The Colorado district council of the Urban Land Institute held a major event this past week, Denver’s first Transit-Oriented Marketplace. My thanks to Kathleen McCormick with Fountainhead Communications in Boulder for providing DenverInfill with this recap of the event:

Report from ULI TOD Marketplace

The mood was upbeat among the more than 350 people who attended ULI Colorado’s TOD Marketplace at the Embassy Suites Downtown, where we heard from some of the nation’s most experienced finance, development, and transit experts about creative solutions for transit-oriented development. Over the course of the day, we learned about the successes of recent TOD projects and innovations in financing, housing, parking, public-private partnerships, and other components that could pave the way for more development around stations in our region’s expanding public transit system.

ULI Colorado Chair Chris Achenbach opened the program with Phil Washington, general manager of the Regional Transportation District (RTD), who discussed the roll-out of the FasTracks expansion of 57 new commuter and light rail stations, a new transit development policy, and pilot programs to encourage development around transit stations. Keynote speaker Steven Goldin, director of real estate for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), the nation’s second-largest transit system, said transit-oriented development is complicated, and we need to simplify the message for the public to “ideas that resonate like jobs, mobility, and growth.” Another keynoter Emerick Corsi, President of Forest City Enterprises Real Estate Asset Services, the nation’s largest TOD developer, advised us to “embrace the city and neighborhood next door” by looking at development plans holistically and branding stations to create individual identify within the vision for the whole network.

I’d like to have been at all the concurrent sessions—TOD housing, parking, and demographics, and the TAP presentations on Lakewood, Denver, and Aurora—but I chose to focus on learning about innovative financing, urbanizing the suburbs, and joint development with public-private partnerships, and I came away with some great ideas.

Over drinks and appetizers in the ballroom, we checked out Great Sites Trading Floor, with exhibit materials on over 40 TOD sites at play in the region, and applauded fellow ULI members who won raffle prizes like Bronco tickets and registration to the ULI Fall Meeting next October in… Denver.

Kudos to the local and national speakers, event chairs Denise Balkas and Peter Kenney, the TOD program committee, all the volunteers, and our ULI Colorado staff.

– Kathleen McCormick, Fountainhead Communications, Boulder

The event is “TOD Down South” and will provide participants with an in-depth panel discussion and walking tour of two Transit Oriented Development (TOD) projects recently completed along the southeast I-25 (T-REX) light rail line…

The Apartments at Yale Station: A joint venture between Koelbel & Co. and Mile High Development featuring a new six-story, 50-unit affordable residential building that replaced a gas station. Sixty percent leased at the time of its July 2011 opening, the Apartments are being marketed to long-time south Denver residents who are ready to leave their single-family homes but don’t want to leave the area.

Vallagio at Inverness: Recently voted the Denver region’s best Live-Work-Play neighborhood in a DRCOG poll, Vallagio consists of lofts, flats, villas, an entire district of independent “foodie” restaurants, an art space, a covered pedestrian bridge connection to RTD’s Dry Creek Station and, somewhat unique among TODs, the option for living on a golf course.

This ULI-Colorado Explorer event is this Thursday, September 8, from 2-6 PM and includes a hosted reception at Vallagio, and also includes travel via RTD light rail, with free RTD passes available for registered participants. For specific time, location, and agenda, please visit the event website. Registration is available for both ULI members and non-members are welcome. Please visit this event’s registration page here at the ULI-Colorado website.

See you on Thursday!

Here’s a first glance taken on the corner of 11th Avenue and Osage Street.

There’s a nice glass wall connecting what looks like two parts of the building.

Here’s an overall view of the project with the new facade.

I like the wall this building creates. The roads end at the tracks right behind this building.

Now that school is back in session I will be down by Auraria more often. Hopefully in the next few days we will be taking a look at the projects going on around there.

• August 2011: New light rail station opens. Wewatta detour begins. 16th Street Mall and shuttle service extended to new station.
• Late 2011: Development team selected by RTD for renovation/reuse of historic station.
• Early 2012: Construction begins on north wing building (IMA Financial HQ). Construction on south wing building will likely begin in 2012 as well.
• Early/mid 2012: Construction begins on historic station and Wynkoop Plaza.
• Early/mid 2013: West corridor light rail opens with service to Union Station.
• Late 2013/Early 2014: Underground bus facility at Union Station opens. Market Street Station closes. Downtown Circulator service begins.
• Mid-2014: Commuter rail station and all remaining project elements are completed. Amtrak moves back to Union Station.
• January 2016: East Corridor commuter rail line to DIA opens with service to Union Station.
• Mid-2016: Gold Line commuter rail line to Arvada/Wheat Ridge opens with service to Union Station.

Except for the two wing buildings, not included in the list are the private-sector developments planned for around the station. It is highly likely several of these will break ground within the next few years. Obviously, we’ll report on those when they are announced. Also, if I receive more accurate schedule information, I’ll edit/update this list.

You may recall back in early 2010 that IMA Financial was announced as the anchor tenant for the North wing building at 18th & Wynkoop. Since then, the building’s design has been refined and construction is anticipated to begin in early 2012. USNC has recently updated their website where you’ll find new images of their proposed developments, including the renderings below of the proposed IMA Financial building. Top: View from mid-block between 17th & 18th along Wynkoop. Center: View at night. Bottom: Close-up of integration with the ped bridge over the commuter rail tracks:

While USNC is still finalizing the tenant line-up for the South wing building at 16th & Wynkoop, the design of the structure has been evolving. The South wing building will be related architecturally to the North wing building, but not a twin. The South wing building is also planned to get underway in 2012. Top: View from 17th & Wynkoop across Wynkoop Plaza. Center: View from roughly 18th & Wynkoop. Bottom: View down 16th Street from in front of the Tattered Cover:

This final view looking down Wynkoop from the intersection with 16th shows both buildings and the future Wynkoop Plaza:

Finally, USNC has a new video showing not only some of the proposed vertical developments anticipated at DUS, but the various transit elements and public spaces too. Keep in mind that the designs of the proposed buildings and public spaces shown in the video are still evolving, and many of the future buildings shown are massing models only. Nevertheless, the video presents a compelling vision of what’s to come at Denver Union Station. Visit the USNC website to see the video or use this link Denver Union Station Fly-Through to go directly to the video.

The tower crane has been taken down and the building is starting to take form quickly.

Compared to what this project looked like back in May, it is no longer just a shell. Siding and windows are now being installed.

Looking down Osage Street this building has quite the street presence with more of similar size to come in this area.

Just across the intersection on 11th and Osage Street, there are plans to build a community pool. Crews were busy getting that underway.

The South Lincoln Redevelopment has acquired $22 million from HUD and there will be continued coverage of this area on DenverInfill. Here is once again the rendering for the entire site:

As you can see 1099 Osage is only a small portion of this entire development but a great start to this entire project.

To celebrate the federal funding, here’s the latest rendering for the entire redevelopment site:

Now it is 8 stories up which is the height this project is going to be.

Here is looking at the project down Osage from 10th Avenue.

In this next photo I took a step back to the 10th and Osage light rail station to get an idea what 1099 Osage would look like from the platform.

As some projects around the downtown area are beginning to build up, some have come to life and are just starting. Next up we will look at a couple that are just getting off the ground.

It appears they have closed Osage between 10th and 11th for this project.

This site was the busiest I have visited so far. It looks like they were working on the 4th floor.

I took a few steps back to give you an idea of how large this project is compared to everything else in the area.

1099 Osage will be an 8-story, 100-unit senior apartment building that will achieve LEED-Platnium status. There is much more to come in the La Alma – Lincoln Park neighborhood and 1099 Osage is a great start to the redevelopment.

Since the Central line opened in 1994, the only notable feature at the 10th & Osage light rail stop in Denver’s La Alma – Lincoln Park district has been the historic Buckhorn Exchange restaurant. Weedy lots framed the station to the north and south, and no development next to the station ever managed to get off the drawing board. Until now.

Thanks to the Denver Housing Authority’s ambitious redevelopment plan for their South Lincoln Homes project, the area around the 10th & Osage station will be transformed into a higher-density, mixed-use transit-oriented community. The master plan calls for the replacement of the existing 270 public housing units built in the early 1950s with over 800 new residential units (a mix of  rental and for-sale, subsidized and market-rate) and over 70,000 SF of commercial, retail, and community space. All together, the redevelopment will cost $250 million and take a decade or so to complete. Here’s an aerial of the site from GoogleEarth looking west. W. 11th Avenue is on the right, W. 9th Avenue on the left, and Mariposa Street at the bottom. The light rail station is top center.

Here’s the South Lincoln Redevelopment plan and bird’s eye rendering, both from DHA:

It gets even better. The first building in the redevelopment area, 1099 Osage, broke ground in September. The site for 1099 Osage is the brown U-shaped building in the upper right corner of the redevelopment plan map at 11th and Osage. The $21 million project is an 8-story, 100-unit senior apartment building that will achieve LEED-Platinum status. Here’s a rendering of the building, courtesy of project architect Buchanan Yonushewski Group:

The redevelopment of the South Lincoln Homes follows DHA’s successful redevelopment of another large Downtown-area property: the Park Avenue project in Uptown. That project is in the final phases and has dramatically improved the area around Park Avenue, E. 20th Avenue, and Tremont Place. It will be wonderful to watch a similar transformation take place in La Alma – Lincoln Park around the 10th & Osage station.