250 Columbine is the only project under construction in Central Denver that features high-density condos. Given the current demand for condos and for-sale housing in general, 250 Columbine already has 80% of the 80 units under contract.
Another component of 250 Columbine is an 8-story, 70,000 square foot office building. The glass and stone facade is almost complete on the office portion, with work still underway on the residential side. From both a distance and up close, this project makes a significant impact in Cherry Creek North.
Because of the zoning in Cherry Creek, 250 Columbine steps down to three-stories along Third Avenue. Here is a picture of the project at Third Avenue and Columbine Street.
Seeing a condo project in the works is always exciting. Now, we only need about 100 more of these to keep the housing shortage at bay here in Denver! Cherry Creek week keeps trekking on. Stay tuned for an exciting announcement tomorrow!
Funny, some people actually believe the reason that we don’t see more condos being built is because of the market and all of the demand is for apartment rentals! 80% already under contract long before it is even complete is just one more reason why that logic is simply not true. We need to change the Construction Defect laws and we need to ASAP! The demand for condos is obviously there.
Out of curiosity, and in the interest of trying to understand both sides of an issue, has anybody heard what the supporting argument is in favor of the construction defects law? I’ve heard complaints against it and its market distorting qualities both here and in a couple of articles in the Denver Post, but it occurs to me that I’ve not yet heard from anybody supporting it.
Are there even such people?
Yes. There are very much so two sides to the construction defects law, hence why its been having such a hard time passing. Here is a website that’s in favor of the defects law: http://www.buildourhomesright.com/
Looking back at my original post, I realize I came off as anti-defect law. The reason we have these laws is to protect homeowners from bad construction that the buyer would not know until years later. Unfortunately, there are too many bad developers and contractors that allow or perform poor workmanship and the homeowner is stuck with it. I agree there needs to be some sort of protection against this. However, the current laws have completely stifled new construction because NO insurers will insure a condo project these days. I am not sure how this project or the few other condo projects in town are making it work, although I suspect they will be very expensive to help counter the added risk. There has to be a happy medium. I think most people can see this and agree that there could be a resolution that makes everyone happy. But the longer this gets drawn out in courtrooms, Denver will continue to suffer and they lawyers get richer.
Because of the way things are currently, some condo developers are just building in the price of a lawsuit which raises the overall cost of the project. This really hurts any hopes of affordability in new condo / for-sale developments.
But, that’s not a fun game to play for a developer hence why for-sale development is severly suffering.
This Construction Defects Law was drafted by trial lawyers. Homebuyers can sue for up to treble damages, allowing injured parties to collect far more than their actual losses. As a pro-consumer law, it’s designed to punish shoddy contractors, and encourage better construction. But the “unintended consequence” of the law is to simply frighten off good builders — with sky-high liability insurance rates — while all the lawsuits enrich trial lawyers. Meanwhile, affordable housing is simply priced out of the condo and townhouse market, which is essentially dead, while greed drives the lawyers. Ironically, this in one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities, where builders won’t build, and buyers can’t afford to buy.
Do you know when the exterior construction will be complete?