The La Alma/Lincoln Park neighborhood is seeing an uptick in construction and proposals, especially around the Santa Fe corridor. The new building uses are mostly residential however, they cover the whole spectrum from apartments to condos, affordable to market rate.
COMPLETED
Art District Flats. Over the last year and a half, the Art District Flats have finished up and now have residents living in the building. This project features 154 apartment homes rented at market rate. It also features ground-floor retail facing Santa Fe.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Art District Lofts. On the same block as the Art District Flats, the Art District Lofts are now under construction. We first mentioned this project back in 2019 when a concept plan was initially filed with the city. This project will feature 115 apartment homes that average 548 square feet for a more affordable price point. 48 parking spaces will also be included in the project. Here is a rendering and a few photos of construction taking place. The architect on record is OZ Architecture.
1010 Santa Fe. Holland Residential has started construction on 1010 Santa Fe. A tower crane is now up with the first columns rising above the street level. 1010 Santa Fe will consist of 203 apartment homes, about 6,600 square feet of ground-floor retail space, and 213 parking spaces contained in two five-story buildings.
Inca Commons. Located just a block East of West 6th Avenue and Santa Fe, Inca Commons is an affordable condo project that will provide 92 for-sale homes for individuals and families earning up to 80% of the Area Median Income. 86 of the 92 units are subsidized with price points below $200,000. This project is coming along nicely with a full brick facade underway.
PROPOSED
Aura on Santa Fe. A new condo project at 625 Santa Fe is expected to break ground any time now with a building permit filed less than two weeks ago with the city. The five-story project will provide 123 for-sale homes and ground floor retail along Santa Fe. The site has been cleared for construction for quite some time now so it will be nice to see this project kick-off. Here is a rendering refresher and the current conditions of the project site. Aura on Santa Fe is being developed by First Stone Development with Studio Completiva as the architect.
1010 West Colfax. Back in 2019, Opus Group proposed seven-story multifamily development at 1010 West Colfax. The site consists of three parcels currently occupied by a Burger King, a strip mall, and a laundromat. In late 2020 the developer submitted a rezoning application to the city to be able to build above the currently allowed five-stories. Currently, this is still outstanding however, permits are being filed with the city in anticipation that the rezoning request is approved. If built, this project would provide 297 apartment homes, 272 parking spaces, and about 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.
That’s it for La Alma/Lincoln Park. The residential development momentum keeps on trekking around Central Denver!
Places soap box.
Steps up.
Clears throat.
“TOO MUCH PARKING”
Steps down.
Picks up soap box, carries to bike, rides away.
Where’s the “Like” button?
Sincere question for you, Ken — as far as you and the Denverinfill team are aware, is there a tangible reason for the level of parking spaces we’re seeing with each new build? Usually on any given post here we’ll be greeted with a plethora of anti-parking space comments, however I feel there must be a legitimate demand for them or some other forces at work dictating these parking space numbers. I find it hard to believe developers and architects would willingly provide an amenity at such scale if there was no legitimate demand or cost-value associated with it given their expected tenants.
Unpopular opinion, I have a car and would like to know that I have the ability to park at my place of residence, be it a downtown apartment complex or otherwise. If this were Reddit, I will gladly accept the downvotes :).
Also for what its worth, I am all in favor the city increasing infrastructure for multi-modal transportation and I actually feel as though the city hasn’t done enough in this regard.
Part of the reason we see so much parking is that it’s baked into the city zoning code. Another reason that I’ve been told is that the banks which fund these projects demand so much parking before they’ll loan them money to build.
No building should be forced to include parking. If that doesn’t work for tenants who own cars then those tenants will rent elsewhere. If it works for tenants who don’t own cars then those tenants can save money on rent by not subsidizing millions of dollars spent on a parking garage. If it works for those tenants who own cars but are willing to deal with street parking then they still save money.
Literally everyone wins when parking isn’t required. Only motorists and the politicians who pander to them get upset because they perceive the potential for the city to become more dense, vibrant, and people-focused rather than catering to their need to haul 3000lbs of metal with them to buy groceries.
As a smooth brained individual. Could a wrinkled brained clarify the parking comments. I would assume the lack of parking is the point but my sarcasm meter for too little leads me otherwise.
No sarcasm! There is too much parking! Cars and parking are the antithesis to what’s considered good urbanism. They take up a lot of space (which is extremely valuable in cities), both while driving and wherever they sit while they are not in use. Space that could be otherwise utilized for people’s homes, businesses, parks, etc. They create air pollution wherever they go (EVs partially solve this issue, but none of the others). They kill around 40,000 people a year in the US and are the leading cause of death of 12-19 year olds. By including lots of parking in these projects you encourage more people to use cars and encourage all the negative externalities they come with (anyone like more traffic?). Lastly, parking garages cost a lot of money! The developer will need to recoup those costs somehow, and the easiest way to do it is incorporate it into the rent/cost of the unit. So instead of lots of homes for people, we have some homes for people at a higher costs. No one doubts the personal convenience of taking a 3000 pound, climate-controlled machine directly from your home to a parking lot at your work, business, store, etc. Its just the infrastructure requirements, negative externalities and inefficiencies are in direct conflict to what makes cities great: the people who live in them.
Thank you for doing a roundup of Santa Fe Dr construction! I’ve lived here the last couple years, and it’s been surprising and heartening to see a lot of the empty lots and unused commercial buildings turned into housing this close to downtown and the LR station.
Regarding parking, the minimums are generally set by the city Zoning Code, so yell at the city 🙂
I know a bit about the Art District Flats project at 1225 Santa Fe, they were actually able to put in less parking than is usually required due to a “small dwelling unit” parking ratio which differs from typical residential requirements. Under normal requirements, they would have had to have 95 parking spaces, but they only have 49 parking spaces in their small parking garage within the building.
Thank you Ken & DenverInfill Team! I’m in full agreement… way, way, WAY too much car storage resulting from decades of traffic engineering dominating urban places. We’ve prioritized parking over people. Not everyone drives a vehicle yet we build multifamily buildings with excessive storage for four-wheeled vehicles. Hey y’all, please consider reading Walkable City and Walkable City Rules. Jeff Speck shines some light onto car storage and parking dangers to high-quality urbanism. Cheers!
Eventually, as autonomous autos take hold there will likely be a lot of empty garages in the city and in the suburbs. Gone will be the double and triple attached garages. What will become of all that empty space…? And…what’s the deal with the Arts District Flats? Did they run out of the dark grey for the street facing side so they switched to the medium grey and then they ran out of that and finished up with the cheap stuff? I just don’t get the random use of grey tones on this building. Looks like unfinished bad art if you ask me.
The Arts District Flats might easily be one of the ugliest buildings I’ve ever seen. Praying for some more architecturally interesting buildings to fill in the gaps and hide this project down the road.
Thanks for all the great updates, recently! Aura on Santa Fe looked to be under construction when I drove past it yesterday morning.