While we have visited individual projects in the East quadrant of River North and the Cole neighborhood since our last roundup, multiple other projects have made great progress, with one significant project now complete. Since we visited this quadrant a year ago, this area of River North has started to come together, especially around the 38th and Blake commuter rail station. For a more detailed explanation of the Cole / River North boundary, here is the explanation we provided in the last roundup:
As you may have seen in our Summer 2022 Infill Summary, the River North boundary is a bit complicated. In summary, large redevelopment areas, like North Wynkoop and Pepsi, will be covered in their own roundups. The East quadrant presents another challenge as there is a good amount of overlap with the Cole neighborhood. While most of the projects we cover in this post reside within the official River North boundaries, a few are in the Cole neighborhood. Because we covered these specific projects in the past in a single roundup, we are combining this roundup with the Cole neighborhood.
Next up, let’s discuss the use of “apartment homes.” Almost every post comes with comments about our use of apartment homes, with a lot of disagreement around that term. We believe that you have a place to call home whether you buy or rent. Just because someone doesn’t own property doesn’t mean they aren’t allowed to consider their apartment a home. As a current renter, it doesn’t make sense to refer to my domicile as a unit, apartment, or whatever moniker those against the phrase “apartment homes” want it to be. Please see item number one, noun, from Merriam-Webster on the definition of home; hopefully, this clears the playing field.
We have also received multiple comments about the maps at the bottom of the roundups. How the maps were handled in the roundups has been less than ideal, and it took some exploring to figure out a better solution. For this roundup, we can finally present a solution. Below the project title and text description, the former project table area has two components: Project Details and Project Location. The Project Details tab shows the table everyone is used to seeing by now. The Project Location tab will serve as the map that used to reside at the bottom of the roundup.
Before we start the updates, this roundup features over 80 photos, so many project photos will be consolidated in an image carousel. Initially, you will see three photos (two on mobile), but look for the right arrow on the rightmost photo to keep scrolling through.
Last Roundup: RiNo (East) / Cole Roundup OCT 2022
COMPLETE: RIVER NORTH
FoundryLine. The 17-story project at the heels of the 38th and Blake commuter rail station is now complete and open for residents to move in. The dark brick facade adds quite the presence when getting off the train at 38th and Blake, especially when combined with the dark brick facade of Hub North. The massing to the south of the project is broken up to help ease the presence of a large wall.
| Project Description | Developer | Architect | Contractor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Stories | 348 apt homes | 9300 sq ft retail | 282 (v) 207 (b) parking | McWhinney | Craine Architecture | Hensel Phelps |
Three Three 54. As we mentioned in our last roundup, Three Three 54 is technically below the threshold of what we cover. Still, due to this project’s street presence and contribution to the low-density Larimer Street corridor, this project is worth a shoutout. Three Three 54 is complete, with ground-floor retail already occupying a vacant space.
| Project Description | Developer | Architect | Contractor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Stories | 28 apt homes | 5,000 sf retail | 0 (v) parking | Narrate | Design Studio Architects | PG Arnold Construction |
UNDER CONSTRUCTION: RIVER NORTH
One River North. The most popular project in River North, if not the city, is making significant progress on its facade. Most of the glass curtain wall is in place, the “gash” is visible, and the project looks more complete by the week. In addition to the facade, the building has been topped out for some time, and the blue and white tower crane was recently removed from the project site.
| Project Description | Developer | Architect | Contractor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Stories | 187 apt homes | 9,000 sf retail | 176 (v) 40 (b) parking | R Cap Blake Street | MAD / Davis Partnership | Saunders Construction |
Furthermore, here are a few up-close photos of the facade and cutout.
T3 RiNo. T3 RiNo is shaping up nicely, as the heavy-timber structure is topped out, with the facade quickly catching up. The various amounts of cutouts and setbacks, paired with the exposed timber structure, make this project shine. T3 RiNo should be wrapping up construction later this year.
| Project Description | Developer | Architect | Contractor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Stories | 238k sf office | 17k sf retail | 377 (v) 100 (b) parking | Hines | Pickard Chilton | Whiting Turner |
Paradigm River North. This new eight-story office project is making significant progress as the building has recently topped out, with the facade starting to make its way up. This project’s industrial-style glass and setbacks help break up some of the mass while delivering a handsome finished product. The teal and purple are not the finished facade; the building will be clad in mostly brick with metal elements on the upper floors. The link in the project table below will lead you to a current rendering.
| Project Description | Developer | Architect | Contractor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Stories | 188k sf office | 12k sf retail | 234 (v) 107 (b) parking | Rockefeller Group / Jordan Perlmutter | Tryba Architects | Saunders |
UNDER CONSTRUCTION: COLE
Shifting to the east, two major projects are under construction in the Cole neighborhood.
Novel RiNo. This twelve and five-story project is the definition of large and leads the example of why breaking components up is important, even if they are connected internally. While Novel RiNo looks like multiple projects at the street level, it is one interconnected building varying in height. The five-story portion is complete, with residents already moved in. The 12-story portion still has a bit to go as the facade work is underway.
| Project Description | Developer | Architect | Contractor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 / 5 Stories | 483 homes | 15,800 sf retail | 428 (v) 255 (b) parking | Crescent Communities | Davis Partnership | Milender White |
37th & Downing. Like many projects under construction in this quadrant, 37th and Downing is also topped out, with some facade work beginning on the northwest corner of the project. Thanks to the light-gauge steel used for the primary structure, 37th and Downing went from a hole in the ground to fully topped out in less than a year.
| Project Description | Developer | Architect | Contractor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Stories | 197 apt homes | 6,000 sf retail | 153 (v) parking | Transwestern | Shears Adkins Rockmore | JE Dunn |
PROPOSED: RIVER NORTH
3300 Blake. While the project site for 3300 Blake is in the same state as in our last roundup, there is still movement with the city, with the most recent activity from just a couple of months ago. Furthermore, we can now provide a rendering of this project obtained from the construction permit filed with the city.
| Project Description | Developer | Architect | Most Recent Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 /12 Stories | 485 apt homes | 545 (v) parking | Carmel Partners | Davis Partnership | Building Permit (2022-06-14) |
3850 Blake. After the World Trade Center project fizzled out, it left undeveloped a large amount of land south of One River North, north of FoundryLine. For some context, an older aerial shows the large parcel directly east of the 38th and Blake pedestrian bridge. 3850 Blake looks to take the northwestmost corner of the parcel, providing 16 stories of residential homes.
| Project Description | Developer | Architect | Most Recent Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Stories | 310 apt homes | 2,050 sf retail | 96 (v) parking | Formativ | Davis Partnership | Building Permit (2023-09-14) |
3963 Walnut. Across the alley from One River North, a new 16-story project is making its way through the city’s development process. A single-story warehouse occupies the project site, which will be demolished to make way for this new tower. Building permits were recently filed with the city, indicating that this project might be moving forward.
| Project Description | Developer | Architect | Most Recent Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Stories | 359 apt homes | 11,200 sf retail | 375 (v) parking | Wynne Yasmer | Davis Partnership | Building Permit (2023-08-18) |
That’s a wrap for the East quadrant of River North and Cole. Since we had a marathon-long intro paragraph, I wanted to address one last topic, which I saved for the conclusion. As everyone knows, this site is a labor of love, and for the past year, I have been pursuing further education, which takes a lot of my free time outside of my full-time career. Unfortunately, this cuts into my capacity to take photos and post on DenverInfill. I appreciate the concern some have expressed to me. DenverInfill is something I love doing, and we will get updates posted when we can; by no means is this site going away. Also, something might be brewing over on DenverUrbansim. More to come on that!
Nice roundup. Denargo Market just broke ground.
“We believe that you have a place to call home whether you buy or rent.” Seems reasonable. If you have money.
Let’s say and why not, Denver provides you a motel room or tiny house. You do not pay. Are you living in your own home?
“domicile” has it’s own historical, legal and political interpretations.
Yes, a motel room or tiny house provided by the city would be your home while you are living there.
Great work, thanks for all of the effort that goes into these roundups of neighborhood redevelopment in Denver. As others have pointed out, it is clearly difficult for developers and planners to get enough retail into this area, and I hope that changes as the buildings fill and street level commerce becomes more viable. The same comment applies to Golden Triangle, BTW.
Thank you, JT! I agree about the retail and can only hope it trends up to make some of the streets more lively.
One River North is not nearly impressive as the pre construction images. To me the building looks like it belongs in the Flintstones Bedrock
Yabba Dabba Doo!
Once the greenery is added it should look better.
I do wonder how they are going to keep it green in the Winter?
Outdoor heat lamps? What will be the energy cost for this “feature”?
Deciduous trees are going to lose their leaves no matter how much artificial heat you give them. It’s all about the light – and the gash faces north. Rather than being an amazing project, I think it looks cheap and won’t age well.
One River North faces northwest so it will get quite a bit of afternoon light. Just ran it through SunCalc and light will directly hit the gash mid-spring through mid-fall.
Are you kidding?? I was just about to comment on how identical it is to the renderings. I just figured the gash wouldn’t flow or look as clean as it does in renderings or the alley facing side would be a bland wall with tiny windows to barely break it up but they actually break the wall up pretty effectively. To my amateur eyes, it looks amazing.
Nice Roundup! Any Gates District/Broadway Station/Santa Fe yards updates in works? Haven’t heard anything in awhile and nothing seems to be happening except the bridge to nowhere. I did enjoy the Broadway Park update earlier this year.
Thank you, John! Gates / Broadway Station is chugging along. Infrastructure is still going in, along with the bridge. There’s a new plaza on the north end of the master development. I’ll have to pull the permits on the private development and see what’s going on. Once it gets going, we will be doing roundups on it.
Looking forward to it! Thanks Ryan
I did notice on the E-Line yesterday one of the dilapidated warehouses on that plot had suffered a fire. One less structure to tip-toe around I suppose. What a prime downtown development opportunity with the right vision.
Whoa buddy! 3850 Blake is one of the saddest designs I’ve seen in my 14 years of Denver construction. This looks like a massing. RiNo’s lack of design review is really starting to show. Eek! I really hope this isn’t a final design. Also, what happened to the renderings of the sexy high design glass building that was proposed for that site…it’s floated around the internet here and there.
I agree. The white is brutal. I like it overall though with limited parking right at the train stop. I think they will change it. White isn’t a great look on a skyline and weathering
I’m thinking / hoping this is a massing rendering and not the final product. I pulled it from the construction permit and those can be sometimes unreliable in terms of providing polished renderings. I guess we’ll see!
Love the new white building by Formativ with limited parking right at the train stop. Also the site is great. You need compensation for it! Great advertising for the city and developers moving projects along. Looking forward to some of the projects in Arapahoe Square and Downtown making progress.
Great update, Ryan! Appreciate all the time & energy you put into this website!
I couldn’t agree more with some of the sentiments above on 3850 Blake from Formativ. It’s very unfortunate to see such a uninspiring and seemingly cheap building proposed right next to one of the most progressive and beautiful structures in the city. The contrast couldn’t be greater. We need to be holding the developer more accountable.
Thank you, Jerry! I appreciate the kind words. 🙂
I was delivering mail in this area last week. It’s insane to see how much that area has changed in just the last five years. It’s definitely beginning to feel more like an actual lived in area rather than a continual construction zone. That said, the street level lighting is terrible. I’m sure that will change as it builds out but Novel Rino and that area is practically pitch black at 7:30 in the evening. If they really want to increase foot traffic along the revamped walking path in that area they need more lighting.
Awesome Ryan- thanks for the continued effort you put in to documenting the progress, it’s really amazing to see the changes year over year from your hard work. Personally I’m excited to see 3300 Blake, eventually TRAIN, and Rock Drill (any word on these?). Again, awesome work, I get so excited when I see the updates.
Thank you, Chris! No word yet on TRAIN or Rock Drill. I heard through the grapevine that Rock Drill has yet another owner so I guess we’ll see if that gets it going.
I was starting to gasp for air! That was a long pause, but much luck on your endeavors, understandable. For years always love checking out the site so thanks so much! I like to check out other arch sites to see what’s planned and can’t help but wonder if anyone’s heard anything rustling in the River Mile bushes or the Stadium District?
I’m assuming since it wasn’t mentioned there’s still zero movement on the Cole Market by the EXDO group. Really sad since there was such hooplah about it when it was announced and then it slowed and then the pandemic killed all momentum. With soo much new housing in the area the need for an actual market is just insane in this area. Natural Foods, 7-11, and Dollar General are not grocery stores. Hell, the Downing Market could be remodeled and opened again and would be wildly successful. They would just need to make sure to keep up on security to keep it from being a drinking/hang-out spot. Now I’m just rambling.. Just been a long need for the neighborhood.
Hi Chris, this is correct. Cole Market hasn’t moved, at least on the city side. It is sad that urban Denver has such a grocery desert issue. We need more competition outside of Kroger and now… Kroger with the Albertsons merge.
Howdy. Just want to chime in with the rest and express appreciation for all the work that goes into this website. It’s an invaluable community resource that I’ve enjoyed for a whole bunch of years now. If a photo is ever holding you up, I live within walking distance of all these projects, and I own more photo gear than a sane person would ever consider. Happy to take a snap or 20 if it would help.
One River North will always be one of those unique stand alone buildings. Although it’s detached from its context, it is interesting to look at. I feel bad for all the birds that are going to die because of it. The greenery will attract them and the mirrored glass will kill em. I doubt the developer put out for bird safe glazing. This building is promoted as a balance between nature and urban living but let’s be honest, the nature is contrived and exclusive to well off humans. Otherwise, it’s kinda cool. Of all the buildings posted here, I like T3 Rino but still feel bad for the birds that are going to hit those windows.
FoundryLine now has a lovely mural at the corner of Blake & Downing, thanks to Denver Walls.
Lots of utility relocation/work happening at 3300 Blake currently.
I recently moved into this neighborhood and I check this page at least once a week hoping you’d do an update. So thankful for this page!
Any news on Rock Drill Rino?
The tower crane at Paradigm came down over the weekend.
Is 3083 Walnut / Mortensen Office on the radar, or too small in scope? Pretty significant activity there recently.
This will be in scope. It is just not part of this quadrant.
Thanks. I know the boundaries a bit can be a bit confusing.
Additional fencing has gone up at 3300 Blake recently.
Side note, I recently moved into the condo I’ve owned for 6 years in Five Points/RiNo. It’s great to see all the activity around here!
But yes, a full service grocery store over this way would be huge!
I have no objection to calling apartments “apartment homes” but just want to clarify, there will be no condo units available for purchase in the buildings with “apartment homes”, correct?
You’re correct, “apartment homes” are rentals only. Unfortunately there’s very little (if any) new hi-rise condo construction anywhere in the Denver metro, and it comes down to construction defect law that applies to condos but NOT for apartments. https://coloradosun.com/2023/10/02/colorado-construction-defects-bill-2024-housing/
Great Summary. Thank you! Any update on Cole Market at 37th and Downing?