While it might seem odd to have a roundup for Union Station, as most of the neighborhood is built out, a proposal has been submitted for one of the last parcels in the neighborhood, giving us two projects to visit today.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Mercer Union Station. Formally covered under the name 19th and Chestnut, Mercer Union Station has been making swift progress. The project has topped out, the facade is starting to go up, and the tower crane has recently come down. When looking back at the renderings, this project’s facade will feature brick and concrete-style paneling. Both of these elements can be seen going up in the photos below.
| Project Description | Developer | Architect | Contractor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Stories | 198 apt homes | 13 (v) parking | Greystar | Shears Adkins Rockmore |
Shaw Construction |
PROPOSED
Chestnut Place. At the north corner of 19th and Chestnut stands the last parcel available for development in the Union Station neighborhood. A dirt surface parking lot and a half-torn-down office building that was once connected to a storage facility currently occupy the site. As you may have seen in our Summer 2022 Infill Summary, a new concept plan has been submitted for this last parcel. Plans call for a 12-story building that would provide the neighborhood with an additional 204 homes.
| Project Description | Developer | Architect | Most Recent Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Stories | 204 apt homes | 172 (v) parking |
TBD |
TBD | Concept Plan (2022-06-29) |
While I once mentioned at the conclusion of a 19th and Chestnut update that it would be nice to see this last parcel rezoned for 30 or so stories, it is still a sweet end of an era to see the complete build-out of Union Station on the horizon; a place that was nothing but dusty fields just 12 years ago.
Maps for projects mentioned in this post:
Mercer Union Station
Chestnut Place
So disappointed that the last remaining site is only zoned for 12 stories. This site is built for density given it’s proximity to public transportation, parks, grocery stores, etc. there should be 700 units on this site, not 200….
On a side note, I love that Mercer only has 12 parking stalls. Good work!!
Dang that’s a bummer that last parcel didn’t get up zoned. Is it that the developer didn’t do their due diligence on the likelihood of getting that zoning regulation modified? Or would the city not budge ?
Parts of this part of town are a bit quiet for me. The opportunity for ground-floor retail was not fully realized, and it seems kind of lonely.
To those that lament the height of this building or the proposed one next to it, I would suggest that its compatible with the area. I agree that the area could have gone taller, but here we are, and I think that anything taller would have looked out of place That being said, I agree with Jeffery that the lack of retail in the area is odd and a lack of, even a 7-11 seems weird. I haven’t been in the area for a while, so maybe there is something like that down there, but when I would Uber down there, it was like snooze-ville! Kind of odd for a downtown district…
A year or so ago, I created a tower massing model in Google Earth that went up to 350’ at 19th and Chestnut. It looked really good. Didn’t stick out much and complimented The Confluence nicely. I’ll have to do that again and link a screenshot here.
That would be great to see! I like being wrong about height! But now that I think about it, Country Club Towers are out there by themselves, and I guess they are about 300 or so feet. The massing model would be great to see in combination to Confluence and the proposed Bell Tower!
Your comments about liking the modest height and wanting more retail contradict each other, practically speaking. Denver is already oversaturated with retail for our existing densities. For folks who wanted more retail in this area, it would have been prudent to support much higher height limits and FARs in this area of downtown when it was rezoned (20 years ago now). Rezonings get one main shot to get things right (and predict the future which is so hard to do which is why large area rezonings often program some components of land use wrong). If folks want more retail, we need significantly more residential densities in the immediate area retail is desired. To that end, show up to Council meetings and contact your city councilors to communicate that you want more density, more height. Union Station now reminds me of DC, which in many parts has a very quality pedestrian experience at the ground level and high quality architecture, but is somewhat mundane due to the similarly sized height limits throughout the City.