It’s time again for our semi-annual summary of the infill development activity within the Downtown Denver area. As in the past, we divide this effort into two parts: residential projects (the focus of this post) and non-residential projects (i.e. office, hotel, and civic/other) that we’ll cover in our next post. For our previous summaries, please visit our Development Summaries page available under our Special Features menu above.

This analysis covers the area within a 1.50-mile radius of the historic D&F clock tower at the corner of 16th and Arapahoe, a suitable landmark for the geographic center of Downtown Denver. We use a 1.50-mile radius because it does a good job of covering the downtown core area plus some of the closer-in parts of the downtown-edge districts like Uptown, Five Points, River North, and Lower Highland. Our semi-annual DenverInfill development summaries are a nice complement to the Downtown Denver Partnership’s development reports, which use the DDP’s official downtown and center city neighborhoods boundaries rather than a distance-radius approach. For more information about our methodology, please visit our About the Development Summaries page.

Below is our December 2016 exhibit for multifamily residential. To view/download a high-resolution PDF of this exhibit, click here.

Since our last update in June 2016, an additional 902 multifamily residential units have been completed within our 1.50-mile radius, bringing the total completed since the start of the decade to 9,077. The largest of those newly finished projects include the 26-story, 354-unit SkyHouse Denver and the 223-unit affordable housing development at 2300 Welton.

The number of residential units under construction has increased substantially since June, which helps explain the many tower cranes you see everywhere. There are currently 6,374 residential units under construction in Downtown Denver compared to 5,577 units in June, an increase of 797 units. Considering that 902 units of June’s Under Construction total moved to the Completed column, that means a net of 1,699 units broke ground during the past six months in Downtown Denver. Some of the more prominent developments to launch construction since June include two Trammell Crow Residential projects just a couple of blocks away from each other (Alexan 20th Street Station and Alexan Arapahoe Square) and the 19-story condominium tower (The Coloradan) at Union Station by East West Partners.

The number of residential units in the Proposed column has dropped from 3,143 in June to 2,281 now, with approximately another 4,000 units “in the pipeline.” Of those currently proposed, several projects are strong contenders to break ground within the next six months, such as 21st & Welton Apartments, Legacy Speer, Ascent Union Station, and Market Station totaling around 1,000 units. The decrease in the number of proposed units reflects what many people have observed: a noticeable slowing of new project announcements—at least for rental apartments. However, the for-sale condo market seems to be thawing somewhat, so it will be interesting to watch over the next six months if an uptick in for-sale projects will offset the slowdown in new rental developments.

Based on the number of units now completed and currently under construction, we know Downtown Denver will gain at least 15,451 housing units since 2010 and, with three years to go, that will keep us on pace for around 17,000 new housing units added in Downtown this decade.

Let’s wrap this up with an extra-large photo of part of the Lower Downtown-Union Station skyline. Enjoy!