River North (aka RiNo) is one of Denver’s hottest urban-core districts for infill development and adaptive reuse, whether for residential, office, hotel, retail or light industrial uses, and Zeppelin Development has been leading the charge in most of those categories. Zeppelin helped put RiNo on the map with its TAXI project, is wrapping up construction on Freight Residences, is just getting started on the Source Hotel and Market Hall, and will be breaking ground in the spring on a new RiNo mixed-use office project at 35th and Wazee: Gauge.

In case you haven’t noticed, Zeppelin has also been moving east with their developments. TAXI is west of the South Platte River, the Source is in the middle of RiNo along the booming Brighton Boulevard corridor, and Gauge will put them within two blocks of the 38th & Blake Station on RTD’s A Line (opening April 22, 2016), which lets Zeppelin add transit-oriented development to their list of accomplishments. Here’s the location for Gauge on a Google Earth aerial and a perspective showing Gauge and its proximity to Downtown Denver:

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35th and Wazee? Not exactly a bustling corner, and one that probably not a lot of people have ever been to, let alone knew existed. But the combination of new rail transit to the area and big demand for places to live/work/shop/socialize in the urban core have now put places like 35th and Wazee on the radar screen.

Gauge will feature 80,000 square feet of office space and 20,000 square feet of retail in a four-story building designed by Dynia Architects, the same design firm that Zeppelin used at TAXI and The Source. Like those developments, Gauge will feature a progressive industrial/modern design, big volume spaces, exposed steel, concrete floors, operable glass garage doors as windows, landscaped terraces, and great views of downtown and the mountains. Here are some brand-new renderings, courtesy of Zeppelin and Dynia Architects:

View of the 35th and Wazee corner with, on the right, the 35th Street Pedestrian Bridge (due to open in 2016) that will span over the tracks and connect to the Blake Street side of RiNo (and the transit station):

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View looking south along Wazee toward 35th Street, with Gauge’s historic brick neighbor on the right:

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Wazee Street elevation:

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35th Street elevation:

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In addition to the office space, another cool feature will be a food hall/collaborative retail space on the ground floor that takes advantage of Gauge’s proximity to the transit station. It will include a dozen independent restaurant/retail tenants from around the region that are known for innovative food and retail goods. Structured parking for 125 vehicles will be tucked away on the alley side of the building:

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Finally, as I mentioned in our recent post on the nearby Great Divide Brewery project, there are big plans in the works for transforming 35th Street through RiNo into something special (more on that later…) that will add to the appeal of Gauge’s location.

Zeppelin plans to break ground on Gauge in March 2016 and wrap up construction by spring 2017.