DENVER | Main Development Thread #6

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

Hire more. The wall's not built yet. You can train up a wood-framer pretty quick-like.

Pretty quick? From my understanding, a framer is usually someone with 2-3 years of experience under their belt.

We're not talking Joe Six-Pack working the press.

[Ich]

Does anyone know what is going to be built on the empty lot behind The Elan?

[PLANSIT]

Originally Posted by Ich

Does anyone know what is going to be built on the empty lot behind The Elan?

Ascent Union Station

[mhays]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

Hire more. The wall's not built yet. You can train up a wood-framer pretty quick-like.

Union contractors build the big jobs in my region, with few exceptions. Things are more methodical and controlled than that, with a formal apprenticeship process. That pays off in quality, safety, etc., but scaling up takes longer. We do import a lot of salaried people from other regions though.

[lumos]

[QUOTE=TakeFive;7681339]We got money, Honey



Denver Hose Company No. 1 building to be incorporated into $69-million, 233-room hotel near Union Station
January 17, 2017 by Megan Arellano - Denverite

I believe that's a wrap for DUS.

So that was the delay. It seems to have inched forward over the last two years, knocking down the lean to on the northern side, clearing out some inside junk, demolishing half the storage building, shoring up windows. It will be wonderful to have this built at last.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

I believe that's a wrap for DUS.

EDIT: I just looked up Davidson Hotels and they don't currently show Colorado on their map. Actually they do... but there's no listing as of now.

There's still one parcel that doesn't have any announced proposals yet. Focus is using less than half of their land for the Hilton Garden Inn and I believe there was mention of a large mixed-use development for the remaining land.

Other than that, there's Greystar's Ascent proposal and (maybe) the apartments atop the parking garage adjacent to DaVita.

EDIT: There's also that residence at 20th and Wewatta. Super narrow and deep, though I'm sure someone will make something work.

[The Dirt]

The steam plant could also use a major facelift.

[BG918]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

There's still one parcel that doesn't have any announced proposals yet. Focus is using less than half of their land for the Hilton Garden Inn and I believe there was mention of a large mixed-use development for the remaining land.

Other than that, there's Greystar's Ascent proposal and (maybe) the apartments atop the parking garage adjacent to DaVita.

EDIT: There's also that residence at 20th and Wewatta. Super narrow and deep, though I'm sure someone will make something work.

Yeah for some reason I was thinking all along the Hilton Garden Inn would take up that entire parcel. I'd be curious to find out more about what is planned for the other half of this lot. I assume the Xcel transformer will remain at least for the foreseeable future?

Any news on when Greystar will break ground on Ascent? Greystar also built the Joule and is just getting started with their Speer & Bannock high rise (referenced above).

And that's it. Once those two projects are complete (plus everything already under construction) Union Station will be 100% built-out with just the ground floor retail spaces to develop. Having the 17W complex finished with Whole Foods open and the Born Hotel finished will really start to make things feel more complete this summer.

[lumos]

Originally Posted by The Dirt

The steam plant could also use a major facelift.

There was some talk about four years ago about at least walling in the steam plant.

[CherryCreek]

Originally Posted by lumos

There was some talk about four years ago about at least walling in the steam plant.

Maybe they could re-use the faux historical shell around the abandoned power plant near Coors Field (at least I thought I read it was abandoned).

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by PLANSIT

Ascent Union Station

I had forgotten about this project

Originally Posted by BG918

Any news on when Greystar will break ground on Ascent?

Doing a quick search I found this link
about a Dodge notice of "RE-BID" for Ascent with bids due Nov 11, 2016. It could mean something is pending or perhaps it's in (intermediate) limbo and caught up in the mhays contractor shortage and cost pressures.

That's weird; must be something in the Dodge link that forces that skip to a new line, lol.

EDIT:

Originally Posted by BG918

Greystar also built the Joule and is just getting started with their Speer & Bannock high rise (referenced above).

Brain flash: Greystar is also the developer for Ascent Union Station. It would appear that Greystar elevated the Speer Apartments over Ascent. Not particularly a surprise that New York Life Real Estate Investors would be especially interested in the Speer Apartments so that is where Greystar's energy (and contractor) is going first.

BONUS:

Photo credit: Westword

Because I have such a big soft spot for historical preservation... Patricia Calhoun has a most wonderful article about the recent sale of My Brother's Bar and intent to keep it running just as it is. The seller had received a high-dollar offer from a developer.

DOUBLE BONUS:

Home construction in metro Denver created $7.5 billion in local income in 2015: Report
Jan 18, 2017 by Molly Armbrister - Denver Business Journal

Wrap your brain around that for awhile. Chances are there's a good connection to this:

Originally Posted by EngiNerd

The entire construction industry is very busy here, and many had their best year ever in 2016.

[lumos]

I flew my drone over it, looks pretty abandoned




But I love that treatment exchanging a huge bag of ugly with soft red bricks

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by lumos

But I love that treatment exchanging a huge bag of ugly with soft red bricks

For sure on the exterior shell facade. This was the LoDo Xcel substation before it was moved to its new location- which is the the one behind Union Station.

I'm predicting that Xcel will do exterior treatments to both the Steam Plant and the substation in the next five years now that both facilities are squarely located in high-density neighborhoods. Hopefully they'll do something akin to the LoDo location versus the one on Capitol Hill.

[Curtis Park]

This DBJ article about Five Points mentions the two large developments on Welton but does not talk about the current plans for the Rossonian. It seems as though it might have been killed again.
Anyone here have the skinny?

[RyanD]

^
I tried to poke around at it a few months ago when I did a bunch of Five Points updates but came up with nothing. The pictures behind the photo of the guy in the article are of the Rossonian though, so maybe that is one of them?

Union Tower West

You know... I think this came out great. The parking structure is screened in nicely, the building has a lot of neat corners and shapes, and it's all glass. The plaza is also really neat. I approve!

[DenverPoke]

Saw some trucks on Park Ave carrying a crane this morning, looks like The Coloradan is going up today.

[lumos]

Ryan,

Excellently captured photographically. I agree this has turned out really well. Walking around the building you get a sense of the architect's hand all over it. Surprise design elements that only appear from a particular angle, interesting alignments. Designed like they give a damn.

By the way, even though I am struggling to fall in love with Pivot, I think that the wood and copper on the ground floor on the southern east and west corners is stunning. It is simply gorgeous. They also have done a great job of screening the carpark although I hope that they stain the few concrete columns in front of the screening to match the colour. Currently the carpark would be invisible were it not for the white concrete showing through.

[SandSailor]

I can't help but look at RyanD's glorious pics of the area around the train hall and wonder!!! I remember way back when one of the rebuilding proposals was a grouping of much taller (maybe 20-30 story) buildings. It would be amazing to get off an RTD ride in the hall, and just be engulfed by those buildings!

[COS]

^Huh? 1709 Chestnut, 16 Chestnut, Coloradan, Platform, Confluence, and Glass House are all in that range.

[CastleScott]

I can't help but look at RyanD's glorious pics of the area around the train hall and wonder!!! I remember way back when one of the rebuilding proposals was a grouping of much taller (maybe 20-30 story) buildings. It would be amazing to get off an RTD ride in the hall, and just be engulfed by those buildings!

COS is right you do walk off into some pretty tall and dense stuff now. Although some yrs ago when the Union Station was looking at proposals, I recall one of the runner-ups had some real tall stuff with one building topping off at 650ft (around 46-50 floors) and another one or two going up to around 570-that plan also had more tracks in back of Union Station-10 or 12 tracks instead of 8 and light rail in a subway under the commuter tracks along with the bus station. That proposal could have been fought by Lodo NIMBY's and that's how what we've got now.