DenverInfill has learned this morning that buyers under contract at 1401 Lawrence, the 51-story condo tower proposed by Great Gulf Group on Block 070, have reportedly just received notice from the developer of the project’s termination.
The project website, 1401Lawrence.com, is currently not on-line.
Assuming it to be true, this is very disappointing news, to say the least. Yet it is probably not unexpected considering the ongoing credit mess, the soft real estate market, and skyrocketing construction costs.
I’ll post more on this when an official confirmation becomes available.
UPDATE: It’s official. Here’s a statement from the Great Gulf Group:
“As you are aware, the downturn in the U.S. real estate market continues, and unfortunately Denver is no exception. Due to these conditions, Great Gulf Colorado, LLC has not achieved the requisite pre-sales to go forward with the 1401 Lawrence project and, regrettably, is cancelling the project.”
Bad news, of course. But on the bright side, the view of the 4 Seasons will be less obstructed. 🙂
I knew that with all of the delays in getting a good website at the very least, this was going to be a longshot. I figured that if they hadn't broken ground by the time the next door Four Seasons Residences and Hotel had broken ground, this would probably not be built. It is a shame, as all of the development along the 14th Street corridor adds new life to the downtown area. Maybe after the credit crisis is over and the economy comes back, this project will be revisited.
I'm SO not surprised. During the 80's meltdown, it was the Canadian Development firms that dropped out first, and they had many infamous vaporware projects.
Having said that, I still believe that a project of that type and scale can certainly succeed. But, the next time a project like that rolls around, it will cost at least double to build.
this was the building i was most looking forward to seeing go up. It definetly looks the coolest
Im surprised because sales were supposedly going well. Didn't they recently raise prices?? I wonder if it was a financing thing such as what happened with spire??
Depressing.
At least the 4S is going up, 1 for 2 in this economy is pretty good – nonetheless, it's still a loss for Denver's skyline.
In other news, has anyone seen the activity at the empty block bounded by 18th/19th and Logan/Penn? Is something going up there?
Where are all the posters who call people "haters" when they raise basic questions regarding project economics and financing? If I only had some land in Florida to sell. I know where to find the buyers.
I'm not surprised but it's disappointing all the same. That space needs to be developed, and it needs to be an improvement to our existing skyline. I was really hoping for this project to find life.
I walked by 1401 Lawrence earlier today and thought "How is this place going to survive?" As the last of the three big residential towers to go up on 14th Street, it was going to be playing catch-up for a while.
Disappointing, yes. The design of the building was spectacular. But it feels like the market is starting to regulate our building boom a bit, and that can't be bad. Obviously, if the demand were there for more luxury residences downtown, the project would have moved forward. Maybe we've hit the ceiling on high-end places, at least for now?
So. Sad.
A shame to lose the density and an even bigger shame to lose the narrow tower model, but I can't say I'm *too* upset. Would have been ugly in real life once the luster wore a little.
I hope the W hotel and residences doesn't now share the same fate. That is the project I am most interested in seeing built. I wasn't in love with the 1401 Lawrence design and I kind of felt it was too tall of a building for that lot next to Larimer Square.
Last I heard 1401 only had 10 contracts. On the other side of the coin, I heard that Four Seasons is almost 50% sold out that means around 50 units sold out of 102, pretty remarkable considering the state of the real estate market.
Still unfortunate that it will not be gracing the Denver skyline.
Yeah, where are all the people telling us the "rich aren't affected by economic cycles" and "Denver is adding hundreds of thousands of jobs and those people need somewhere to live"? You'd have to be an idiot to add a bunch of condos to the market right now. This will be the first of many- if a big downtown project with a residential component hasn't already broken ground, it won't. We might get a few more office buildings in, but that's about it.
ugh! this would have been such a nice addition to the skyline… i really thought that it would go through.
In my opinion there were several factors working against 1401. The contract being offered by the developer was extremely technical and expected that not only would a certain percentage of the cost of each unit be deposited up front, but they also expected what amounted to regular payments coming on a 9-month schedule, all before the place was even built. Okay, perhaps this is reflective of the the 'current situation', but it also had the effect of disuading potential buyers from making a committment. Also, the sales team was, at times, oddly disconnected from things, what with questions being glossed over with seemingly little interest. Then, there was the reduction in height from 55 stories to 51, causing one to wonder what would happen next, etc. etc. All of this is too bad, because I would have liked to have seen this project move forward at full speed. The building had many attractive qualities. I hope that something worthwhile is built on the site.
hesitation!
hesitation!
hesitation!
This is only the beginning.
The fools are trying to prevent the sun from setting:
Monthly Mortgage Interest Rate Resets
http://www.thetruthaboutmortgage.com/interest-rate-reset-chart/
Subprime In Sheep's Clothing
http://www.forbes.com/2008/05/08/alt-a-mortgage-markets-bonds-cx_md_0506markets32.html
Adjustable-rate mortgages due to reset could bring wave of foreclosures
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080420/BUSINESS02/804200366/1003/rss03
Foreclosures Expected to Rise after Mortgage Reset
http://www.personalhomeloanmortgages.com/articles_mortgage_reset.asp
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/byauthor/134335
Forbes ranks Denver among 10 riskiest real estate markets
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2008/03/31/daily23.html
Worst Cities For Homeowner Debt
http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/realestate/2008/04/17/debt-homeowner-cities-forbeslife-cx_mw_0417realestate.html
AP Poll: Mortgage Payments Worry Many
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=104&sid=1386304
Mortgage delinquency on the rise
http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/12/real_estate/mortgage_delinquency/?postversion=2008051203
Rates on 30-year mortgages top 6%
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2008-04-24-mortgage-rates-rise_N.htm
Homes facing foreclosure more than doubled in 1Q from 2007
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080429/foreclosure_rates.html
Vacant homes for sale hit new record high
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24352014/
American Housing Market Still Sliding
http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/29/foreclosures-case-schiller-markets-equity-cx_md_0429markets10.html
Fannie Mae gives dismal price outlook
http://www.gazette.com/articles/fannie_36060___article.html/home_prices.html
Growing majority avoid buying homes
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24106617/
Bummer Dude. It would have been a
beautiful building.
Hey Under_the_Bus…,
The sky is falling and I trust your blogging from your backyard bomb shelter?!?
Call me a jerk, but I think 1401 going away may be a good thing. I was never a fan of its scale at this location, right next to the charming 19th century buildings of Larimer Square. In winter, 1401 would have cast such a long shadow that the sitting area in front of The Market, which is often used in winter on those days when Denver's climate allows, would have been unusable. I agree with Artistic Mercenary or whoever it was that said that density is important here, but Larimer Square is a unique asset that shouldn't be made less appealing by the construction of what really was a far too tall building for the site. Give me something 6 or 8 stories here, and put the 51-story highrises on other blocks nearby.
Now that I think about it, beyondDC has a good point… 1401 lawrence did not have a timeless design that would still look gorgeous in 40+ years. However, it still would have brought some nice density to that area. The Four Seasons, although more generic, should still look pretty good in future decades.
The facts speak for themselves.
So don't get thrown under the bus!
As for me, the future's so bright, I gotta wear shades…
8-D
Well, what can I say? This is exactly what happened to so many proposed projects in the 80's. :(:(:(
I kind of had a feeling this would happen…it seemed to good to be true, especially for Denver.
Gee thanks, Canada- way to get our hopes up and then dash them. But do you see this kind of think happening in Toronto where they promise a great new building and then – – oops. No way. Toronto has skyscrapers a plenty – like someone could actually expect them to shrare the wealth. No Canadian Bacon here.
(PS only kidding, but it is sad to see such a great building disappear)
for our shadow-phobic friend up there…
you do know that shade from buildings CHANGE location as the day progresses? any shade would move from location to location as the earth goes around the sun (which can be a welcome relief from denver's constant sunlight beatdown).
you want 6-8 stories on that site? too bad…you didnt pay $500/sf for the land. if you are walking on larimer street you would barely feel this building from the west side of larimer square, and never feel it if you're on the east side.
this building is a huge loss – but might have beena bit over-the-top given that we already have 4S and RC happening in town.
maybe it can come back as a luxury, high-rise apartment building.
There was an article in the paper today about it. They said that there were no plans to sell the site. They might just sit and wait and see how the economy turns out before either selling it off or creating a new use for the land. Or they might just sell it and the sales office will become some over-priced sushi joint.
This is a terrible shame. I've said it time and again here, though many of my comments don't get posted by th editor, the key to success in these times and pretty much any time is multi-purpose, taller buildings. Infrastructure and land costs are the highest but decrease when spread over more floors of the same taller building. Had Great Gulf and The Spire gotten together for a 75-story building, with a 6-story shopping mall (ala Water Tower Place in Chicago), a 10 story hotel, and a wider range of prices for units upward, they might have had a workable project. But, people here don't get this concept which works exceptionally well in building all over the world and allows for more financing and revenue streams to coalesce therefore getting these projects built even in economically rocky times.
Maybe you forget that retail is in the toilet right now. The last thing downtown could support is a mega mall tied into a tower
The price was too high, I can't imagine that the people who can afford the condos would fill it up. We just had Glass House and almost every other condo DT goes for over 300 – except Brooks where a young person like me can get deals but it's still out of reach with the HOA.
It would be nice to see a developer try to mix these luxurious condos with more affordable options for those of us who would love to live downtown but can't afford the price tag. My only options are in Cap. Hill or down Leetsdale! The IHO program is great…if your income is under 80% AMI. If you're at 95%, forget it.
Retail is in the toilet? Anon 8:03 where do you get that idea? They keep opening big box centers in the burbs all over the place. The more stuff there is to do downtown, the better. I'm so sick and tired of people in here being know-it-alls without knowing anything. Historically, Denver is in the precise position as was Chicago in the 1960s when people began to realize they missed the boat in migrating to the burbs to get away from the city and then spending 2 hours a day in the car or on public transportation. So, guess what? Yeah, they started moving back down town and the catalytic building that made it start to happen was the John Hancock Tower (presently the tallest mixed use building in the world with… hmm … parking … shopping … offices … and residential condos. A building like this would do fantastic in Denver in much the same way as it did in Chicago, but it would require a few mindset changes (most of the people that post their creepy insults would have to check their egos at the door). First, we would have to embrace a nice, tall building and not be worried about view obstructions and shadows. Second, we'd have to understand that there are huge economic benefits to mixed use buildings that we are not seeing now. Because we don't have any tall mixed use buildings really to speak of, we don't understand how they work or benefit an area (but we would the moment it was completed or we could if we'd take a simple trip to Chicago and see how many of these have worked and worked well to the point of turning down town Chicago into one of the nation's most liveable big cities). Next up, we'd have to support the building inasmuch as we'd promise to wait and see and not be critical until it was online and ready. "The last thing downtown could support is a mega mall tied into a tower." Really? Really? Are you so sure? And how exactly do you know this? Have you spent the last 25 years studying urban development, the Denver economy, the national economy, the economy of cities, etc.? Well, I have. And I assure you that not only could downtown support this, we need it and need it badly. We also need to understand the shift from a city that shuts down at 10 pm to one that thrives day and night. Mixed use buildings encourage this mentality. There are tons of people who already have it, but no place to go. Hang around the Denver Pavilions on a week night when a big convention is in town and see how many people are milling about wondering why everything closes at 8 or 9 or 10 o'clock?
Anyway, Sir Anon 8:03, got news for you, but if our city is to thrive both economically and otherwise, we need big urban projects that coalesce services into taller towers that survive precisely because they are mini self-contained cities with built in populations to use the services within, but which also draw in tourists, conventioneers, hotel guests, and so on.
Easy sir there is no need to be so aggressive. Im sure you are well versed in the ways of urban development and such but here is a quick news flash. This is NOT freaking chicago either now or what it was like 40-50 years ago. We have a fraction of the population and DENSITY. This is Denver where retail moved out of downtown with the completion of Cherry creek mall a short drive down speer. Don't get me wrong, street level retail is the way to go and mixed use is our future. What I will say is that A. You said a 6 story mall mixed into an office tower is what we need. Got a news flash. TABOR CENTER. Its technically a mall and a dead one to. a mall is a pedestrian urban landscape killer. It pulls people off the street and into a gigantic building. Look at Salt lake city's two downtown malls. they killed the street scene there. And even big retail in big cities close shop around 9 or 10 its up to the companies not the city when to close up. Anyways sorry to offend
Anon 10:37, the Magnificent Mile appeared as a shopping destination before the Hancock Tower was built, and is the reason for the Hancock's placement, not the other way around. Did the Hancock contribute to it's continued growth and success? Yes. But it wasn't the primum movens.
I do agree that a mixed use complex at the site of the Federal Reserve Bank is exactly what downtown needs to truly thrive. The existing retail along 16th Street needs improving and an upscale retail, hotel, condominium and office complex at this site would be a tremendous center of activity. This is the best site downtown because it is in the center in between the DCPA,Four Seasons, Larimer Square, LoDo, The Ritz-Carlton, Denver Pavilions, and the Convention Center. The economy may not be currently perfect to start such a project, but I think the planning and construction should start soon so that it will be completed just when it would be able to take off. I think 1401 lawrence failed at this time is largely because it was not a hotel/condominium project. It seems the rich people who are buying such expensive condominiums really want the amenities an upscale hotel offers. Also, I think these condos therefore may have higher resale value and be better investments. Trump could be the redeveloper of the FRB site.
People keep bringing up Chicago as a model for Denver to follow. Downtown Chicago is thriving, although large areas of the city continue to decline into some of the worst urban blight in the country. However, the excitement of downtown and the lake front are the only attractions that Chicago has because Illinois is the least remarkable state in the country for scenery and attractions. Downtown Denver has to compete for our beautiful outdoors, Cherry Creek, etc. I think downtown Denver will only continue to become nicer and a more desirable place to shop, live, and work. Anyway, I am so glad that Denver doesn't have any where near as bad crime and blighted neighborhoods as Chicago.
At first I was VERY sad to see this not be a go… then as this past week has rolled on I try and think about what it would look like with the 4s and 1401 side by side. I feel that it would have looked silly for this city right now, and maybe this is a good thing as far as the view/skyline thing gos