One of the few remaining undeveloped parcels in the Union Station district is now the proposed site for a two-tower residential development featuring approximately 500 apartment units.
San Francisco-based Shorenstein, a national real estate development and investment firm, recently announced plans for a project currently known as 1709 Chestnut that will consist of two towers of 12 and 24 stories located along Chestnut Place between 17th and 18th Streets. The site is immediately adjacent to RTD’s Union Station light rail platforms and, along with 16 Chestnut, will bookend RTD’s Chestnut Pavilion the way that The Platform and the future “B Block” development will do at Wewatta Pavilion.
Here’s a Google Earth aerial showing the site for 1709 Chestnut:
The zoning on this parcel includes two height limits: the 17th Street half has a maximum height of 140 feet, and the 18th Street half has a maximum height of 250 feet. Consequently, the 12-story tower will anchor the 17th Street corner, and the 24-story tower the 18th Street corner.
Here are a few renderings, courtesy of Shorenstein. Please note: This project is currently under development review with the City and the designs shown in these renderings are preliminary and are subject to further modifications and approvals. Shears Adkins Rockmore Architects is designing this project and we will provide an update when the final renderings from SA+R are available.
View of the Chestnut (left) and 18th Street (right) sides of the complex:
View of the 17th (left) and Chestnut (right) sides. At lower left is RTD’s Chestnut Pavilion.
View from the light rail platforms. In the foreground is the 17th Street elevation.
1709 Chestnut will include approximately 500 parking spaces in underground and structured parking and about 20,000 square feet of retail space mostly concentrated at the corner of 17th and Chestnut with a small retail space at 18th and Chestnut. The two residential lobbies will front Chestnut Place.
According to Shorenstein, construction is set to begin first quarter of 2016 with completion scheduled for 2018.
Yeah! more apartments 🙁
It would be nice if they were condos, but either way this is more people using transit, walking and biking and using public spaces, more customers to draw better downtown retail, etc.
Would they use transit? With one parking space for apartment it’s totally optional. What are the parking minimums in the city?
I’m disappointed that there’s approximately a 1:1 unit-parking space ratio. Given the location, it should be much lower, like 1:0.75. However, 1:1 is about what most of the residential projects behind Union Station are doing.
I came across the full plans for this development about six months ago or so. I am hoping that those plans have not changed substantially in one key area. At that time, the majority (>50%) of the units were two bedroom units. Plus, some of those 2-bed units had another, flexible room. Typical apartment developments usually seem to be about 50% one bedroom units. If the plans for this development have not changed, then perhaps the developers are planning these to be condos or to be converted to condos in the future. Either way would be good news.
I will say that I prefer the earlier version of the taller building, which, due to the exterior treatments, made it look like it was comprised of two different buildings.
Is that a publicly accessible plaza? It feels really open in the rendering, but seems like it would mostly blocked off by the bus ramp.
It looks like it will be, based on this rendering: http://www.denver-cityscape.com/images/1709Chestnut-Rendering-91015-3.jpg
I realize the final design could end up looking a lot different, but I absolutely love this latest iteration. Very classy. I hope this is fairly close to what we can look forward to seeing built out in 2018.
Beautiful! All of the Union Station neighborhood is really coming together, despite the mulligan of Alta City House!