Today we are going to kick off Cherry Creek week! A full week dedicated to all of the great infill development going on in the Cherry Creek neighborhood. Our first stop will be at 250 Columbine: an 8-story, 80,000 square foot office and 80-unit condo development. Last time we checked in at 250 Columbine, it was still a hole in the ground.
The two floors of underground parking have recently been completed and the southern portion of the office building has started to go vertical, breaking street level. Here are some above views of the project.
250 Columbine is introducing something very unique to the Cherry Creek neighborhood and Denver in general: high density condo units. While this may not be a current trend in development here in Denver, it is always nice to see new condo units. For additional information on 250 Columbine including pricing and floor-plans, head on over to their website.
In some posts we have had “explanations” that condos are not being built because of defect lawsuits. And, yet, in Cherry Creek we have condo development. We need more condo development downtown.
The only reason you’re seeing these condos being built here is because of their price point. These are not cheap and in a story that was published by the DenverPost a few months ago, the developer has taken every measure to double and triple check all construction…this is being passed off to the buyer. A 914 sq foot unit is being sold for $470k and that’s on the second floor. Other residences are selling for a million plus!
This is true- the units in this development start at over $600/sf and go upwards to over $800/sf. For a comparison, the most expensive units in downtown barely broke $600/sf and the most prestigious condo project that was recently built (the Four Seasons) had to reduce the unit price from about $800/sf to $400/sf to sell the units. $400/sf doesn’t get you the kind of QA/QC you need to reduce the risk from construction defect litigation.
Rich people want to live in Cherry Creek, not downtown where only the semi-rich want to live 😉 But condo projects only pencil out for the rich at this time, and only in a smaller project.
It’s great to see mixed use and street level retail with residential above, but 80 units does not seem that dense for 8 stories on half a city block. Do you know if there are 10% “affordable” units in this development?