The DenverInfill Tower Crane Census is back by popular demand and is greater than it has ever been. This summer, there are more tower cranes in Central Denver than our previous censuses. How many more than the previous record exactly? Well, let’s find out!
Before we begin, let’s get a few things out of the way. Here is what we classify as a tower crane and our geographical boundaries for the census:
This census is for tower cranes only. Self-erecting cranes (cranes without a ladder mast or cab, typically found on smaller builds) and crawler cranes are not counted. We are counting the number of tower cranes in Central Denver only. This boundary is similar to our coverage area on DenverInfill: roughly between Sheridan and Colorado Boulevard to the east-west, Evans and I-70 to the north-south. Tower cranes out by Denver International Airport, Central Park, and the Denver Tech Center will not be counted in this census since those areas typically have more suburban-focused development.
Cherry Creek (1), Capitol Hill (1), and Baker (1)
One – 200 Clayton. Two – Avalon Governors Park. Three – Aura Santa Fe Arts.
Golden Triangle (5)
Four – 990 Bannock. Five, Six – Modera Golden Triangle. Seven, Eight – Evans West.
La Alma / Lincoln Park (1) and Sun Valley (1)
Nine – Art District Lofts. Ten – DHA Holden Place.
Downtown (4)
Eleven – Populus. Twelve, Thirteen – Colorado Convention Center. Fourteen – 1900 Lawrence.
Uptown (1) and Arapahoe Square (1)
Fifteen – 777 East 17th. Sixteen – X Denver 2.
Union Station (1) and Union Station North (1)
Seventeen – 19th and Chestnut. Eighteen – 2980 Huron.
Jefferson Park (2), Sunnyside (1), and Globeville (1)
Nineteen, Twenty – 26th and Alcott. Twenty-One – 42nd and Jason. Twenty-Two – Fox Iron Works
River North (13)
Because of the number of tower cranes in River North, we will break them out into the quadrants like our roundup posts. Check out our Quadrants Map for a refresher. Some of the photos below give more of an overview of all the tower cranes in the area. Since there are so many tower cranes, individual photos would be a bit overwhelming.
West Quadrant (3)
Twenty-Three – Denargo Market Phase 4. Twenty-Four – Hanover RiNo. Twenty-Five – 2950 Arkins.
North Quadrant (4)
Twenty-Six – Flora. Twenty-Seven – Wynkoop Street. Twenty-Eight – The Current. Twenty-Nine – 3901 Wynkoop.
East Quadrant (6)
Thirty – One River North. Thirty-One – Novel RiNo. Thirty-Two, Thirty-Three – FoundryLine. Thirty-Four – T3 RiNo. Thirty-Five – Paradigm River North.
Wrapping up the census, here is a map of where all the tower cranes are with the numbers corresponding to the counts above. You can also download a PDF version here.
You may have noticed a green line on the map below. This is the new “Downtown Area” we will be using for our development summaries coming soon. 31 of the cranes are in the downtown area, with the remaining four in nearby neighborhoods (1 in Sunnyside, 1 in Globeville, 1 in Baker, 1 in Cherry Creek).
Thirty-five tower cranes is a record-breaking number for our censuses, with the previous high totaling thirty-three in Summer 2018. Is it possible that this census could be topped in the future? More than likely. With more projects breaking ground, a good portion of them will require tower cranes.
What’s being built with tower crane #27?
This project name has changed a few times, with the most recent being “Wynkoop Steeet”. We last reported on this project under the name Vert Lofts (16 Stories | 175 apt homes).
It certainly felt like a record number of cranes in the neighborhood. Thank you for enumerating my suspicions. I know this is generally outside of the blogs’ purview, but there are a number of Denver-address DTC cranes actively facilitating construction. Our new office is smack in the middle of Belleview Station, and I can’t help but feel this is the one parcel of Denver suburbs planners are actually getting right. It’s dense, mixed-use, and loaded up directly adjacent to a light rail stop.
Similar to jmpmk2’s commment, is the area around IKEA (DTC) in Denver? It’s exploding right now in the same fashion as Belleview Station, just a few years behind.
Would be nice to get a round-up for what’s going on there.
Nevermind…found it! Wow!
https://www.trybaarchitects.com/portfolio/the-district
Great write-up! I’ve really been enjoying the recent spate of posts. It would be interested to know more about the logistics behind the scenes with these tower cranes. How many cranes are available for lease in the state? If equipment lessors in the state run out of available cranes, do they start to pull from out-of-state inventory, or just wait until current projects wrap up?
That’s a lot of cranes. Likely peak economy here in fall. Shrugs.
Hey y’all, this is probably not the best post to comment on for what I’m asking about, but some of the older posts and threads were closed to comments so here goes… Am I absolutely bonkers to think that there was once a proposal to connect Bayaud to Bayaud over I-25 with a pedestrian (or even two-lane road) bridge? This would connect the Valverde and Baker neighborhoods from the Denver Animal Shelter to that new construction by Denver Floor Designs at Kalamath. I *think* I remember something years ago about this and wanted to know if A.) Yes, it was once ‘a thing’, B.) If it is still under consideration or even a planned development. Even if y’all don’t have a definitive answer, I would love to know who I might contact about that ESPECIALLY if it is something I can talk to someone in government about.
ALSO- I suppose I’d love to know more about the Federal ‘Green Revitalization’ Project that I also remember hearing about years ago… I think there’s going to be some considerable roadwork to be done soon by Mile High and Northward, but not sure where that much larger project that involved bike lanes and such now stands. Finally, is there any chatter whatsoever to fix Alameda from Morrison Rd. to Broadway? Any information, about anything above, here or in an email would be absolutely awesome. I love this blog and have been following it for quite a while. Thanks!
Hey Scott, I’m with Technology Services for the city and I work with DOTI a lot so I’m sending an email to my primary contact with them asking about it. I’ll reply here with what I hear back on your three questions. 🙂
Alright here is what I have so far…..
1) No answer yet about a Bayaud bridge project.
2) This is the link to the page about the Federal revitalization project. Included in that is a web form where you can contact the project team for more info but it sounds like the work has started. https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Department-of-Transportation-and-Infrastructure/Programs-Services/Projects/Federal-Improvements/South-Federal-Green-Boulevard
3) Alameda between Morrison and Broadway, it looks like there is a plan in the works to re-design and fix the underpass on Alameda between Cherokee and Santa Fe, however according to their paving schedule in 2022 there are only plans to repave (mill & overlay) on Alameda from Broadway east to Cherry Creek S Dr.
Awesome. I really appreciate the follow-up. Any news or doors I can knock on are incredibly helpful!
Those photos are great, rino is looking amazing with all that construction.
I was mentioning to someone recently that RiNo looks like it was completely destroyed and is being rebuilt from a natural disaster with so many cranes going up. It’s like there was a new slate for the area, but really just a massive influx of investment into the area.