The Community Coordinating District (CCD No.1) is a unique metropolitan district (metro district) established to facilitate public improvement and development initiatives throughout the Denver metro area. They’ve recently engaged “virtual town hall” technology through Mind Mixer and are making a push through the attached Mini-Contest to raise awareness of their own website.

CCD No.1 was created to address a familiar hurdle in community development projects. The challenge, as with most collaborative efforts, is aligning multiple stakeholders to work together toward a common goal. This requires a clear and actionable strategy, the right funding resources, and positive action from everyone involved

With many of these issues especially prevalent in Northeast Downtown neighborhoods, CCD No. 1 was established with cooperation from Councilwoman Judy Montero, the Ballpark Neighborhood Association, and Urban Market Partners to help with placemaking efforts and other goals of the Northeast Downtown Neighborhoods – specifically in and around the Triangle Parks area. We’ve all seen the Triangle Parks along Broadway near shelters at Lawrence and know there’s work to be done.

It’s important to highlight that this metro or “Special District” is the first of its kind in that it has no Service Area Plan Boundaries. In fact, the District has no geographical boundaries and provides an “Opt-in” structure so that other groups or community development efforts can someday use this as a vehicle to more efficiently partner with their respective City.

For their pilot project, CCD No. 1 has chosen Eddie Maestas Park at Park Avenue and Lawrence Street, across from the Denver Rescue Mission. The conversation has since expanded and is now addressing issues and opportunities at Sonny Lawson Park and along the entire 24th Street corridor. It’s clear that the issues surrounding the Triangle Parks are just as much about the social infrastructure as they are the physical design or infrastructure. Further, what happens at Eddie Maestas affects Curtis Park and Sonny Lawson Park, so a more global, holistic approach to the programming of the neighborhood wide public realm is needed.

You can learn more about CCD No. 1 by visiting their website or find them on Facebook.

This coming Monday (21^st) at 5:30PM, CCD No. 1 will be hosting its Monthly Public Work Session Meeting at Redline at 24th and Arapahoe.  This meeting is especially important because ALL temporary design plans for Triangle Parks will be presented. The goal is to collect all public and stakeholder feedback and select a concept to advance. The CCD No. 1 Creative Working Group meets every Monday at 10AM at 450 E. 17th Ave #400. This group exists to focus on the temporary and long term vision surrounding Eddie Maestas. The Long Term Vision Group meets every Monday at 11AM at Redline. This group focuses on the entire Northeast Downtown neighborhood area and the many possibilities for revitalization. Any and all are welcome and encouraged to attend both the monthly work session next Monday and the Creative Working Group meetings!

Many people have been working for many years to jump start the Welton Street corridor’s revitalization, and finally those efforts are paying off. Two of the leaders of the Five Points revitalization effort are Carl Bourgeois and Chris Coble, both with Civil Technology, Inc. Carl, Chris, and their team are about to transform the historic Rossonian into a mixed-use project with ground-floor restaurant and office spaces above, while preserving the building’s historic facade. You can read more about the Rossonian’s renovation and the evolution of Five Points at Chris’s blog. Here’s a photo (courtesy of Chris) of the Rossonian during the Five Points Jazz Festival.

The Rossonian renovation project will be complete in 2012.

But that’s not all. Civil Technology, Inc. has four additional projects planned for some of the vacant parcels in the vicinity of the Rossonian. These new construction projects include:

- A boutique hotel (125 rooms) with 30-50 residential units above and ground-floor retail, scheduled for 2013 completion

- A mixed-use project including approximately 20,000 SF of retail and 80,000 SF of office space with residential apartments above, scheduled for 2014 completion

- A shared parking garage facility with ground-floor retail, scheduled for 2014 completion

- A 15-unit upscale urban brownstones project featuring 3 and 4 floor units, scheduled for 2015 completion

The Welton Street corridor is one of the city’s oldest commercial districts surrounded by some of Denver’s best Victorian-era homes. The transformation of the Rossonian and associated projects will likely be the catalyst that restores the historic vitality to this important Denver neighborhood.

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.

First, the Park Avenue Apartments (formerly Uptown Apartments) project at 19th and Washington in the Uptown district (Project #20):

Also in Uptown, the big East Village redevelopment project has finally moved across to the southwest side of Park Avenue, with that project’s “Block 4″ now starting construction next to Benedict Fountain Park (Project #1):

Speaking of the East Village redevelopment project, on the other side of Park Avenue in the Curtis Park district, construction of “Block 3″ is nearing completion (Project #8):

I dig the architecture.

Also in Curtis Park are two new projects I don’t have on DenverInfill yet! First is a 6-unit townhome project at 22nd and Emerson:

and a condo/townhome project of some kind at 25th and Washington. This project is right up against The Point project and nicely completes the block. At the corner is a historic Denver Fire Department station:

In the Capitol Hill district, the new Argonaut Liquor (Project #10) opened two days ago at Colfax and Clarkson! Here’s the new building:

Finally, a new project not yet on the City Park West district page is the new Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children, located at the corner of 19th and High. Construction has recently begun:

Do you live or work near an infill project that I haven’t posted a photo of recently? If you’d like to be a contributor to DenverInfill, please send me an email (feedback “at” denverinfill “dot” com) with the photos or a link to where I can download them. Please just make sure they are higher-resolution, well-composed photos (no camera phones or shots taken through the car windshield, etc.) to maintain the high quality of this website. I will greatly appreciate it!

The Upper Larimer development at 34th and Larimer (see Project # 25 on the Curtis Park-Five Points neighborhood page) now has their website (www.upperlarimer.com) up and running. The website includes several new renderings of the project, as well as floorplans and pricing.

Also in the Curtis Park-Five Points neighborhood, Talus Development recently broke ground on their Urbans@Curtis and Urbans@Glenarm townhome projects. Talus is also wrapping up a major building renovation just down the street at Park Avenue and Champa. The building, formerly the Guadalajara Bus Station, is now known as the Sno White Lofts, and features five live-work units. For more information, go to their website at www.TalusBuild.com. It’s great to see Park Avenue’s transformation taking place through both new construction and building rehabilitations. Along with Century Real Estate’s Welton Place project at Park Avenue and Welton, the proposed Triton project, the East Village redevelopment, and many other completed or planned projects in the area, the Park Avenue corridor may some day soon live up to its name.