DENVER | Main Development Thread #7

[Arapahoe]

Originally Posted by rds70

12th and Delaware Apartments:

250 units, 13 stories, 2,000 sf retail:

Proposed construction start Q1 2022.

... must be the Cambrian explosion of Denver development

[Arapahoe]

A newish 24 story Union Station tower in the news:

Tenants at The Grand Say the Apartments Are Anything But

[bunt_q]

So the little triangle parcel between Colfax/Court/14th across from Webb and the City and County Bldg… where that really cool hotel was proposed… it looks like they demolished the existing structure today. Anybody have any updates?

[TakeFive]

Appreciate This

Originally Posted by coolmandan03

Using Firefox, there's a Bypass Paywalls extension. Works great!

I used to run Firefox for years before I switched to Chrome. I suspect I'll download it and give that a spin.

Originally Posted by BG918

This is definitely something that is trending the wrong direction in Denver. Homicides and shootings are way up and large parts of downtown that previously felt safe no longer feel that way. I know in my Denver neighborhood there has been an increase in burglaries and theft as well.

It just boggles my mind the amount of juvenile gun violence.

Clearly the addicted develop a keen talent for theft.

Excellent Description

Originally Posted by laniroj

Good points but I believe missing the key factor: the suburban decline in production is due to the fact that land development fell off the map entirely starting in 2007 and lasting through roughly 2012.

Homebuilders need lots and generally focused pre-great recession on buying finished lots to build homes, not necessarily entitling land which is long, risky, and unpredictable work. Some of these big communities we see in the suburbs/exurbs take 10+ years from conception to shovels. Land development is also terrible for the publicly traded company earnings reports and balance sheets so they stay away. Land development is back in full swing but the momentum, as many rightly point out, shifted to urban center and brownfields. It's been picking up in the suburbs, but we still do have anywhere near the level of suburban sprawl/production that we've enjoyed continuously from 1900 to 2007, kicking the 1930's to the curb...

But there is a problem using new home construction/sales data to suggest a housing shortage - for one simple reason.

We became a Rental Nation

As wong reminds us it became too difficult to get 'young' buyers approved for new homes. Young Millennials all wanted to live in downtown apartments anyway. So it only made sense for builders to focus on the upscale market. There continued to be some mid-level home construction too.

But at some point builders realized they needed more land and you're right there became a scarcity of buildable lots maybe 2014-2015. Then everybody rushed to get zoning approval in the same week and you can imagine how quickly that happened.

Speaking of the extended time for development, that also applied to builders switching to those larger land barges downtown that Robert.hampton is so fond of.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by jbssfelix

Oh good, someone finally straightened out the Jenga tower in Austin.

I recall my 1st impression being, well impressed. But I quickly decided it looked more funky than impressive

Originally Posted by SirLucasTheGreat

That's really 12th and Delaware?

Worth noting is that 12th and Delaware was completed over 10 years ago.

Originally Posted by Arapahoe

... must be the Cambrian explosion of Denver development

I had to google Cambrian explosion - It's a thing.

Too funny

Originally Posted by Arapahoe

A newish 24 story Union Station tower in the news:

Tenants at The Grand Say the Apartments Are Anything But

That is owned by Shorenstein Properties and I can imagine there's some interesting conversations between them and Saunders who was the GC as well as specific subs likely including plumbing sub-contractors.

Speaking of Shorenstein Properties they recently purchased this empty office building at 3600 Brighton Blvd. from Haselden etal.


Courtesy of Revolution360 LLC

https://www.denverpost.com/2021/12/02/vacant-new-rino-office-building-rev360-sells-for-72m/

Ed Haselden never wanted to develop a spec office building.

When he and his partners broke ground on Rev360 at 3600 Brighton Blvd. in the spring of 2019, they already had a marquee tenant planning to move in. WeWork had committed to taking two of the building’s five floors.

Ofc the WeWork lease blew up.

That meant Rev360, completed in July 2020, was sitting vacant.

“Our objective was never to own a 100 percent spec building,” Haselden told BusinessDen Tuesday. “It was really putting us in a situation where that’s not what we do.”

This week, Haselden and his development partners — Keystone Equities, Rob Cohen and Tributary Real Estate — sold Rev360 to San Francisco-based Shorenstein Properties, both parties confirmed.

Shorenstein Properties also has this building coming.

Shorenstein is also partnering with Denver-based Nichols Partnership to develop the five-story One Platte office building at 1701 Platte St., which will be completed next year. This is the company’s first deal in RiNo; it previously owned Denver City Center downtown, selling the two office towers for $400 million in early 2020.

I can recall posting about the sale of the City Center property.

[TakeFive]

Agree that holding onto your Denver Condo is a good idea

Originally Posted by twister244

The other thing I experienced is several people I met in the five years I was in Denver have also left. It's a pretty transient city for millennials, unless they settle down out in the burbs with kids.

You might just want to move back some day. Stranger things could happen. Keeping your Denver condo would make the move back easy.

You make good points though and that's interesting about others that you knew also moving. Still, a small sample size.

I'm trying to figure out what's going to happen with the economy

I ordered a new crystal ball for Xmas; I'm also reminded I've had many crystal balls over the years and always ended up smashing them against the wall as their predictions were lousy.

Inflation looks to continue which is NOT good. At some point the Fed may be forced into sending the economy into recession to break an inflationary cycle. It wouldn't surprise me if housing prices stagnate but as you point out they've already gone up a lot.

Whatever happens I have to like Denver's relative position. OTOH, I could see some serious erosion of confidence in California.

In any case your arguments on behalf of Chicago are all good.

[RyanD]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

So the little triangle parcel between Colfax/Court/14th across from Webb and the City and County Bldg… where that really cool hotel was proposed… it looks like they demolished the existing structure today. Anybody have any updates?

Construction permit was filed 01/21 and is still in progress with the city. Storm and sewer filed 05/21. So they still have a bit of permitting to go (electric, mech, etc).

Word on the street is they want to try to ground break early-ish next year but we'll see.

[midwestcowboy]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Source

Thank you. I'm a recent transplant from Indianapolis and very active in our development forum back there. Thought I would join in the conversation here to get a better understanding of the Denver landscape.

If anyone is interested, I'd recommend checking out the Indianapolis forum. Obviously, there isn't nearly as much development there, but the topical/project/neighborhood-specific threads are really helpful in keeping conversations clean. Not sure who the moderator is here, but could be worth looking into.

Thanks for having me and I'm happy to be in Denver!

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by midwestcowboy

If anyone is interested, I'd recommend checking out the Indianapolis forum. Obviously, there isn't nearly as much development there, but the topical/project/neighborhood-specific threads are really helpful in keeping conversations clean. Not sure who the moderator is here, but could be worth looking into.

If you like your development neat and clean then head on over to DenverInfill.

Be advised:

That RyanD guy is lethal with a camera. His latest killer shot is of the Denver Art Museum - simply amazing.

It's also really cool how the site has added a Project Description box/bar. In the past I've searched for earlier posts to remind me of the developer-architect-contractor so I especially appreciate this improvement.

--------------------
I have to say though that I've never heard of a cowboy that doesn't like getting a little dirty?

THIS would be one of my favorite cowboy songs b/c even cowboys appreciate a good violin.

[RyanD]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

It's also really cool how the site has added a Project Description box/bar. In the past I've searched for earlier posts to remind me of the developer-architect-contractor so I especially appreciate this improvement.

Thanks! I started doing it on the Instagram page (@denverinfill) a while ago and figured it would be super useful on the site itself too.


Hoping to get some project tag improvements underway soon as well. If anything, it helps us more as well.

[The Dirt]

Originally Posted by midwestcowboy

Thank you. I'm a recent transplant from Indianapolis and very active in our development forum back there. Thought I would join in the conversation here to get a better understanding of the Denver landscape.

If anyone is interested, I'd recommend checking out the Indianapolis forum. Obviously, there isn't nearly as much development there, but the topical/project/neighborhood-specific threads are really helpful in keeping conversations clean. Not sure who the moderator is here, but could be worth looking into.

Thanks for having me and I'm happy to be in Denver!

God, I wish we lifted and shifted this whole thread to Skyscraper City. I'm kind of tired of using a version of vBulletin from before smart phones were invented.

[Denver]

I am surprised this has not been posted yet.

Denver-based developer Summit Capital Venture Group has purchased 1158 Delaware Street and 328 W 12th Avenue, an 18,750-square-foot land deal, for the sale price of $5.4 million. Summit plans to demolish the existing apartment buildings on site and build a new 250-unit mixed-use project with 2,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. The project is estimated to cost $90.1 million and will break ground in Q1 2022. Studio PBA is the architect.

https://milehighcre.com/new-250-unit-mix...to-denvers-golden-triangle-neighborhood/

[SirLucasTheGreat]

RDS posted about that project but not the link. RDS tends to be the first to break news of any multifamily development.

[Arapahoe]

Originally Posted by The Dirt

God, I wish we lifted and shifted this whole thread to Skyscraper City. I'm kind of tired of using a version of vBulletin from before smart phones were invented.

haha, amen. the interface does have a bit of a nostalgic 90s charm to it though

[jbssfelix]

Originally Posted by The Dirt

God, I wish we lifted and shifted this whole thread to Skyscraper City. I'm kind of tired of using a version of vBulletin from before smart phones were invented.

Agree 100%. Not to start a fire, but what's keeping us from all going over there and continuing our regularly scheduled bitching.

[SirLucasTheGreat]

The Reddit page is good

[TakeFive]

(This post is dedicated to SirLucasTheGreat)

Laura Bliss a long time favorite writer of mine on CityLab is Johnny-on-the-spot

Car-Free Transportation Gets Boost from U.S. Grant Program
November 29, 2021 By Laura Bliss - Bloomberg CityLab

A federal grant program that had become a honeypot for rural highway-building in the Trump years has pivoted in favor of projects for sidewalks, bikes and public transit.

This is a extension of the former TIGER grants program (since renamed twice) that was started under Pres Obama. Big fan of Barack Obama so props to our former President.

Born under the Obama administration as TIGER grants (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery), the earliest iteration of the program doled out recession-era stimulus funds for streetcar extensions, pedestrian networks and other projects that didn’t easily qualify for traditional sources of funding

Fast forward to right now, today and day after today.

In the new tranche of almost $1 billion in RAISE grant selections from the U.S. Department of Transportation announced earlier this month... only about 5% of RAISE funds will support new roads, and 10% will go to projects that increase road capacity.

The rest will flow to a mix of projects such as a freeway cap in Atlanta, a greenway project in Cincinnati, transit planning in Omaha, Missoula and Charlotte, and pedestrian and bike safety improvements in Denver, Oakland and Wilmington.

[TakeFive]

Just briefly, an update on the American transit scene

https://www.governing.com/now/what-does-history-teach-us-about-pandemics-and-transit-ridership

Across the United States, transit ridership isn’t even close to bouncing back to its pre-pandemic levels. Passenger numbers are rebounding from the 70-to-95 percent declines seen at the start of COVID-19, but they are far from normal.

It’s impossible to know when, or if, ridership will ever fully recover because there’s no comparable analog to this moment in America’s modern history.

“This is a deeper and stranger challenge than we’ve ever faced before,” said Beth Osborne, director of Transportation for America, in a 2020 interview.

The growing work-from-home trend is but one of several key issues.

[midwestcowboy]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

If you like your development neat and clean then head on over to DenverInfill.

I've been actively checking DenverInfill and enjoying every post, Thanks Ryan!

[H. H. Holmes]

Originally Posted by Denver

I am surprised this has not been posted yet.





https://milehighcre.com/new-250-unit-mix...to-denvers-golden-triangle-neighborhood/

OOF that is...messy. I mean horray for the density, but I thought (hoped) Denver was turning the corner architecturally, with some nicer proposals as of late.

Are the principals at these firms just getting drunk and sketching on their iPads, then leaving the execution to the unpaid interns?