It’s hard to say if the big hole in the ground at 14th and Stout is still the demolition of the old Motor Hotel Garage foundation, or if excavation for the foundation of the new 17-story, 403-room Embassy Suites hotel has begun. Let’s hope for the latter. But, as we wait for some kind of official announcement that construction has indeed begun (emails I’ve sent to the developer have never been acknowledged), I thought I’d post a rendering of the base of the building. This comes from Denver Cityscape:

Boy, that’ll be a tight corner there for pedestrians and light rail. Fortunately, RTD rarely, if ever, has used the short segment of emergency track that would allow a southbound train on Stout to loop back onto 14th Street to become a northbound train again. Pedestrians at that corner should still easily see a train approaching them from the Convention Center station.

Despite concern for vehicle/ped/train conflicts, this area is slowly starting to evolve from a parking lot wasteland into an intensive urban setting appropriate for a downtown. The Spire and the Embassy are the first wave. Hopefully, the two remaining empty lots facing the convention center at Stout and California will be developed in a second wave once the current economic turmoil settles down.