Cherry Creek Roundup JUL 2025

255 Fillmore. I found this to be a very charming finished building—on the north side of the building, the addition of a semi-private, semi-public terrace and seating generates interest and allows for a shady place to carry on your conversations before walking into the building after lunch. Cherry Creek is such an interesting submarket in the Denver metro as well, because not only can a successful developer lease out the office suites before the building has delivered, but they are able to lock up retail leases as well, which cuts down the length of time without street life in front of the building after construction.

300 Fillmore. Again, I thought this building was charming, with good attention to exterior finishes, though it does stick out as quite a modern addition to the string of semi-basement shopping plazas along the north side of 3rd Avenue. The material palette of new construction in Cherry Creek North heavily features dark brick, ample glass, and private balconies or roof decks. However pleasant this building appears when biking slowly down 3rd Avenue, beware, there are no bike racks out front!

300 University. I tend to bike to Cherry Creek from where I live by Cheesman Park and cross University at 4th Avenue. This building, complete for some time, has become a beacon, just off to my right, reminding me that I’m about to enter the office and lifestyle center that is Cherry Creek North. I found this building very compelling in photos, the vertical sound-wave type elements gesturing within the continuous window-wall glass. But as I stood photographing, I realized one of the many glass windows on 3rd Avenue had been broken. An omen? In the photos, you’ll see two men in polos meandering toward the building, talking loudly about what they’d heard of the vandalism, and musing on the cost of replacement (10s of 1000s of dollars!). I tried not to look too suspicious as I slinked away.

Modera Cherry Creek. Even something as generic as a five-over-one gets a higher degree of finish in Cherry Creek. I didn’t find this building particularly compelling—we’ve seen apartments like this everywhere—but its completion augurs a new eastern extent to the development boom in Cherry Creek. 2nd Avenue is an interesting case study of a street, considering the users over the length of the day, the resident experience, and the built form, of course, which is germane to this blog post. Only half a mile to the east, sparkling little office buildings are being attended to, new luxuries are breaking ground, and restaurants are packed full. But by the time you get up the hill a little and encounter Modera Cherry Creek on Madison Street, you’d think this new apartment slightly out of place with the leafy townhomes and duplexes immediately adjacent. It should be noted, however, that a high-priced neighborhood where residents mostly live in tony townhomes and deluxe duplexes is exactly where apartments are needed. They offer a comparatively lower-priced entry point for a smaller household to begin living where they work.

Acoya Cherry Creek. Again, another project I didn’t find as compelling. (It was a hot day and Alameda isn’t a fun stroad to take photos from.) A bit of internet sleuthing via Google Street View confirms this used to be an auto garage, so let’s just acknowledge that the finished homes for seniors are certainly an improvement!

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Modera Cook Street. Breaking ground last year, Modera Cook Street proves that Mill Creek’s plans for apartments in Cherry Creek are worth repeating, just a block or two closer to the action this time. Apartments are good, actually!

3rd & Milwaukee, The Oasis. I can recall seeing one of my favorite indie bands, Tune-Yards, in the middle of Milwaukee Street during the Cherry Arts Festival two or three years back. At the time, I appreciated that there was a public plaza just up off the street where people could congregate, and I think they set up the VIP area around the crumbling concrete walls near the street. Some version of that plaza will be coming back when this development is done, new and improved, but until then, it’s a deep hole in the ground where a parking garage will soon go. On top of it that parking lot, though will be the largest residential project north of 2nd Avenue in this recent boom, with a very impressive amount of retail. This is one of those buildings that purport to have “no backside,” and will bring new homes right into the heart of the business center.

Should we talk too about the multiple rooflines? This building tops out at 8 stories, then becomes a 7-story building, then ends by the plaza on the north end as a 4-story building. This isn’t for the reason we sometimes think in other parts of town. In Cherry Creek North, the block between 2nd and 3rd Avenues was deliberately zoned with multiple districts trying to sculpt height. I think an adept planner would simply use design standards now rather than a height cap within multiple districts on one lot, but Cherry Creek is built different, you could say!

242 Milwaukee. Offices, offices, offices! Milwaukee Street will soon abound with them, many proposed and delivered by BMC. Admittedly, it’s a little difficult to discern what makes a given office special once you’re viewing your dozenth new construction of the day, but the renderings are really nice. The building’s website advertises that this will be a “100% valet” building. Is that a competitive advantage?

201 Fillmore. An eight-story office building is now under construction, immediately adjacent to a new office building that is fully leased. This is the largest single office building currently under construction in Cherry Creek, but as I alluded in the introduction, a building like this is only about 1/6 as large as recent skyscraper delivered downtown, 1900 Lawrence.

2nd and Adams.  Have you heard the news? Yet ANOTHER office building is under construction along 2nd Avenue, this time a 5-story office building well underway. Click on the hyperlink on the project name for a rendering.

PROPOSED
AC Hotel by Marriott, Cherry Creek. A hotel is approved for construction at the intersection of a major neighborhood bikeway and Cherry Creek Trail access. The design of the project is outdated and tacky, with a highly visible parking podium, resulting in a wildly over-parked project. This is partially attributable to an earlier approval of a different plan for the site, with the new entitlement approved under an older version of the Denver Zoning Code. New design standards and non-existing parking requirements would have changed the possibilities for a similar project at this site, were it proposed today. Still, a vacant lot in a desirable neighborhood becomes more useful in the short term.

250 Clayton. Though it seems impossible, the appetite for Class AA, highly amenitized offices in Cherry Creek North with elegant curtain-wall glass systems is not yet sated, and only the addition of this last little bit of office at 250 Clayton will do. Probably. For now. Until the market hungers for more…

185 Steele, or Waldorf Astoria Residences. With high-end finishes and a brand name soon to be the envy of any other condo-builder, the Waldorf Astoria condo project at 185 Steele Street is nearly through design review from the Cherry Creek North Design Advisory Board, which is where we got these sweet, sweet renderings (click on the link)! When I posted this rendering on Twitter, I felt a little guilt admiring out loud the degree of polish that this building is bringing to 2nd Avenue, because it’s going to be among the most exclusive multifamily properties I can think of in the city. But I think this is actually a positive thing! 38 homes with the same level of polish down in Cherry Hills Village wouldn’t do much for stopping sprawl and long commutes.

Timber 255. The first mass-timber, high-end office building is nearing the end of entitlements and will hopefully break ground this year. This building removes the attached office building that seems a piece of the Cherry Cricket, but retails a lot of the ground-floor interest on Clayton Street and preserves the restaurant, obviously. Though three stories of underground parking seems like a lot, there are more than double the number of bike parking spots and shared bikes available within the development than spaces for vehicles. (And new vehicle parking wouldn’t be required anymore, now!) A great project! Plus, check out this charming rendering by Tryba Architects which gestures to the to-be-constructed 8-story residential building coming to Cherry Lane in the background.

Phew! And we didn’t even get into the details of Cherry Creek West in this project, for fear of losing another week of my life to research and renderings. More can be said about Cherry Creek, and Denver Infill will certainly return for more. Though the projects themselves aren’t towering over Denver’s skyline, the tower cranes are hard at work in Cherry Creek and will be for quite some time.