This is the 1600 Market Hotel update you’ve been waiting for!
One of the ugliest and most prominent surface parking lots in downtown—facing the 16th Street Mall no less—has closed for good. This void in the urban fabric will be filled by a new 214-room, 11-story hotel with active ground floor uses to engage pedestrians.
Here’s the scene at 16th and Market today:
The 1600 Market Hotel project is being developed by T2 Hospitality. As we reported in our recent post on the proposed 1637 Blake Hotel project, also by T2 Hospitality, the 1600 Market Hotel will be branded as the Thompson Denver upon opening.
Here’s the rendering, courtesy of DLR Group, the project architect.
What an excellent improvement to Downtown Denver!
Hopefully pedestrian accommodation will be provided on Market Street since both sides will have construction. Completely unacceptable if not.
I agree! The city recently adopted new rules on pedestrian access around construction sites. It had better apply to this project, particularly since the other side of the street is also closed for construction.
In NYC where I’m from, making a pedestrian walkway when the sidewalk is blocked for construction is a given. I’ve seen this in other cities as well. What the hell is wrong with Denver? Why is a walkway not automatic? There are some streets where you have to cross the street every couple blocks because of construction on both sides of the street So annoying!
Confirmed: They are building walkways for pedestrians along the street sides of the site as I type this.
Yes all done and I just walked through them. Construction is imminent!!
What’s wrong with Denver? Too many New Yorkers.
So true – people move here and start complaining about how Denver is not like where ever – what gets me is when neighborhoods are renamed – our neighborhoods already have names – ‘when in Rome ….”
In the late seventies early eighties I remember constructed walkways around most if not all the construction sites and some of them came with holes cut in the walls so you could stop and watch what was being done particularly with the excavating. Why did those walkways go away at some point? Anyway I’m glad they are back, it really is inconvenient to have to criss-cross when you’re headed for someplace on that side of the street in the next block.
Only two more parking lots to go on 16th street.
If the Blake Street Hotel gets underway any time soon….that will be an even bigger disaster for pedestrians and traffic. Even so, in the long run this will be a much anticipated addition to this part of town.
The rendering beautifully complements the historic buildings it will abut on Market. A great addition to the Mall.
Feel bad for the owners below the 11th floor of Barclay Towers!
Why so? Only 1/4th of floors 1-11 will be impacted. Even the 1/4th that does share a border with this development gets to overlook a truly urban/activated scene instead of a depressing parking lot. In fact, I’m jealous of their new and improved view of the city. If a development next door were truly a major concern to Barclay residents, they could have bought the parcel and turned it into a park.
The current road noise and noise from cars in this parking lot is far worse than any lost of view will be. I’ve been looking forward to this for a few years for this reason. I just wish this went up before the market street station across the street because it would have shielded out that construction noise.
I just hope they don’t make a fire hazard by building the top of this in wood like the cheap skates that design and built market street station.
Damn, Sitting here in my office on the 6th floor of 16M it appears that I’ll soon be losing my view of the ballpark. Still, it will be better than looking at an ugly grey wall.
The new market street developments and hotels are really going to make this a centerpiece for Lodo! Love it.
Market Street might finally look like a good stop to get off the mall shuttle. (For years, the shuttle skipped that corner entirely, annoying only those who wanted to get on.)
This to me has always been the most egregious surface parking lot in all of Denver. I hate it so much! But weirdly, now that it’s going I’m kinda sad.
GREAT NEWS THE DENVER GREYHOUND
BUS STATION FOR SALE
I hope it’s TRUE
Great location for two large Office Towers
One to hide the ugly backside of the Rizz Carlton Hotel
A 50 story sleek office tower would look impressive coming down from I-25
A great improvement in Denver’s Skyline
Let’s keep our figures crossed
So happy! I live on the next block from the bus station and there are always junkies and homeless congregating there, not to mention the pigeon poop that no one has cleaned in 20+ years. I never walk on that side of the street. I would love to see something chic in its place!
James, Do you know where greyhound is going to be moving to? or are they stopping service out of Denver?
They’re currently in talks for a potential move to union station.
In negotiations to move to Union Station: https://businessden.com/2019/04/29/greyhound-hopes-to-move-denver-operations-to-union-station/
Hurray! Except, I’m beginning to get this sense in the pit of my stomach that DDP, along with the planning department and all the downtown reviewer type groups aren’t so hot for super tall building anymore. Like what happened to the plan for the curvy twin towers in the next block over? Too feminine? Quite frankly I think midrises are the big new-gen trend and anything over 40-45 stories is passe now. And unfortunately any kind of a view from the freeway considered important or some urban apartment patio other than a slight patch of a view of the mountains far off in the distance are relevant to the civic spirit in Denver these days. I think you and I James, are a dying breed of old school urban idealists. It’s kind of a gut feeling or intuition I’ve had since the iconic 650 17th got hushed away after all that media play too. Which ironically enough I think that was all it was constructed for was to get the property realtor some limelight. What do you think? Is it a good hunch? If it’s not true than someone correct me. Is it un-millennial like now to want to have a large cluster of sleek tall buildings to bolster the sense of eccentricity and local business pride or the newly defined modern of a sprawling European style dense city center of mid-rises which supposedly will create more street life bringing pedestrian interaction? In my experience it seemed planners from the old days did just exactly that James, envisioned taller building that would tell travelers where the center of the city was from many different vantage points and it was part of the civic culture to build them tall for that reason not just to capitalize on the square footage of the lot.
The DDP, the planning department, millennials, and anyone else other than the developer have absolutely nothing to do with the height or style of any tower proposed in downtown. It is 100% what the developer wants to do and is primarily driven by economics.
Usually, someone trying to tag something as/ blame something on “millenial(s)” is a giveaway that they haven’t done their research. Incidentally, you’re probably correct, James: most millenials, especially those living in and working in the city center would prefer more walkability, density, and human scale. Actually, most city dwellers have wanted and benefited from these characteristics of cities for thousands of years, with the exception being mid-20th to early 21th century development. I’ll add that high-rises with signature tops are not mutually exclusive with walkability and pedestrian interaction.
To second when Ken said, the height of a high-rise is primarily a factor of economics- the expected return on development for the developer. If you’d like to know what is allowed where, and what characteristics the city encourages, you should check out the zoning code and design review for downtown, they’re very helpful:
https://www.denvergov.org/content/dam/denvergov/Portals/646/documents/Zoning/other_regulations/Design-standards-guidelines/B5_downtown_zoning_design_review.pdf
https://www.denvergov.org/content/dam/denvergov/Portals/646/documents/Zoning/DZC/Denver_Zoning_Code_Article8_Downtown.pdf
Ken Schroeppel, any idea what’s about to happen with the ugly green building on the Northwest corner of 16th and Welton, across from the Sage building? Both retail shops moved and the building looks like it’s getting ready to be either torn down on redone.
Quite possibly: https://businessden.com/2019/04/08/gift-shop-along-16th-street-mall-closes/