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!

Both photos below show progress of the newest section of the bus terminal.  I took the first one from inside Union Station. Atop the shorter columns with lower beams will be tracks commuter rail and Amtrak.  The taller columns with higher beams are the bases for passenger platforms. As you may recall from earlier posts, there will be eight sets of tracks: one Amtrak, five commuter rail, and two spares.

The next photo is looking down the entrance/exit ramp.  Buses will access this ramp from 18th Street and from the I-25 HOV lane. Recall that there is another ramp at the other end of the terminal with access to 20th Street and 15th Street via another section of 18th Street and Chestnut Place.

Andy posed for the photo below to give scale to the height of the structure. He is standing next to one of the bus terminal walls. From every angle, this bus terminal is big.

In related news, the public plaza surrounding the Chestnut Pavilion will open on May 18. Trees are being planted and lighting is being installed. It will be impressive, especially at night, with lights under the edges of the planter seats, lights shining up through the trees, spot lights on the three ventilation towers, and decorative lighting throughout the area. Andy plans to cover the opening event on the 18th.

Backfilling on the south side of the terminal is nearly complete.  The huge pile dirt is still pretty huge so there may be enough on-site dirt to finish the job.

Andy Vuong and I got an inside look at the project last week. I will provide details of the tour over the next couple of days before I leave on another extended trip.

Today, we’ll start with a peek inside the bus terminal. Here is a series of photos taken of the covered portion of the terminal. The first photo was taken from the end of the terminal looking down one of the two bus lanes toward Union Station.  The bright light at the end of the tunnel is the uncovered, newest section of the terminal. The second photo was taken of the passenger waiting area looking in the opposite direction.  The overhead, natural light comes from the five skylights.

The first photo below is looking up through the air intake tower.  The second is one of three mechanical rooms.

I’ve uploaded 18 photos of the tour to our Denver Union Station page at JobSiteVistor.com.  I will write more about them in this blog tomorrow.

First, the project has a new name: One City Block—kind of appropriate since the project will cover one full city block. Currently, that one city block is covered by one ugly sea of asphalt. Here’s a GoogleEarth aerial where I’ve outlined this project’s location (click to embiggen, of course):

As you can see, this part of Uptown needs a parkinglotectomy, so One City Block is just what the doctor ordered.

The project consists of four buildings named after some of Denver’s urban parks: The Benedict, the Congress, the Washington, and the Commons. Here are some updated renderings (thanks to Davis Partnership Architects) of this 300-unit residential development that’s aiming for LEED-Silver certification.

This first image shows the block’s north side along E. 19th Avenue, with The Congress on the left and The Benedict on the right. It’s along this side of the project where the approximately 9,000 square feet of retail will be located.

Moving around the block in a clockwise direction, here’s the northeast corner, E. 19th Avenue and Pennsylvania Street, looking southwest at The Congress:

This is a view looking northwest at The Washington, located on the block’s southeast corner of E. 18th Avenue and Pennsylvania:

Next, this is the block’s southwest corner, with E. 18th Avenue in the foreground and Logan Street off to the left. The building on the right is The Washington, and on the left, The Commons:

Finally, here’s a rendering showing the pool in the center courtyard, looking southwest. On the left is the western end of The Washington, followed by The Commons in the corner and then on the right, The Benedict, which wraps all the way around the block’s northwest corner to bring us back to where we started in the first image:

Parking is no longer being permitted on the site. Later this month, site prep work and utility relocations should begin as the first steps in the project’s construction. The entire project should be completed by late 2013.

Earth-moving equipment has been moved onto the property and site prep and utility work will begin later this week. Here’s the rendering we showed you last time:

Also, here’s a GoogleEarth aerial image where I’ve marked the project location:

Cadence will be a LEED-Gold certified building and is scheduled to be completed by Fall 2013.

16 Wewatta will occupy the “triangle” parcel at 16th and Wewatta, across the street from the Gates HQ building. For the past several years, the grassy property has served as a temporary sculpture garden/dog-walking park, but its long-term fate has always been as a development site. That time has arrived, with East West currently marketing an 11-story office building for the parcel. Here’s a GoogleEarth aerial image with the site outlined, and a street-level view:

16 Wewatta would include underground parking, ground-floor lobby and retail spaces facing 16th Street, two levels of parking, and eight floors of office space totaling roughly 200,000 square feet. Like its cousin at 16th and Chestnut, 16 Wewatta is currently in the concept design stage. Consequently, the following images, provided courtesy of East-West Partners and their design partner klipp architecture, are very preliminary in nature and subject to change.

The first image is the ground-floor site plan and the second image is the view of the 16th and Wewatta corner of the building:

East West Partners will continue to refine the building program and design while marketing the project to prospective tenants. We’ll post more on this project as it develops.

We’ve had some great turnouts lately! Thank you to everyone for your interest and enthusiasm in this project that will transform Downtown Denver and the region.

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-profit Student Chapter of the American Planning Association at the University of Colorado Denver, but you’re welcome to attend regardless of what you can donate.

On the tour, we’ll see and talk about all four aspects of this major project: the transit elements, the public spaces, the renovation of the historic station, and—as you know from following this blog over the past week or so—lots of private-sector developments!

See you Saturday morning!

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.

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.

Now, four years later, the economy is much improved and new projects are popping up everywhere in the Downtown area, so it should come as no surprise that Sage is again moving forward with developing their 16th & Market property, one of the best development sites in Downtown. This time, however, it’s not a hotel, but a combination office and apartment project. Since the site is located within the Lower Downtown Denver Historic District, the development’s design must receive approval from the Lower Downtown Design Review Board. The project is currently working its way through the design review process with the LDDRB and earlier this month, the LDDRB Board give the project conditional approval for mass, form and scale.

Here are some preliminary project facts: 1350 16th Street will be a ten-story building with 47 residential apartments (floors 7 through 10) sitting above approximately 115,000 square feet of office space (floors 2 through 6) and about 13,000 square feet of retail, along with lobbies and other functions on the ground floor. There will be two levels of underground parking. Part of the project includes a four-story section that stretches along Market Street over to the empty Rocky Mountain Seeds building near 15th Street.

Here is a rendering of the proposed development that was submitted earlier this month to the LDDRB. Of course, this is a preliminary design that will continue to evolve until all approvals have been secured. Nevertheless, this gives you some idea of the project’s conceptual design:

At the April LDDRB meeting where the project received approval for mass, form, and scale, the two conditions the Board added as part of that approval included 1.) a refinement to the alley side of the residential portion by adding additional setback, more facade articulation, or both, and 2.) a redesign of the facade of the top six floors that face 15th Street. According to the city, the project will likely be back before the LDDRB in June with the latest refinements to the design.

Let’s hope this project moves quickly through the city’s approval process and gets under construction later this year. 1350 16th Street will certainly be a fantastic improvement over the current building on site. When the project moves forward, Office Depot will move to another location in Downtown.