You may recall that before and even during the recent recession, developer Ray Suppa (Palace Lofts, Waterside Lofts) had been working on plans to build a major residential project at the corner of 15th and Little Raven next to Confluence Park Plaza. The project’s roots stretch back to the early 2000s. Please read this major summary of the project’s history that I wrote back in 2010.

With the rebounding economy and the strength of the rental market, the Confluence project is not only back, but has taken a major step forward towards getting underway.

The Denver Business Journal reports today that a partner, PM Realty Group, as acquired the site and has arranged financing for the project. You can read all of the details in the DBJ article here.

The Confluence will include 288 apartment units in a modern 34-story tower. Here is the rendering from the DBJ article:

This appears to be a view of the tower’s southeast side, looking along Little Raven towards 15th Street, with the Little Raven bridge over Cherry Creek in the foreground. Yes, I know that’s not what the bridge looks like (it’s two lanes, not six) and other details in the background don’t appear to be accurate either. But let’s skip past that issue for now, and consider this to be a concept image of the tower’s design. I’m sure in the future, more detailed drawings will be released as the design is finalized. The DBJ article suggests that construction could begin “in coming weeks” with completion in about two years.

The Confluence project is an exciting “exclamation point” to the redevelopment of the Central Platte Valley, which is slowly but steadily nearly completion. With all the development activity behind Union Station and with only a few remaining parcels in the Riverfront Park area, it is feasible that the entire CPV could be completely redeveloped by 2020. Amazing!