Building Dialogue

/ BUILDING DIALOGUE / JUNE 2015

A Field Guide to RiNo: Not Your Mother’s Beach Club

inding opportunities for users in a land-

lord-driven market requires ingenuity and

timing. While the central business district

and especially the LoDo micromarkets’ asking rates

are quickly escalating, there are pockets of oppor-

tunity sprinkled throughout the area providing

unique tenant amenities at value rates. One example

is Denver’s River North district.

Originally anowner-occupied, think LoDopre-1990s,

industrial area, the district nestled just north of down-

town Denver was desolate just a few years ago. Today, it

has quickly transformed from its blighted origins into

a vibrant community stimulated in large part

by an eclectic arts scene and an influx of highly

creative companies. Anchored by Brighton Bou-

levard, and bounded by Interstate 70 to the north,

I-25 to the west, Park Avenue West to the south

and Arapahoe to the east, RiNo is leaving behind

its former roots as it caters to a new generation of

tenant.

RiNo’s conversion into a burgeoning inventive

district was initiated by

early pioneers like Mick-

ey Zeppelin with the Taxi

project. In 2007, Zeppelin

Development transformed

the previous Yellow Cab

dispatch center and corpo-

rate headquarters at 3455

Ringsby Court into flexible

work spaces for creative us-

ers. Early occupants includ-

ing Fuel Café and live/work

spaces created a shift in

viewing how artistic compa-

nies could share space. Taxi

II quickly followed in 2008,

with 60,000 square feet of

mixed-use space. The third

mixed-use project is dubbed

“Freight,” due to its former

use as a 550-foot long ship-

ping terminal.

Fast forward just a few

months and current RiNo

trailblazers include Indus-

try at 3001 Brighton Blvd., a

120,000-square-foot creative

work space. More than just

co-working space, Industry is

an evolving and active eco-

system. A multitude of spe-

cial events, work and social

gatherings, and other busi-

nesses ensure its reputation

as a pacesetter for collabora-

tive working environments.

New retail destinations,

particularly on the eastern

side, are activating pedestri-

an traffic. Restaurants, coffee shops, breweries, distilleries

and wineries have embraced the community, further

fostering the eclectic scene. One of the first was Crema

Coffeehouse, which opened in 2009 at 2862 Larimer St.

and immediately became a neighborhood hot spot. An-

other is Populist, a communal restaurant at 32nd and

Larimer, which was recently featured in the Wall Street

Journal. The Source, another Zeppelin project, located

in a former 1880s brick foundry at 3350 Brighton Blvd.,

houses an artisan food market with award-winning

restaurants, including Acorn.

Other notable examples include Great Divide Brew-

ery, and its new $38 million facility opening at 35th and

Brighton Boulevard later this year; Infinite Monkey

Theorem, an urban winery at 3200 Larimer St.; and the

recently announced Blue Moon Brewery, which will an-

chor Menalto LLC’s five-acre mixed-use proposed enter-

tainment district along the SouthPlatte River and front-

ing 38th Street. Expected to open next year, the tasting

house and brewery will occupy approximately 26,000

square feet of space in the project, which can include

TRENDS

in Tenant Representation

Andrew

Blaustein

Managing

Director,

Newmark

Grubb

Knight

Frank