DENVER | Main Development Thread #7

[Robert.hampton]

Condos on Park Ave in Uptown


https://businessden.com/2019/12/13/t...-for-12-13-19/


Generation Development purchased a 4,250-square-foot building on 0.45 acres at 1614-1618 N. Lafayette St. in Denver for $3.095 million from 1618 Lafayette LLC and Kira Golden. Condominiums are planned for the site. Diona Gouker and Heidi Finn represented the buyer.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by laniroj

I'd be really interested to see what water costs are in Pheonix. I can't possibly imagine those fees are small and one would think that would inherently make sprawl (affordable at least) impossible down there. The cost to bring that kind of infrastructure just seems staggering. One of these days, I'm going to look into it. Colorado has become so hostile that we're looking at Arizona now. Desert mountains here I come!

Water's not onerous. Impact fees in general are presumably comparable to Denver although it will vary by jurisdiction as in Denver. Pretty much the same issues down here as in Denver. If you zero in on nicer areas, rents aren't dramatically different. What's different is the great diversity in general; there's just a lot more areas of sprawl and suburban infill where lower cost housing can be built.

If you clicked the link above for permits, Phoenix had double the count of Denver but then the population growth is also much higher. I am aware of one Denver developer who built an apartment downtown periphery - now a hot area - but their timing was good.

The sleeper area in Denver is in Aurora but you don't like that area.

[TakeFive]

Developers Keep Building Offices, But Workers Are Using Fewer Of Them Than Ever
December 12, 2019 By Jared Schenke - Biznow

Few interesting morsels.

Developers are building more office buildings today than at any point in the last decade, but the changing nature of the work could threaten long-held beliefs about the way the office market will behave as we enter the next decade.

Experts ascribe the reasons for the seemingly illogical divergence in office supply and demand — a gap that figures to widen — to a host of reasons, but they all come back to one connecting factor: the millennial worker.

Go Gig:

An increase in teleworking, the explosion of gig workers in the economy, open office plans and coworking are all influencing how much space companies are using and will use in the future. The gig workforce — anyone from Uber and Lyft drivers to social media monitors, IT contractors to freelance journalists — made up 34% of workers in the U.S. in 2016, according to an Intuit study. By 2020, that percentage is expected to reach 43%.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Water's not onerous.

And that right there sums up everything that's wrong with Arizona water management. That city should be dying of thirst but it's been so generously subsidized that it won't be an issue until the upper basin tells the lower basin to get fucked for decades of greed, mismanagement, and failure to cut use.

Or the Wilmer pumps get blown up by ecoterrorists. Or AZ forces all of their fields to go fallow. Either way, AZ gets put in it's place.

[SirLucasTheGreat]

I stopped by the site of the WTC near 38th and Blake given that there were reports of the lot being fenced off. As you can see below, part of the lot is fenced off but there are cars parked on the lot today. Was part of the lot fenced like this beforehand? In addition, it appears that the rest of the fencing is on the back of the lot along with construction barriers. Perhaps they started on fencing off the lot and will finish it after the work week. What you do you guys make of this? This is a significant project and I am hoping that it is actually starting.







9th and Colorado

No disrespect to our friends from DenverInfill but I am surprised that I have not seen or heard more coverage regarding the development at 9th and Colorado. I went by today and I could not believe how large this master planned development is. It covers more than 2.5 times as much ground as the planned Gates District, which I heard from the development team should break ground in Q2 2020. I think that 9th and Colorado is actually pretty appealing. I just wish that an attractive master planned development like this would have happened in a less car dependent part of town (41st and Fox, Broadway station, Colorado Station, etc...).

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

And that right there sums up everything that's wrong with Arizona water management. That city should be dying of thirst but it's been so generously subsidized that it won't be an issue until the upper basin tells the lower basin to get fucked for decades of greed, mismanagement, and failure to cut use.

Or the Wilmer pumps get blown up by ecoterrorists. Or AZ forces all of their fields to go fallow. Either way, AZ gets put in it's place.

You can thank the Democrats for CAP (Central Arizona Project)!!


Source


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Arizona_Project

The CAP was created by the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968, signed by US President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 30, 1968.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall and Rep Mo Udall were key cogs.

Phoenix gets 36% of it's water from Lake Mead while Las Vegas gets 90% of it's water from the Colorado River. Phoenix gets a lot of water from the Salt River Project which brings water from the Salt and Verde Rivers within the state. Heck, Phoenix has accumulated over 3 years of reserves which is being stored in underground aquifers.

http://www.arizonawaterfacts.com/do-we-have-enough

Arizona is a visionary of water planning and management. From water supply projects, to innovative programs including drought preparedness, underground water storage, 100-year water supply requirements, mandatory conservation programs and use of reclaimed water, we lead the nation in comprehensive water supply management.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by SirLucasTheGreat

9th and Colorado
I went by today and I could not believe how large this master planned development is. It covers more than 2.5 times as much ground as the planned Gates District, which I heard from the development team should break ground in Q2 2020. I think that 9th and Colorado is actually pretty appealing.

Thanks much for the 9th & Colorado update photos. After a couple of false starts, Continuum Partners was awarded the privilege of redevelopment so you could predict it would be nice.

They've come a long way.


Credit Saunders, Inc

Three of the new restaurants are Valley based: Blanco Tacos + Tequila; Postino Wine Cafe; and Culinary Dropout.

[twister244]

That fencing at WTC definitely indicates movement of some kind is imminent.... It wasn't there before. Maybe... just maybe..... we will see a ground breaking soon?

[UrbanT]

Thank you for snapping those pics of the wtc site! That is exactly what I saw yesterday and the fence is new for sure. Also really hopeful for this project to start.

[RyanD]

Originally Posted by SirLucasTheGreat

No disrespect to our friends from DenverInfill but I am surprised that I have not seen or heard more coverage regarding the development at 9th and Colorado.

Haven't found the time for this one brotha. Especially with SO much going on closer. We'll get to it eventually but it's pretty low on the radar.

[SirLucasTheGreat]

Originally Posted by RyanD

Haven't found the time for this one brotha. Especially with SO much going on closer. We'll get to it eventually but it's pretty low on the radar.

For the record, we all are eternally in your debt for everything that you do. Without DenverInfill, I don't know what many of us would do. This one is really in a random spot. Congress Park is a neat neighborhood but I can think of 10 other areas in Denver where a development with this much housing would have perhaps made more sense from a city planning standpoint. But the Denver Urban Renewal Authority wanted to incentivize redevelopment in this area once the medical school moved out. Thanks again! It is just crazy to see something this large that we have not even really chatted about on here. Hopefully the Gates District and Santa Fe Yards get going because that will be a much more transit connected master planned development. Although I understand that Santa Fe Yards is trying to find an anchor tenant for 1 million square feet of office space. That might be challenging.

[seventwenty]

Speak for yourself. That Ryan guy is a total jerk who beat me up that one time.

[TakeFive]

Shhh... quiet please

Originally Posted by jhwk

Very nice.

Hold on thar, pardner. Denver City Council has been secretly, quietly getting ready to declare a construction moratorium.

https://www.thedenverchannel.com/new...rom-developers

DENVER -- Denver city council members are looking at a zoning change to better manage the city's growth.

More than 14 new developments, from I-70 to Brighton Blvd. to the Old Gates Rubber Plant on South Broadway, are coming soon to booming Denver.

Well, Denver's growing and this is a good thing, no?

"And this isn't the entirety of them," explained City Councilwoman At-Large Debbie Ortega. The over 500 acres of undeveloped land is all scheduled to go vertical, which will add more people and more cars to Denver's already jam-packed streets.

"Crossing over Broadway, Santa Fe, using Alameda, is a nightmare now and it's only going to get worse because there's no place to expand those roads," said neighbor Scott Bolt, who ran the Ruby-Hill-Godsman Neighborhood Association for nearly a decade.

Here it comes, the DCC brigade.

Ortega said she believes it's time to take a pause... "it is irresponsible to continue to approve massive rezoning without a hard look at the cumulative impacts."

A zoning change, eh?

Ortega wants to change what developers have to bring to the table in order to get a project rezoned through council.

While you would think a developer would have to do a traffic study before adding hundreds of units on a one-way street, or bring a rendering of the project and general idea of the number of parking spaces, Ortega said that's no longer the case following a zoning change in 2010.

"Under the form-based zoning we get none of that," she said. Ortega is now looking at a zoning change to make some of that criteria mandatory in an effort to give council a clearer picture of a project before it gets approved.

This sounds serious?

"If we're not thoughtful and intentional, we have the potential to lose what is great about Denver," said Ortega.

Ortega said the ordinance is still in the very early stages, and she wants to bring attention to the magnitude of proposed developments that have the potential to forever change the city.

[bulldurhamer]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Developers Keep Building Offices, But Workers Are Using Fewer Of Them Than Ever
December 12, 2019 By Jared Schenke - Biznow

Few interesting morsels.

Go Gig:

wow 43% of the workforce will be "gig" workers next year? talk about a recipe for disaster. gig, as we all know is code for horrible job with no benefits.
aka, no unemployment insurance.

no wonder the phony unemployment rate is so "low".

i guess as long as jerome keeps propping up the stock market is is well, eh?

[bulldurhamer]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Shhh... quiet please


Hold on thar, pardner. Denver City Council has been secretly, quietly getting ready to declare a construction moratorium.

https://www.thedenverchannel.com/new...rom-developers

Well, Denver's growing and this is a good thing, no?

Here it comes, the DCC brigade.

A zoning change, eh?

This sounds serious?

"While you would think a developer would have to do a traffic study before adding hundreds of units on a one-way street, or bring a rendering of the project and general idea of the number of parking spaces, Ortega said that's no longer the case following a zoning change in 2010."


Parking spaces!!! lol what year is this?

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by bulldurhamer

no wonder the phony unemployment rate is so "low".

Phony or not, it's been calculated the same way for decades so it has relative and historical value for comparison.

Originally Posted by bulldurhamer

i guess as long as jerome keeps propping up the stock market is is well, eh?

It's not just our Fed, it's also what other global central banks do that's collectively important. In any case using the Fed as an excuse for not making any return doesn't accomplish anything.

I'm familiar with all the negative talking points that have been out there since say 2011. Guess which bets have paid off in spades since that point in time? The market may go up another 20% before it drops 12% but by god you'll hear them barking for being right.... finally. If they were at least clairvoyant enough to go all-in at the precise bottom they'd do well enough - but they won't because they're always thinking the market will go even lower or that any rise is just a dead-cat bounce so they'll miss the next big leg up.

Originally Posted by bulldurhamer

wow 43% of the workforce will be "gig" workers next year? talk about a recipe for disaster. gig, as we all know is code for horrible job with no benefits. aka, no unemployment insurance.

I wouldn't personally know what or how to use unemployment insurance but I've heard it's not a good substitute for a real job. A gig job can serve as a nice bridge for many until they find what they like; better than sitting at home watching the tee vee.

There's two downsides to gig jobs. Nothing is guaranteed; you actually have to get out and work. Some people thrive and love the work for various reasons but nobody is forced into gig jobs.

I am aware that Colorado is ranked low for costs to businesses at 43rd while Arizona, for example, is rated high with 6th lowest costs. Is it possible that Colorado is making it too easy or comfortable for too many to just live off of unemployment payments?

[Stonemans_rowJ]

Originally Posted by SirLucasTheGreat

For the record, we all are eternally in your debt for everything that you do. Without DenverInfill, I don't know what many of us would do. This one is really in a random spot. Congress Park is a neat neighborhood but I can think of 10 other areas in Denver where a development with this much housing would have perhaps made more sense from a city planning standpoint. But the Denver Urban Renewal Authority wanted to incentivize redevelopment in this area once the medical school moved out. Thanks again! It is just crazy to see something this large that we have not even really chatted about on here. Hopefully the Gates District and Santa Fe Yards get going because that will be a much more transit connected master planned development. Although I understand that Santa Fe Yards is trying to find an anchor tenant for 1 million square feet of office space. That might be challenging.

A random spot? Really? This is an amazing spot for this development and Central Denver is in huge demand. It's a stone's throw from downtown and CCN. Pre-War fully-built neighborhoods surrounding. Complete neighborhoods. Not some brown field site in the middle of nowhere like 41/Fox. There's already a grocer on site for crying out loud!

[Robert.hampton]

Originally Posted by Stonemans_rowJ

A random spot? Really? This is an amazing spot for this development and Central Denver is in huge demand. It's a stone's throw from downtown and CCN. Pre-War fully-built neighborhoods surrounding. Complete neighborhoods. Not some brown field site in the middle of nowhere like 41/Fox. There's already a grocer on site for crying out loud!

No question the neighborhood is plenty desirable, but adding 1,200 units to the city's most congested street and without adjacent access to good public transportation isn't ideal. Its too bad the development couldn't have gone in around all the underutilized land at mayfair plaza closer to colfax and the BRT-- but obviously the specifics about this land made it a much easier area to develop.

[bunt_q]

Originally Posted by Robert.hampton

No question the neighborhood is plenty desirable, but adding 1,200 units to the city's most congested street and without adjacent access to good public transportation isn't ideal. Its too bad the development couldn't have gone in around all the underutilized land at mayfair plaza closer to colfax and the BRT-- but obviously the specifics about this land made it a much easier area to develop.

If you buy into transit being relevant at all in this City, then you also have to buy into the RTD model. The Colorado bus is quite frequent, and will allow for easy transfer to light rail in the south, Colfax BRT eventually, all the way up to the A Line.

Now I know that’s ludicrous. But that’s the transit system we have, and there’s no way to accommodate all growth within reach of the rail stations. So if you make transit a prerequisite to density, then the bus has to count (particularly our better bus routes, and 9th and Colorado is quite well served.)

[The Dirt]

I don't think this is what you're trying to say (robert.hampton), but keep in mind that "not enough infrastructure" is one of the most common NIMBY refrains. Essentially, the city shouldn't do anything if there's not enough infrastructure first. Then it becomes a moving goalpost situation where nothing short of BRT is enough, followed by "nobody rides the bus" and we shouldn't take away car lanes for public transit. Mix in some "not enough street parking" rhetoric, and you quickly find yourself in a situation where nothing should ever be built, despite the fact that the city had a denser core in the 70s and the infrastructure was arguably worse.

EDIT: I consider 9th and Colorado to be part of the core.