A rezoning application was recently filed for the Mail Well Envelope property at 3500 Rockmont Drive in Downtown Denver’s Prospect district. The property is located immediately north of City of Cuernavaca Park along I-25.
According to DenverGov.org, Alliance Realty Partners is seeking to rezone the industrial site to RMU-30, which allows for residential mixed-use development with maximum building heights of 140 feet. The Denver Planning Board approved the application on April 16 and, on April 23, City Council’s Blueprint Denver Committee agreed to forward the rezoning to the full Council. A specific date for the public hearing and final consideration by Council has not yet been scheduled.
Denver-Cityscape reports that the proposed project will include 700 to 800 residential units, 90,000 SF of office space, 30,000 SF of retail, and 180,000 SF of hotel uses.
City of Cuernavaca Park is a great Downtown amenity, but its somewhat-isolated location makes it an underutilized asset. Residential development along the north edge of the park is a great idea and will bring added vitality to the area. The site’s biggest challenge is access. Right now, Rockmont Drive (Platte Street past 19th Street) provides the only vehicular access to the site, and I-25, the Platte River, and a tangle of rail lines separates the Mail Well site from the rest of the Prospect district and adjacent districts. I think a new street connection east over to Park Avenue West and perhaps a pedestrian bridge or two will be in order. One other nice apsect about this site: it lies only 0.4 miles south of the 38th & Inca transit station on the proposed Gold Line and about 0.7 miles from Union Station.
Cool sounding project. I totally agree with you about the under-utilization of City of Cuernavaca Park. It's a surprisingly big park that just doesn't seem to get used except by the occasional jogger or bike rider passing by on the Platte.
When I heard they had to move the Mile High Music Festival from City Park, I thought Cuernavaca would be a great place for the relocation. It's actually a pretty good size and the two bridges could nicely connect two different music stages without having them bump up next to each other and the park's location near downtown, but not immediately next to it seems ideal when dealing with crowds and music. And of course it would have provided a great introduction to a hidden gem of a park located right in the heart of the city.
If they could redevelop the River area and if a rail line – or two – were uprooted; then this area would be a goldmine. Put up some parking garages that face I-25 to block the noise of traffic and people could enjoy a relative calm next to a park, river, and quick access to the city.
I was wondering how this site would be redeveloped ever since I saw the "for sale" signs go up on the building last year. With the enormous amount of traffic on I-25 so close it will be a challenge to design an attractive residential development. I thought this site would be better for retail development, such as an IKEA store, Costco, etc.
Anon, 5:58 If that were the case projects like Highland Bridge Lofts and Dakota Lofts would never get off the ground. There are ways to mitigate road noise. I think this is a perfect place for residential commercial and retail. Perhaps they can extend Globeville Road into the site.
Anon 8:42, Highland Bridge and Dakota lofts have views of downtown. I bet the traffic noise the experience is unbearable since I have never once seen anyone on a balcony taking in the view. At the proposed Prospect development, apartment buildings over looking the river will be nice. I agree with Anon 5:58 that the rest of the site is better suited to retail. I think an IKEA or a Costco would be perfect there!
You wont see an Ikea here, theyre not interested in the Denver market. Also access would be miserable for any type of warehouse type store. Anon 10:34, Im sure you have a great 24/7 view of Dakota and Highland Bridge lofts to make a comment that no one ever stands out on their balcony.
As much as I like IKEA and think Denver needs one, and as much as I'd like to see a Costco open inside Denver's city limits so those sales tax dollars would stay in our city instead of going to Arvada or Aurora, this site would be poor for either retailer, due to access issues (although visibility from I-25 is absolutely great, and that's a plus for a large retailer). If and when IKEA ever opens here (why Utah first in the Rocky Mountain states? why???), it will be in some place where they can have parking for thousands of cars, like Stapleton or up north somewhere. I was in an IKEA in Schaumburg, IL, a few years ago and it took nearly five minutes to walk to the front door! This site is just too small for them.
Putting a large furniture store like IKEA or a bulk discount store like Costco would be a waste of that downtown property. Those stores would feed off the highway and interact very little with downtown. In fact, I can't think of any retailers that are more appropriate for driving to in your car than those.
Since the site is somewhat removed from downtown itself, and isn't very integrated into the street grid, (we'll see how much that changes), it's best suited for residential, which is a use that would actually benefit downtown. People looking for furniture can go a few miles to the north to furniture row.
(ps. does anyone else notice how much IKEA is brought up in these conversations?)
I like the mixed use project proposed for this site. As noted, this site is not ideal for big-box-type retail. Big Box developers lack the creativity to develop a site like this, and wouldn't want to spend the money to do the upgrades needed. Big Box would be more likely north of I-70 than here.
The mixed-use residential/retail/office/hotel planned for the site is perfect. One of the problems with Prospect is the fact that it's not really mixed use as it's mostly residential. This site seems to learn from that mistake. I'd like to see a larger retail component for this site, however — 30,000 sf is great but 50,000 sf would be better.
The developers of this site really need to make an effort to add connectivity to other neighborhoods. Pedestrian connections to East Highland and the rest of Prospect would help, as well as vehicle access by extending Globeville Road. All this costs quite a lot of money, so hopefully the developer will pony up the cash to do it.
The South Platte is treated like Denver's dirty step-sister – I am glad to see development occuring next to the river. Just check out the continued narrowing of the river at Cherokee to understand how this 'amenity' continues to shrink.
On the IKEA front, a few years ago a group of us approached IKEA to open/franchise a store in Colorado. They were big on the US36 corridor near Louisville/Superior, due to the large population of affluent shoppers and access issues. At that time they hinted at a potential franchisee, but nothing as of yet.
I agree that somewhere along US36 would be a good location for IKEA because it would be convenient both to metro Denver and all the Boulder college students. I usually just browse at IKEA, but I miss their cafeteria the most. The other store that I am anxious to have in Denver is Trader Joes. If the ballot measure to allow wine and beer in Grocery Store passes I'll bet Trader Joes will be here fast. They are a perfect match for Colorado. Go, 2 buck Chuck!