’s not what we signed up for," said Billy Kurz. Kurz is a longtime Denver resident. He and his wife moved out of the suburbs and into a Lower Downtown condo three years ago. "I moved into the LoDo area to be closer to where all the action is," he said.

The action he’s seeing now isn’t what he was hoping for. "There's pretty rampant drug use, nudity down here. You have to really pick your spots where you are going to be," said Kurz.

I don't think anyone wants to look at naked meth heads whether male or female.

Whether liberal or conservative makes no difference but I'm ready for a "much tougher on crime" approach.

"Since there are less people working, there are more people doing bad things, and unfortunately they’re not facing consequences for their actions," explains Kurz.

Kurz and Greenly partly blame recognizance bonds which allow the person arrested to get out of jail without exchanging money. Kurz says they are working with the district attorney's office in hopes of getting more convictions out of offenders.

I'm all for rounding up these miscreants and sending to them to 'internment camps' near La Junta. Seriously, these clowns need big time intervention. How many $millions does Denver spend on Narcan?

Narcan demand outweighs supply as homeless overdose deaths skyrocket
Nov 7, 2021 by: Rob Low - KDVR

DENVER (KDVR) — The City of Denver told FOX31 drug use is one of the biggest reasons why homeless sweeps are necessary. Last year, the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment collected more than 4,400 needles from homeless encampments.

But the most telling statistics about drugs and homelessness come from the Denver morgue.

“We’re in the worst overdose crisis we’ve ever seen in the United States, Colorado, and in Denver,” said Lisa Raville, executive director of the Harm Reduction Action Center. HRAC is Colorado’s largest public health agency that works specifically with people who inject drugs.

Whatever it is 'they' think should be working IS NOT WORKING.

[bulldurhamer]

https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/09/mo...vegas-in-2023/

Lyft and Motional, the Aptiv-Hyundai joint venture aimed at commercializing autonomous driving technology, have announced plans to launch their first fully driverless ride-hail service in Las Vegas in 2023. The news follows multiple years of collaboration, both between the two companies and within the City of Sin.

By the second half of next year, Motional and Lyft aim to be transporting public passengers, who will be able to book rides through the Lyft app, in Motional’s electric Hyundai IONIQ 5-based robotaxis before scaling up to a full commercial launch where Lyft is allowed to charge for rides in 2023.

everybody here keeps ignoring reality, i guess because they don't teach it in your backyard urbanism 101 classes aimed at pushing antiquated expensive technology on us.


i'll say it as much as it needs to be said. go take your gazillion dollar train proposals and shove them where the sun don't shine.

clean efficient convenient cars should be able to handle all of our needs, probably more quickly and certainly cheeper than all of your ridiculous train ideas.

trains are 19th century technology that we've already abandoned once because they suck.

[bulldurhamer]

Originally Posted by Curtis Park

First, wow!
Second, I've noticed the exact opposite. Crossing Walnut, Larimer, Lawrence, Curtis, and California are easy and traffic moves slower on the two-ways. More four-way stops might be better, just like they have in Cherry Creek. But I'm no expert.
And who are you referring to when you say "you guys"?

there are very few stops on walnut. it was the raceway out of town.

now the planners have made it a main route both ways without adding a way to cross. stop signs at every block are desperately needed here.

i'm not really sure what you've noticed, because you've obviously not been here. nobody alive would say this is better for the pedestrian who actually has to play frogger to get across.

[Arapahoe]

Originally Posted by bulldurhamer

there are very few stops on walnut. it was the raceway out of town.

now the planners have made it a main route both ways without adding a way to cross. stop signs at every block are desperately needed here.

i'm not really sure what you've noticed, because you've obviously not been here. nobody alive would say this is better for the pedestrian who actually has to play frogger to get across.

agreed! One-way Curtis Street is like a drag racing strip from CBD to Broadway. Curtis is targeted for conversion to 2-way in the Arapahoe Square plan and I can't wait.

While it can appear easier to cross a one-way when you are on the side of the intersection where traffic opposite you can't turn into your cross-walk because of the direction on the one-way, the very next intersection opposing traffic is moving fast & crossing into your cross-walk and sometimes very difficult to see.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by bulldurhamer

there are very few stops on walnut. it was the raceway out of town.

now the planners have made it a main route both ways without adding a way to cross. stop signs at every block are desperately needed here.

i'm not really sure what you've noticed, because you've obviously not been here. nobody alive would say this is better for the pedestrian who actually has to play frogger to get across.

I believe it's a Darwinian sorting tool as urbanism is actually a backdoor eugenics program.

[Arapahoe]

Originally Posted by Arapahoe

Golub / Rockefeller demolition permit for the Greyhound station has been issued!!!

well that escalated quickly. demolition of Greyhound has commenced!