CREJ

WORDS: Kevin Criss The Hub RiNo’s Biggest, Newest Office Buildings Fit Right In D enver’s gritty and funky River North neighborhood, one-timewarehouse district now hipster central, has been going through a makeover for the last decade. But, after last month’s $86 million sale of 13-acres in Denargo Market for a “game-changing de- velopment,” it’s clear that RiNo’s pace of grun- ge-to-uptown might be kicking into overdrive. But, like the Foo Fighters suddenly doing Mi- chael Bublé ballads, it could get fairly disorient- ing if the RiNo aesthetic isn’t embraced by the new development. Denver expects and wants more for this area than glass boxes and a bank on every corner. This is trendy urbanite heaven and keeping it that way will take developer dis- cipline. Enter The Hub, the newest and largest office building to hit RiNo that has fully wrapped it- self in River North’s post-industrial grit and street art aesthetic. Drive north on Walnut from the Ballpark neighborhood and as you cross Broadway, there on the horizon rises The Hub South. It’s notice- able from that distance because it’s an eight-sto- ry, 240,000-square-foot Class A office building in a sea of townhomes, shops and warehouses. The Hub South is L-shaped with ground-floor retail, parking on levels 1-3 and 50,000-sf office plates on levels 4-8. The building covers a huge chunk of the trapezoid-shaped block that’s framed by Walnut, Downing, 36th and Blake streets. The Hub North, currently under construction, takes up the rest of the block and is bordered by North Downing and Blake streets. Originally slated to be a hotel until the developers changed gears last summer, The Hub North also will be an eight-story mixed-use building but smaller at 112,000 sf. It’s slated for completion in May. But instantly noticeable is that The Hub South clearly embraced the common artistic language of RiNo and its industrial roots. And while it has every imaginable amenity that you’d expect in a “transit-oriented, creative office space” it looks like it belongs right in the space it fills.