Today I’m pleased to be able to report more information on a Downtown Denver infill project I spoke briefly about in my blog of January 11, 2007. The infill development, known currently by its street address of 2120 Blake, is located at the corner of 22nd and Blake on Block 036, directly across the street from Coors Field.

The project consists of an 8-story building featuring 180 apartment units, 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, and two levels of underground parking. Here’s a rendering, courtesy of the project architect, Buchanan Yonushewski Group:

This project is being developed by Alliance Properties, the same folks who are doing the Broadstone Lofts on the Market Street half of the same block. The Broadstone project consists of 226 rental units located in a new 8-story building and a renovated/converted historic Piggly Wiggly building with a 2-story roof-top addition. Construction on the Broadstone Lofts project will begin soon, with construction staging for Broadstone located at the 2120 Blake site. Once Broadstone and the Piggly Wiggly conversion have been completed, construction on 2120 Blake will commence.

The construction of Coors Field in 1995 has been widely credited for boosting the residential market in Lower Downtown and the Ballpark district that initially took off as a result of the creation of the Lower Downtown Historic District. But, ironically–and unfortunately–many of the properties closest to the stadium were never developed during the initial stadium-fueled residential boom. Part of the problem was that the properties closest to Coors Field were also the most lucrative from a parking perspective. So, between the 2120 Blake and Broadstone Lofts projects, about three-quarters of a city block of undeveloped wasteland across from one of our city’s most attractive and pedestrian-oriented public spaces is finally getting developed. The 8-story height of 2120 Blake is a perfect complement to Coors Field; it creates enough of a street-wall to help enclose Blake Street into a comfortable urban “room” while still respecting the low-rise scale of the surrounding historic neighborhood.

Now, if somebody would only do something with Block 037…