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.