The long-planned Embassy Suites project slated for the corner of 14th and Stout on Block 138 is finally ready to start construction. As you probably know, the old Motor Hotel Garage on that site was demolished, slowly, in 2007. For the past several months, a bit of remaining rubble and a few miscellaneous pieces of equipment have been the only things inside the fenced-off site.
Now, the foundation of the old parking garage is being removed. Here’s a photo, courtesy of my friend, Grant:
According to a representative of WPM, the developer, who was at the project site when Grant took this photo, the Embassy Suites project will be 17 stories tall and have 400 rooms, include ground-floor retail and a restaurant, and three levels of underground parking. The developer reportedly pulled their foundation permit with the city last week, and once the excavation of the old parking garage’s foundation is complete and the rubble removed, construction on the new hotel will begin.
I still have to figure out if the rendering I show for the project is the most recent or not, but it does appear that we’ll have yet another major construction project underway quite soon in Downtown Denver!
Fantastic news. Thanks, Ken.
I have to wonder if they're going to sit on it as long as they sat on getting rid of the rubble… I mean, will they start construction immediately, or will we have a huge hole for 5 months before they start?
S'about time! With the pace that they've been going at, I was afraid that this one was canceled! Great news for Denver!
They probably wish they started 2 years ago so they'd be opening for the DNC this summer. Any big events coming to Denver in 2010, 2011?
They probably wanted to avoid a big clusterfuck of construction with the spire.
I really doubt they held off construction so that spire could get further along. At the rate construction costs are it is better to just get them finished as quick as possible.
I sit next to the guys who've been working on it here at Fentress – these photos don't do it justice, and the model is really fantastic; t would be a great building. It may not match the architectural style of nearby Larimer Street, but the detailing on it really helps set a scale which is what i think is most successful in Lodo. P.S. the rendering was released before the news of 1401 was released.
jeff? Do you know where the most current rendering is available?
Great news! Even without 1401 lawrence, 14th street is going to look fantastic! A new gem downtown!
Sorry, that post was meant for the bell tower project – I think the Rocky Mountain News has a slide show though.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jun/19/wraps-are-off-proposal-for-unusual-building/
Everybody Vote!!!
I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Fabulous, except…I wish the city planners had the foresight to have made the two square blocks just to the west of the new convention center hotel and north of the convention center in to parks with a monument to something in the middle (sort of like the city core of Indianapolis) and traded nearby land for these two plots. It's just a shame that the front of the CCC won't always be open and visible as it is right now.
Sad to see the carefully removed Deco ceramic details shattered on the ground a few days ago. what a waste.
It's good to see something happen on that site, but ugh!!! what an ugly POS.
It will be good if it every gets built.
This is unrelated, but it just occured to me today that Civic Center park really, really, really needs some drinking fountains or spigots or something. Jesus I was about to die out there. I'm sure they'd come in handy more than just 1 day of the year.
How do you petition the city to include that in their plans for the park?