The Colorado Real Estate Journal report that Great Gulf Colorado LLC sold their parcel on Block 070 at the corner of 14th and Lawrence for $8,425,000 to Renshan LP. The deal closed on May 29, 2008 and was recorded May 30, 2008. It was Friday, May 30 when Great Gulf publicly announced they were cancelling their proposed 51-story 1401 Lawrence project.
Great Gulf Sells 14th and Lawrence Parcel
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Anybody know who Renshan LP is or what kind of real estate they would do?
That has to be one of the most desirable locations available for development in Denver right now.
Interesting fact: Great Gulf paid $12.5M for the property, and sold it for $8.4M. A four million dollar loss on the sale, plus the money spent on the model-unit building on the site.
Assuming 30% design ($4.2M), loss on the land ($4M), expense on the structure ($750K), and other misc. expenses like legal ($2M), it appears Great Gulf spent/lost at least $11M on the deal. Possibly even more…$20M???
Loosing $11M speaks loudly to how they feel about the market, and that their money is better spent elsewhere.
If I was able to purchase a high rise condominium I would buy one that is part of a hotel, like 4 Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, etc. I think the amenities of the hotel will make the unit much more desirable and a better investment in the long run. Personally, I have to say good riddance to Gulf Group because the way, just a few months ago, they obviously lied about how well the units were selling and were going to increase prices by 5%, as a marketing scheme, is pretty scummy business. If the hotel market isn't maxxed out right now, maybe a Mandarin Oriental or Le Meridian hotel with condos can be built at this site. The building doesn't have to be 51 stories either, which really seemed out of scale with Larimer Square to me.
Looks like Renshan is not a company based in Colorado.
To qoute many posters on here – you guys are all haters and non-believers – the Rensham group is going to build the tallest most modern mutli-use building that is being designed by Frank Lloyd Wright himself. In fact all of the units are already sold. They sold so many units they are building second even taller building. And yes, it will be completed by the Democratic Convention.
Who's Renshan LP? Looked me up and couldn't find anything.
No building in the history of man kind can be built that quick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That would be NOVEMBER!
prove it with pictures that a building is going to be built. Not!!
LOL-
Anon 4:20, something interesting about the time of day and nature of that post. That's what happens in Denver when you legalize it!! š
FLW?
All units sold in an un-announced bldg?
2 bldgs on that parcel?
new tower built by the DNC?
~puff puff give man, you're screwing up the rotation!
maybe they are a lego company and going to build a really big lego building… Or lincoln logs…
anon 4:20, that was great. You need to post more comments. Sometimes these comments get too serious or too mean. But you forgot to mention that the new 1401 is going to be a prefab, 1/4 scale of FLW's Mile High tower.
I heard they are planning to demolish the sales office and put in a surface parking lot designed by Norman Foster.
I am Anon 420. haha on the 4:20 comment. I was at work so no.
I will work on the pictures since I guess that will prove it (I assume drawings will be ok?) Maybe there are some already on Frank Lloyd Wright's web site?
Actually the Convention is in August not November. Just an FYI.
My intuition tells me that the Gulf Group going away had little to do with the presales and the like but with constant 'insider society' resistance to the extreme scale and design which was 'too much' for the local powers to envision as part how the 'old west tone'. Why do you think it was scaled back to 51 floors from 55? The Gulf Group was attempting to offer some sort of appeasing gesture that wasn't enough. The 'old west tone' was born out of those good ole 70's environmentalist planners having a desire to set a psychogeographical identity for Denver and the front range UNIQUE from the rest of the nation. Oops they didn't quite get enough of that revolutionary stuff. Not just any money is good money here. The Trango tower was another example, too extreme, doesnāt fit in with our high plains western mountain backdrop scheme…lets leave that type of volume for the big ten; N.Y.,L.A.,S.F., Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Seattle, etc. That kind of psycogeographic thinking/planning doesn't qualify as authentic to me. I call it 'over control' (too many cooks in the kitchen spoils the sauce). We don't need to waste time redefining nature. It's really simple and basic; when a geographical area is pretty and a desirable place to be (live, work, play) that is who and what the real 'commerce generator' is, not a bunch of over planning anal retentionists born to control everyone and thing within 300 miles because they never had a lucid moment in their scholastically nursed, fear freeze dried minds. Why is it, and I've observed this since the historic oil boom days of the late 70's that everyone starts grabbing for their hankies and sneezing furiously allergic to the ever impending change as it constantly throbs inward across the prairie? āOh, my God, who do they think they are?ā Coming into this special exclusive paradise of rustic memory? Is it another Nanoo-nanoo from ork? They must not set sight on our sturdy and brazen loins, it is forbidden by the uh committees. Wow this is fun, Iām having a therapy session here, blogging is bitchin isnāt it? I think Mister FLW tower has a sense of humor and I quite enjoyed that imaginative thread. Nobody knows how to be silly anymore, huh? Oh sure this seems like a serious diatribe as well but Iām really over observing a couple of hick-up periods of possibility that has happened here in Denver in the past 40 years and Iām just making a choice (thatās really all we have, āchoicesā) to leave to somewhere where visionaries still get a chance to realize their dreams however daringly authentic they might be feared to be. So bye bye to my home, memories arenāt enough to keep me here. You prudent types can kick my a** on the way out of this blog all the way into next week, I donāt care. Iām going to start over somewhere else that is pulsing red with possibility, maybe Dubai. Heh heh, ha ha thatās supposed to be funny. Well at least Dubaiās architects live in the āpresentā. P.S. Donāt forget to spell chex your imaginations too.
I agree with Greenboy. Your comment was great. It was also humorous that others took you seriously. The thought of the sales office being torn down and a new, 50 story building completed in two months is clearly in jest. Way to help people lighten up.
Anonymous 4:58…uhm, who really cares? Honestly, your little diatribe would probably mean more to me if I actually knew who you were.
A quick search of the Secretary of State office found no listing for Renshan LP. Perhaps they are a formidable energy company planning to turn the site into a major new Research and development center.
Just throwin' stuff against the wall
drawings are o.k. if you can prove it then we will all be happy. but it has to be a done deal and not a idea or concept. We all like reality buildings to fictional.
4:58 have you been reading too much William S Burroughs?
I'm trying to picture the surface parking lot designed by Norman Foster. That one made me chuckle too. Maybe a sliced dill pickle?
Renshan LP sounds like a fake name. I heard there was a plan to add a FBI office in Denver. Could this be a department of homeland security operation?
I for one am also looking foward to the Norman Foster surface parking lot. I just hope they make the self-pay dollar slots bigger. I either fold mine too small or not small enough. It is very frustrating. Now you know why I am not an architect!
Re: anon 9:30- I much prefer fictional buildings to reality buildings. You should check out denver on Fictional Denverinfill.com. We are huge.
Hey anon 2:54, Your site – FictionalDenverinfill.com is not up right now. I even Googled it. I was really looking forward to visiting that site. It sounds like fun. DUDE?!?! c'mon
Dear Lord Anon 4:58 you have lived here for 40 years and you write like THAT??? It's one thing to rant and have a therapy session on paper but its another thing to sound like a creepy LSD addled stream of conciousness induced grammatical siezure.
BUT, since I think one of the recognizable corn kernals in keyboard excrement you shared with everyone was that you'd like to move somewhere filled red with possibility… consider Orlando. It's the year of a million dreams just down the road from me and Orlando is nearly exclusively possibility and little of anything else. You should fit right in here.
The FBI Office is going up in Stapleton. Renshan sounds like some local bloke with a lot of money, who's just going to sit on the property until a developer comes in to purchase the land.
The company (group of investers) left them exposed for a huge loss. Maybe they can get away with that sort of exposure in Dallas or Atl. Only buildings on solid financial ground and needed buildings will be built here. Free lunch is over. Nanoo, nanoo.
Ditto the comments of anon 10:03. If the numbers are right are someone is willing to take a $5M+ loss on the purchase/sale & improvements alone, I don't expect to see anything here besides a parking lot (again) for at least 5 years. Probably longer than that though.
That is, unless the River House gets built: https://denverinfill.com/block_pages/lower_downtown/block_242_&_044.htm. Then this parcel may be developed sooner.
C'mon people! How come some of you can't get the rather simple jokes on some of these comments and then leave one that makes Denver look bad?! I'm sure there are people from competitive cities of similar size (Minneapolis, Memphis, K.C.) who are laughing at us when they read this because we can't get a joke. Don't make this great city look bad!
how bout' legolandinfill.com or lincolnlogsinfill.com
Rumor has it that the company that purchased the land (Renshan LP) also purchased the rights/floor plans to build the 51 story building as it was previously planned. While the details have not been worked out, the new company will almost certainly keep the sales center in place and sit on the land until the market gets better (which is probably what GG should have done to begin with). We'll see what really happens soon enough. Maybe 1401 Lawrence will happen after all, just much later than planned… ??
Renshan is part of a Romanian Real Estate Corperation. Its headquarters are outside Bucharest and has links to a group of Russian investors including Vladamir Pinokorovsky and Boris Bolditski. The eventual plans are to turn the property into a mixed use hotel, condo, retail and office tower with a 51st floor pool.
Renshan is owned by a group of Russian Investors who plan to transform the entire parcel of land into a large condo replicating a building somewhere in Eastern Europe. Roman Abromovich is involved.