Alliance Residential will be breaking ground this summer on Broadstone Blake Street, a 6-story, 164-unit apartment building located at the corner of 22nd and Blake, across from the right-field corner of Coors Field. Here’s a GoogleEarth image where I’ve marked the project site:

Alliance Residential is already very experienced with development on this block. In the late 2000s, Alliance completed 2101 Market, the 226-unit apartment building across the alley that also incorporated the restoration and rooftop expansion of the adjacent Piggly Wiggly Building. This site was going to be a second phase to that project, known as 2120 Blake, but the financial crisis of 2008 intervened, so the Blake phase was put on hold.

Now that the economy is quickly recovering and Denver’s rental market has significant momentum, the Blake street project is back. While still technically a follow-up phase to 2101 Market, Broadstone Blake Street is really a stand-alone development in its own right. Alliance took the opportunity during the delay to redesign the Blake development to align with today’s Downtown market demands, with more studio and one-bedroom units aimed at young professionals. Broadstone Blake Street will be a separate apartment community from its Market Street neighbor, complete with its own line-up of amenities including a WiFi lounge, pool, fitness center, business center, and outdoor spaces. Another neat design feature includes ground-floor units along Blake Street with stoop porches to give the building a more pedestrian-scaled frontage.

Here are two renderings, courtesy of Andy at Alliance Residential. Top, the view of the 22nd and Blake corner; bottom, a view from near 21st and Blake. Click to embiggen.

Construction on the project should begin soon, with completion scheduled for early 2014.

The impact of completing the development of a block like this is profound. Not only will it give us several hundred more Downtown residents, which cannot be overemphasized, but it also represents another big step in restoring the building block urban forms in our city’s core. To quote myself from last week, “great cities are comprised of a tight-knit fabric of pedestrian-friendly buildings that frame public spaces used for mobility, access, and social interaction.” That is why this project is so important.

One area where that progress is quite obvious is along Market/Walnut Street through the Ballpark district, where 2300 Walnut by Mill Creek Residential Trust is ready to begin construction. Recent infill projects such as 2101 Market, Premier Lofts, 24 Walnut, and Ballpark Lofts have significantly helped transform the blocks along Market (which becomes Walnut Street past Park Avenue) from a sea of asphalt to a vibrant mixed-use corridor. But there was one big gap remaining: the full city block parking lot bounded by Park Avenue, Walnut, 24th Street, and Larimer. Now, thanks to Mill Creek’s 2300 Walnut project, that big hole in the urban fabric will be repaired. Here’s a GoogleEarth aerial where I’ve marked the project location (for all images, click/zoom to embiggen):

2300 Walnut is a 5-story, 310-unit apartment building wrapped around a 446-space parking garage. Here’s an axonometric perspective of the 24th/Larimer corner looking west back towards Lower Downtown:

The project features a multi-hued brick facade with an interior courtyard, a swimming pool and fitness center, and leasing office. Thanks to Scott Johnson and Marie McClellan at Mill Creek, here are two high-resolution project renderings. These are views of the Park Avenue/Walnut corner and the Walnut Street side of the project:

Mill Creek Residential Trust just closed on the property, so now they are ready to get the project underway. Utility relocations and other site work should begin soon, with full project construction by this summer. If all goes as planned, 2300 Walnut will open late 2013/early 2014.

In response, a view plane ordinance was proposed that would have originated at a point in Section 222 Club Level of Coors Field, limiting new buildings within the view to a height of 72 feet. The problem with a 72-foot height limit was that, with the elevated I-25 HOV lanes soaring 40 feet above ground past the property, not enough of a 72-foot tall building would rise above the flyover to make the project profitable. Also, there was some debate as to the degree to which a 140-foot tall building at the site would really block mountain views anyway. Here’s a rendering, prepared by Buchanan Yonushewski Group (which represented the Leakes at the time) of the view from Section 222 Club Level with a 140-foot building at 21st and Delgany, as well as the Commons (Central Platte Valley) approved bulk plane behind it:

For more background on the issue, here’s a Rocky Mountain News article and editorial from 2007. Anyway, the view plane issue was put on hold so that it wouldn’t detract from the Rockies’ historic World Series run at the time, and since then there’s been no news on the matter… until now.

Jared Jacang Maher has the latest at Westword: The Denver Metropolitan Major League Baseball Stadium District bought the property from the Leakes for about $2.4 million. You may conclude that this is a win-win for everybody: the Leakes get the value out of their property and Coors Field gets to protect its view. I’m not so sure.

The Stadium District plans to turn the 21st and Delgany site into a surface parking lot after they lose some of their surface parking along upper Blake Street to RTD for a FasTracks transit line. Even that may seem reasonable. But what bothers me is the Stadium District’s viewpoint, as expressed by District director Ray Baker: “There’s just not enough [parking] currently with what we have and what will be taken.”

That’s right, there isn’t enough parking around Coors Field, and that’s a damn good thing. The point of placing Coors Field in a Downtown location without nearly the number of parking spaces that it normally would have if it were in a suburban location, was to force people to either a.) take transit, or b.) park throughout the Downtown area and walk/mall shuttle to the stadium, thereby filling the sidewalks with pedestrians and making Downtown a better, more urban place. A place will never become more urban by making it easier to get there by automobile. Let me repeat that: A place will never become more urban by making it easier to get there by automobile! Until we learn that lesson in Denver, we’ll never have the Downtown we strive to have.

“We can’t simultaneously promote walking and bicycling while continuing to facilitate driving.” – Albert Einstein

And, need I remind the Stadium District that Coors Field is located two blocks from what will be the largest multi-modal transit hub in the entire region?! Why does the District feel that they will need to replace the parking spaces they lose to RTD for transit construction, when those very same transit lines will put millions of people throughout the Denver region within a few miles of a transit line that will conveniently drop them off two blocks away from Coors Field?! Did the Stadium District ever consider that when all the FasTrack lines are up and running that fewer people might, you know, drive to the stadium?

The Stadium District should be working hand in hand with the City and the Downtown Denver Partnership to steadily, strategically, replace the surface parking lots around Coors Field with dense, mixed-use development and, if we must, structured parking. The more Coors Field is surrounded by an intensity of shops, restaurants, housing, hotels, offices, and sidewalks teeming with people, the more exciting it will be to go to a game. We want Coors Field to be in the center of it all, immersed in a pedestrian-scaled urban domain, not surrounded by a sea of asphalt like the Pepsi Center is.

In the Rocky article, Mr. Baker is quoted as saying: “We have an obligation to protect the ambience of the experience of going to Coors Field and protecting that view. I think it would be detrimental to taxpayers not to do so.” You want to protect—enhance—the ambience of the experience of going to Coors Field? Make the experience more urban, more walkable, more engaging. You want to benefit the taxpayers? Make the Coors Field experience more sustainable by discouraging driving to the stadium and by invigorating the streets of Downtown with economy-stimulating pedestrians. Seems to work just fine for Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field, and Fenway Park.

“If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places.” – Fred Kent

So, the Leakes get their money but Downtown gets a new surface parking lot. I’m happy for the Leakes, but I’m disappointed in the Stadium District’s parochial perspective. I expect more enlighted, progressive thinking from the owners of our Downtown ballpark. But, I’ll make the Stadium District a deal: Develop Block C into a dense, mixed-use project, and I’ll support your parking lot at 21st and Delgany.

Urbans@Lawrence (26th and Lawrence):

Trellis (next door to the above Urbans project):

Traverse (25th and Champa):

2428 Champa (next door to Traverse):

Cornerstone Residences (Park Avenue and Curtis):

25th and Washington:

Chroma Townhomes (25th and Larimer):

Rocky Mountain Children’s Hospital (19th and High):

Uptown Apartments (19th and Clarkson):

Nice to see all that brick!

I know there are a few more infill projects under construction out there that I haven’t recently posted a photo of (or at all). If you’d like to contribute to DenverInfill, please email me your well-composed, higher-resolution photos or send me a link to where the photos reside on a photo-sharing account, and I’d be happy–and thankful–to post them. Please also include the project name/location too.

For now, until I have a chance to get caught up on the Downtown Denver infill scene, I’ll leave you with two quickies… the old industrial buildings on the 3200 block of Blake are being demolished to make way for the new Rue 32 project in the Ballpark neighborhood, and say bye-bye to the North Broadway Tower proposal (more on that next time).

Groundbreaking is planned for September, 2006.