Downtown Denver’s 15th Street is one of the city’s most historic streets, as many of Denver’s first commercial structures were built around 15th and Larimer in the 1860s.
15th Street extends exactly 1.75 miles from W. Colfax Avenue in Civic Center to the grid-transitioning intersection at W. 29th Avenue, Boulder, and Umatilla streets in Lower Highland. Along its southern half from Colfax to Lawrence, 15th Street suffers from a severe case of parkinglotitis. But its northern half, from Lawrence to its terminus in Lower Highland, is one of the city’s best urban streets with few vacant parcels, a great mix of historic and contemporary structures, and good street vibe.
The view today down 15th Street from LoDo towards the Highlands, with Asbury Methodist Church centered above the street at the top of the hill, is one I never tire of taking in. Speaking of which, here is one of my favorite photographs from the fantastic Western History and Genealogy Department at the Denver Public Library. It’s of the same view down 15th Street, from the corner at Larimer Street looking northwest towards Highlands, in 1865. As the photograph shows, six years after the city was founded, development along 15th Street petered out around Wazee Street. Off in the distance, two shacks sit along the banks of the South Platte River. Beyond that, a whole lotta nothing.
I mention all of this because one of the few underdeveloped sites along this important stretch of 15th Street is about to get a nice big dose of urban infill. Here’s a GoogleEarth aerial where I’ve identified the site:
The L-shaped site currently includes a small one-story brick building at the corner of 15th and Delgany, an even smaller cinder-block building, a large surface parking lot, and a run-down brick building fronting Wewatta Street mid-block. The rest of the block contains the historic Wewatta Transfer and Daniels & Fisher Warehouse buildings and the 13-story Waterside Lofts. The 15th and Delgany corner has been on the cusp of redevelopment for a decade. Back in the early 2000s, a 5-story office building, 1490 Delgany, was slated for the site, followed later in the decade by the proposed 7-story Komorebi condominiums. Now, with the recovering economy and the strength of Denver’s apartment market, it looks like 15th and Delgany will finally be getting its long-awaited urban upgrade. Here’s a street-level photo of the site, with chain-link fence already in place:
The Opus Group, along with Amstar and Urban Market Partners, is planning to break ground this summer on the Delgany Apartments, a 10-story, 284-unit residential building. Here’s a preliminary rendering from the Opus Group’s project website.
On the ground floor, the project will feature four townhomes facing Delgany, along with approximately 4,000 SF of space at the corner that may be used by the Museum of Contemporary Art|Denver (located across the street) for gallery or other museum functions. The rest of the ground floor would include the residential lobby on the Wewatta side, a bike parking facility, and vehicle parking in the interior of the block. The townhomes continue on the second floor, along with more interior vehicle parking. Floors 3 through 10 include the apartment units plus a 2-level club, pool, and fitness center. Two levels of underground parking cover the entire site.
If all goes as planned, demolition of the three small buildings on the site, along with relocation of utilities and general site prep, will occur this spring/summer. That will be followed by excavation for the underground parking during the fall and winter, with completion scheduled for early 2014.
Not only does this project finish the redevelopment and revitalization of the block bounded by 15th, Wewatta, Delgany, and Cherry Creek but, from an urban form perspective, it intensifies and completes the street wall along 15th from LoDo into the Central Platte Valley, and it signifies that Denver’s historic 15th Street will continue to thrive into its second century.
