Meanwhile, keep checking this blog for Rick’s regular Union Station updates and other goings-on in the Downtown development scene… and enjoy the holidays!

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

Here’s how it works: Head on down to the LoDo side of the historic station at 17th & Wynkoop at about 9:50 AM. Whoever shows up, that will be our tour group. We’ll start promptly at 10:00 AM and conclude around 11:00 AM at the new light rail station by the Millennium Bridge. The suggested donation for the tour is $10 per person and all proceeds go to the non-profitUnion Station Advocates, but you’re welcome to attend regardless of what you can donate.

This is your chance to get a detailed overview of the project’s major components: the public spaces, the transit/transportation facilities, the new private-sector development, and the reuse of the historic structure.

See you Saturday morning!

The ULI-Colorado TOD Marketplace is a full-day conference of national and local speakers, workshops and a Great Sites Trading Floor that will be held at the Embassy Suites in downtown Denver (14th & Stout) on November 17, 2011, from 7:30 am – 6 pm.

The TOD Marketplace breaks into four program sections:

• National speakers including Emerick Corsi of Forest City Enterprises and Steven Goldin of Washington Metro, the two most successful and prolific TOD developers in the U.S.
• Panels featuring national and local experts on innovative finance, parking, redevelopment, housing, and public-private partnerships,
• Workshops on key sites including Lakewood Federal Center and Five Points
• A Great Sites Trading Floor where 30 developers present data and opportunities on the region’s best development sites within a half-mile of transit.

Title sponsors are RTD, Forest City Enterprises, and Snell & Wilmer. Other major sponsors include AECOM, Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG), Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation, (EDC), Xcel, G.K. Baum, Denver Urban Renewal Authority (DURA), Arvada Urban Renewal Authority (AURA), Beck, Urban Land Conservancy, Medici, IBI Group, Saunders Construction, First Bank, PCL, and the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA).

Registration is open to members and non-members. For a lot more detail on the conference and registration information, please visit the event’s page at the ULI website here.

Have a great weekend!

The two teams’ general reuse concepts were revealed this spring, and we covered them over at DenverUrbanism. First, here’s an introduction post on the process RTD created for selecting the winning development team. Then, here are two posts about the concepts themselves: this one about the Union Station Neighborhood Company’s proposal and this one about the Union Station Alliance’s proposal.

Since then, both teams have fully refined their reuse concepts, submitted formal proposals to RTD, and have been interviewed by RTD’s selection committee. Before RTD makes their final selection later in November, the public is being given the chance to hear presentations from both teams on their formal proposals and provide feedback to RTD on what you like or don’t like about both.

Here’s a blurb on the event from RTD’s press release:

The two and a half-hour event will be held in the Colorado Convention Center, Rooms 201 and 203, 700 14th Street (at California) in downtown Denver and begin at 6 p.m. Each team will have 30 minutes to present the details of its proposal with a 30-minute question/answer session with the public following each presentation. The first presentation by Union Station Neighborhood Company starts at 6:15 p.m., and the second presentation by Union Station Alliance will begin at 7:25 p.m.

For the full press release, please click here.

This is an exciting moment in the larger Union Station project. The rehabilitation of the historic structure and the various activities that will be taking place within it will contribute significantly to the overall success of the project and, in particular, the activation of Wynkoop Plaza along the Downtown side of the station. This is a major public presentation on Downtown’s biggest civic project—I hope you’ll be there!

This Saturday’s tour is special, as it represents the one-year anniversary of our DenverInfill walking tours of Union Station! Our first tour was held October 16, 2010, and during the year we’ve had a total of 21 tours with over 250 people participating. Thank you to everyone who’s joined us and made these tours a success!

Here’s how it works: Head on down to the LoDo side of the historic station at 17th & Wynkoop at about 9:50 AM. Whoever shows up, that will be our tour group. We’ll start promptly at 10:00 AM and conclude around 11:00 AM at the new light rail station by Millennium Bridge. The suggested donation for the tour is $10 per person and all proceeds go to the non-profit Union Station Advocates, but you’re welcome to attend regardless of what you can donate.

See you Saturday morning!

Ken is out of town, so I will be conducting the tour so please join me this Saturday at 10:00AM in front of the historic station at 17th and Wynkoop. Even if you have taken recent tours, you may want to come along on this one to see the project from a new perspective: 200 feet above.

Since we will be walking a little more than usual, you should plan to spend more than an hour. The suggested (truly optional) donation for the tour is $10 per person and all proceeds go to the non-profit Union Station Advocates.

Here’s how it works: Head on down to the LoDo side of the historic station at 17th & Wynkoop at about 9:50 AM. Whoever shows up, that will be our tour group. We’ll start promptly at 10:00 AM and conclude around 11:00 AM at the Millennium Bridge. The suggested donation for the tour is $10 per person and all proceeds go to the non-profit Union Station Advocates, but you’re welcome to attend regardless of what you can donate. We just want you to learn about this exciting project, so see you Saturday morning!

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!