Page 12 —
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— October 15-November 4, 2014
Greater Denver
D
enver's
southeast
business corridor is
transforming. This
corridor represents 25 percent
of Colorado's gross domestic
product. It is the second-larg-
est employment corridor in the
greater metro Denver area with
12,000 new jobs added in the
area over the past eight years.
As a younger workforce begins
to drive the development of
more dense, walkable and
urban-feeling environments,
business leaders of southeast
Denver weigh in on this new
urbanization of southeast Den-
ver and how the once-innova-
tive – now sprawling – office
parks are attempting to adapt.
Urban Land Institute Colora-
do brought the experts togeth-
er at a special Sept. 18 event co-
sponsored by the Denver South
Economic Development Part-
nership. The event, Shifting
Suburbs Part III: The Southeast
Corridor Heats Up!, hosted at
the Madden Museum at Pala-
zzo Verdi near Fiddler’s Green
in Greenwood Village, focused
on this shifting suburb: an
area making a transition from
low-density and auto-oriented
development to higher density
and more walkable spaces.
The keynote speaker was
Paris Rutherford, develop-
ment-principal at Catalyst
Development of Dallas and an
expert in urban village devel-
opment. A macro-focused
panel covered regional issues
and constraints to these chang-
es, while a micro panel intro-
duced specific southeast corri-
dor developments representing
this urbanization trend. Mod-
erators and panelists included
Mike Fitzgerald, Denver South
Economic Development Part-
nership, Dan Guimond, EPS
Denver, Gary Laseter, RTD
board member and former
Parker mayor, Mitch Mitchell,
Kaiser Permanente, Walter A.
"Buz" Koelbel, Koelbel & Co.,
Keith Simon, RidgeGate, Peter
Culshaw, Shea Properties, May
Bliss, Jones International, and
Rich McClintock, Westfield.
n
A macro view.
Once driv-
en by the auto and big roads,
the southeast business corridor
is looking to attract more of the
high-growth innovation dis-
tricts currently transforming
Denver, with more concentra-
tion of information technology,
scientific research development
and higher institution develop-
ment. This “smart urbanism”
also adds more restaurants and
entertainment within one-half
to one mile of the light rail.
The millennial generation is
largely driving this develop-
ment shift. A growing work-
force for the southeast area,
millennials value more dense
urbanization where they can
find unique and highly social
places within walking distance
from work or transit. Studies
show millennials don’t value
cars or home ownership as
with previous generations,
and the business development
community is responding.
But according to Rutherford,
it’s not so
much about
being urban
as much as
it is about
the
places
created. It’s
about
the
energy of the
s u r r o u n d -
ing
devel-
opment. He
said “prod-
uct” becomes
“ p l a c e s ”
once it’s a
n e i g h b o r -
hood where
people visit
and gather.
Right now, the communities
surrounding the 87 districts
currently within a mile of the
light rail represent just under 6
percent of the metropolitan sta-
tistical area. That means there
are a lot of rail transit stations
in place before the populations
have begun to fill in the neigh-
boring transit-oriented devel-
opments. With population
growth of 1 million estimated
in the coming years, the south-
east business corridor is pre-
paring now with some exciting
new development.
As exciting as the new devel-
opment is along the light rail,
all of the macro panelists agree
that there is no easy solution
to addressing the “last mile”
solutions for the sprawling
business park communities
that dot the southeast corri-
dor landscape. It’s not any-
time soon that developers will
be able connect to transit sta-
tions to those old business park
developments. The truth is that
developers are not really able
to build new spaces in that
environment right now, near
transit, that create the specific
mixed-use urban experiences
the younger workforce is look-
ing for. It remains a challenge
in search of a solution.
•
The micro-planning.
While
there is no easy solution for
connecting the people working
in the southeast corridor busi-
ness parks to the dense, urban,
mixed-use environments pop-
ping up along the light rail,
there are some exciting devel-
opments underway in those
TOD areas.
• Belleview Station. Upon
completion, the Belleview Sta-
tion will be home to 1,800 resi-
dential units, 2.2 million square
feet of office space and 250,000
sf of retail space, along with
five acres of plaza and open
space. The first 68 units by
Holland Partners were ready
for move-in in early September.
• Lincoln Station. This station
is surrounded by Park Mead-
ows north, the Meridian Office
Park and Sky Ridge Medical
Center. Expansion at the sta-
tion will include 230 apart-
ments, which broke ground in
January.
• Village Center Station.
Located at the south end of
the tech center, Village Center
Station incorporates 13.5 acres
adjacent to the station, with
1.5 million sf of office space
that will be built out in three
phases.
• The Jones District. At Inter-
state 25 and Dry Creek, cable
magnate Glenn Jones is plan-
ning a 42-acre, 1.8 million-sf,
mixed-use project to be built
out over 25 years and include
commercial, retail and residen-
tial to create a walkable urban
center around IKEA along I-25.
• RidgeGate. This stretch of
3,500 acres straddles I-25 and
was annexed into Lone Tree
in 2000. The vision is to build
a mixed-use, higher-density
community with ample walk-
ability and choice of living
options. The vision includes 3
million to 4 million sf of office
space, as well as residential
and retail, a recreation center,
arts center and library, along
with 500 acres of parks and
open space. Right now there
are 10 projects underway, soon
to be 15.
As of now only RidgeGate
has a temporary plan for the
older-style business parks. It
is planning to offer a free bus
shuttle from the station to the
companies it will serve at least
until the additional three light-
rail stops are completed. While
that challenge remains yet to
be solved by all developers
south, what is clear is that the
southeast business corridor is
committed to creating an excit-
ing and revitalized community
that caters to a future transit-
minded population. Denver
best be on alert.
s
Kirk Monroe
Executive vice
president and
wholesale banking
director, Vectra Bank,
Denver. Monroe
currently serves as
Colorado District
chairman for the
Urban Land Institute.
