It’s time to wrap up our coverage of Union Denver, the 13-story three-tower development that’s adding 579 new apartment homes to the center of the Denver Union Station transit district. Residents started moving into Tower 1 (17th & Chestnut) earlier this summer and Tower 2 (17th & Wewatta) is currently leasing, but we decided to wait until the Whole Foods store, Union Denver’s anchor ground-floor retailer, was open before declaring the project finished. At over 50,000 square feet, Whole Foods Union Station opened two weeks ago. Exterior construction on the full-block development by Holland Partner Group is finished—the sidewalks are open on all four sides of the property—while construction of the interior of Tower 3 (18th Street) is nearing completion. For some excellent photos of the interiors of Towers 1 and 2, check out our last update from June. For all of our previous posts on Union Denver (formerly known as 17W and Pivot), click here.
Let’s begin our photo tour of the completed Union Denver with the 17th Street side, starting at the Wewatta Pavilion and ending at the Chestnut Pavilion:
Directly in front of the Whole Foods is the 17th Street Gardens, one of the Union Station transit district’s new public spaces. The 17th Street Gardens opened during the summer of 2014 but was fenced off for safety reasons when construction began on the adjacent Union Denver project in early 2015. Therefore, the public hasn’t had much opportunity to enjoy the public space until recently when the fences came down in preparation for the Whole Foods opening. The grocery’s two main pedestrian entries, mezzanine terrace, and ground-floor patio face the Gardens and help activate the linear plaza.
Union Denver’s Tower 3 spans the entire block along 18th Street between Chestnut and Wewatta. Below we see Tower 3 at the intersection of 18th and Chestnut, where a future retailer or restaurant will occupy the space at the corner.
From Wewatta near 19th we see Union Denver’s Tower 3 at 18th and Wewatta. Opening soon at this corner is a CVS Pharmacy.
The completion of Union Denver represents a milestone in the multi-billion dollar build-out of the Union Station district as the city’s most transit-oriented new neighborhood and a major extension of Downtown Denver into the Central Platte Valley. Congratulations Union Denver!
Always great when the final product looks better than the renderings. Fantastic addition to Denver.
I paid a visit to the Whole Foods the day before Thanksgiving. I was just wandering around the neighborhood (which is actually starting to feel like a real, bustling, downtown neighborhood for the first time), checking out the progress of all the construction in the area, and was surprised to see the Whole Foods was open, so I wandered in. It was the most crowded grocery store I’d ever been in (not surprising considering it was the day before Thanksgiving and there were probably plenty of people there for no other reason than to check it out – like me). I have to say, that store is pretty dang neat. I somehow ended up spending a couple hours there. There is a lot to do there besides buy groceries. I ended my visit by sitting on the patio eating some surprisingly decent sushi and imagining what it would be like to be a real-life yuppie :p who actually lives at Union Denver and can afford to regularly frequent the Whole Foods for an $8 juice after his daily jog or whatever. One day…
The final form of the neighborhood is starting to take shape and it’s hard to believe how fast it happened. I remember, not long ago, standing on the Millennium Bridge looking out over the big empty expanse that separated the bridge from Union Station and trying to imagine what it would be like (what I assumed at the time to be many years in the future) when it was all filled in with development. It’s turning out better than what I expected. For some reason I had a hard time picturing it and pictured it ending up with more of a sort of phony, “suburban downtown” feel. But now that the street-wall canyons are starting to take form and the ground-floor retail scattered throughout the neighborhood is starting to come to life, it’s beginning to feel like a real, authentic downtown neighborhood. I’m glad the planners had the foresight to make it as mixed-use as it is or else it may have ended up feeling more like a sterile office park.
Speaking of fast development, is it just me or is progress on The Coloradan just flying along? I can’t believe how high it has climbed already.
Really loving the urban walls that are filling in. I’m glad that LODO didn’t follow the DTC with all those high rises with their big half acre lawns and flower beds.
Comments on the post “Wellington Apartments Update #1” are closed so I
comment here:
https://denverinfill.com/2017/06/new-project-wellington-apartments.html
That post includes:
> An innovative approach to making housing in the city more
> affordable – co-housing rental apartments
While it shares some features with cohousing, it is not cohousing.
Maybe you could use “cohousing-like” to describe it. I suspect
cohousing folks would welcome such developments but want to preserve
the use of the term for something more specific.
See for example: on the Cohousing Assn of the US site:
“Cohousing”: A Term Whose Definition Should Be Respected
http://www.cohousing.org/node/4930
and more specifically
discussion on the Cohousing-L mailing list starting Nov 29
http://lists.cohousing.org/archives/cohousing-l/
search for:
Apartment Sharing Developer attempts to co-opt cohousing Name
Note I have not found the developers web pages about this project.
Thanks,
Fred
—
Bassett Creek Cohousing, Minneapolis http://mn.cohousing.org/bcrk/
Fred H. Olson Minneapolis,MN 55411 USA (near north Mpls)
Email: fholson at cohousing.org 612-588-9532
My Link Pg: http://fholson.cohousing.org
I think this project turned out great and is a nice addition to the area. My only critique would be I prefer the three towers to not all look the same. I think these massive projects that take up the entire block look better if it appears that the block is broken up by different looking buildings, whether or not they truly are separated. Also, I think it is a good idea for these apartment buildings to have some sort of “dog park” within it. I work across the street from several apartment buildings and there is a small park nearby. The park became the de-facto dog park for these apartments and all the urine and waste has completely killed all the turf and vegetation. It also smells quite bad in the warmer weather. Places like The Spire have a small area for dogs where the waste is controlled. I just worry that the 17th Street Promenade will get destroyed by all the apartment dog’s urine.
The Union Denver website says they have an indoor dog-run so looks like they’ve got it covered.
There’s also a dog park 3 blocks away.
Awesome! Glad to hear it and thank you for the update!
Any news on the last development parcel in the Union Station neighborhood at 19th & Chestnut?