Back in 2013, we covered the first wave of new development in the Cherry Creek neighborhood, which brought in 250,000 square feet of office space, 80 condo units, over 500 apartment units, and 150 hotel rooms. But it didn’t stop there. In the summer, we announced another 291-units proposed for the neighborhood with 164 of them already under construction. Now, according to the Denver Business Journal, a third wave of development is coming.
BMC Investments, the same developers as the recently completed Steele Creek Apartments, is investing another 180 million dollars into the Cherry Creek neighborhood in the form of three projects: two apartment buildings and a hotel. The first project will sit at 240 Josephine and provide 165 hotel rooms. The hotel is going to be right behind to the still-under-construction 245 Columbine hotel.
The next two projects are going to be “condo-quality” for-rent apartments with ground-floor retail. There are no details on the height or unit count yet, but we do know their locations: 210 Saint Paul Street and 3000 East Third Avenue. To better orient you, I made a map with the project sites outlined. The leftmost project along Josephine Street is the hotel with the two apartment projects on the right.
Let’s quickly talk about the zoning for Cherry Creek as it gets a bit confusing. There are tiered height zones as you move north from First Avenue, starting at 8 stories and gradually stepping down to 4 stories. As you can see, the projects that started in the first wave of development didn’t adopt the new zoning but were close to the current guidelines.
So why are we talking about zoning in this post? Every single project in Cherry Creek, whether a new building or an addition to a parking garage, has utilized the entire allowable height which makes way for some great density.
Comparing our project map with the zoning map below, we can see the maximum height these new projects can utilize. The new hotel will be allowed up to 8 stories. 210 Saint Paul will also be allowed up to 8 stories and 3000 East Third Avenue will be allowed up to 5 stories.
BMC Investments has closed all three land purchases and is lining up construction financing. Stay tuned as we get more details on each of these projects. We are very excited to announce each individual one!
We could really use more condos (vs. apartments) and more services to support all these people such as a full-service grocery store (to replace the run-down Safeway) and more restaurants and retail south of 1st Ave (Cherry Creek East)!
Agreed!
Ive been in this Safeway many times. How do you think it’s run down??
Do you need any help keeping the map of project locations up to date? I have noticed that some projects are missing from the map and that not all project symbols for ones in the map are kept up to date. I have all the necessary skills to help and follow this site closely. I am happy to help. Please let me know either way. I am willing to assist or take full responsibility for the map if desired.
A few things on both Safeway and development happening around Cherry Creek. There’s a developer who owns 155 Steele St. that applied for rezoning for a 12 story building with the City Council and it sounds like that rezoning will be granted. I also heard that developers intends to build condos. As far as Safeway goes, I know that they really want to renew their lease and stay in the current space that their in (their lease expires at the end of the year). Taubman is “reviewing their options” as to what they want to do with that Safeway and the old Rite Aid property site, that if I’m not mistaken is approximately 4 acres. Supposedly Taubman wants a high end hotel (although there’s no official statement on that), but the neighborhood has expressed concerns about walkability if they loose their grocery store & drug store and their only option is Whole Foods. Granted, Whole Foods is great, but sometimes there are certain things you want to buy that you would go to a Safeway or King Soopers versus Whole Foods. Now, if it is true that Taubman wants to build a high end hotel, from what I know approximately 30K square feet should be enough for a hotel, so then what happens with the remaining land of just over 3 acres? It should be interesting monitoring activity and new developments around Cherry Creek over the next 6 to 9 months.
What is the latest on the Sears redevelopment? The site is owned by AmCap and last I heard they wanted to demo it and build a large underground garage on that site with an 8 story office building and 8 story apartment building on top with retail fronting 1st Ave.
I’ve heard numerous different rumors about the Sears redevelopment. One is that supposedly Whole Foods will move into the vacated Sears space and they’ll redeveloped the site where whole foods is. I know everything is still in the planning process with this site and that at some point in time in 2016 something should be announced. From what I know they want a whole mixed use residential/retail/office development.
It’s great that CC is developing density, and the area is staying in form with its class. However, with everything that’s currently happening there, as more and more of these projects get planned/developed, the area also becomes more and more monotonous. All of the buildings are 8-12 stories in height, and then there’s back flips of excitements if any project has a setback.
Does anyone know if it’s currently allowed, or if there will ever be any building/project that will be taller than the current monotony of heights, and maybe give this area some depth and break up the humdrum of the CC area?
The recently adopted plan for Cherry Creek North limits the height to 12 stories and that in only a couple of places. The mall area itself may be a different matter, but I am doubtful that any developer would propose anything taller should an opportunity arise. However, I am concerned about the monotony of materials. It seems like everything is being built with beige bricks. It makes it seem like CCN is in SoCal. There is a great variety of colored brick available.