December 3-December 16, 2014—
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— Page 15
“This makes a powerful state-
ment that downtown Denver is
not only a place to work and
visit but a place to live,” Door
said. “This is yet another sig-
nificant asset to support center
city residents and create the
lifestyle that urban dwellers
want,” Door said.
“They can walk to work.
They can walk to their enter-
tainment choices. And increas-
ingly they can walk to a wide
variety of stores.”
It’s telling that Whole Foods
is planning a full-size store, not
a mini, urban version, she said.
“That Whole Foods has cho-
sen to locate a store of that
size in downtown, sends a
message that there are a sig-
nificant amount of residents
living downtown and they
think downtown bodes well
for future growth,” Door said.
The Whole Foods will help
downtown land other retailers,
she said.
She said the presence of
Whole Foods will have an
“exponential, not an incremen-
tal” impact on bringing other
retailers and restaurants to
downtown.
While the Whole Foods was
only announced last month, it
has been in the works for quite
some time.
“I believe we first started
talking to them in June of
last year,” said Peter Petricca,
senior development director at
the Holland Partner Group.
When they first started talk-
ing, Whole Food was think-
ing it wanted a smaller, urban
store, he said.
The more the Austin-based
grocer became familiar with
the site, the more it wanted to
bring a suburban-sized store to
downtown.
“My feeling is that they
thought this was such a great
location that they thought it
really made sense to get a max-
imum-sized store there,” Pet-
ricca said.
One huge selling point is
17W’s LoDo location by Union
Station.
“We really feel this location
is the bull’s-eye for Denver,”
Petricca said.
The Wholes Foods not only
is great news for downtown,
but also will differentiate 17W
from the many new rental com-
munities that recently opened,
or are under construction or
planned, he said.
“I think it is going to be a huge
amenity for our residents and I
do think people will choose to
live here because of the Whole
Foods,” Petricca said.
“I like to say that when it is
January and it is 10 below zero
and the snow is flying, our ten-
ants can put on their slippers
and a bathrobe and enter the
Whole Foods through the park-
ing lot, without ever stepping
outside,” Petricca said. Whole
Foods will have 165 parking
spaces devoted to the store.
He also agreed with Door
that the presence of Whole
Foods will draw more retail-
ers to the approximately 15,000
sf of additional ground-floor
retail space at 17W, as well as
in the immediate area.
“I know that the retail bro-
ker who represented Whole
Foods (Phil Hicks of David
Hicks Lampert) is getting a lot
of interest from other retailers
and restaurants that want to
be near Whole Foods,” Petricca
said.
Hicks did not return a call
from CREJ.
Heather Larrabee, marketing
coordinator for Whole Foods,
noted that she lives in down-
town, so she is thrilled a new
store is coming near Union Sta-
tion, personally, as well as pro-
fessionally.
“It’s just really cool,” Lar-
rabee said. “Over a number
of years, we have met with
customer groups and surveyed
civic leaders and they all real-
ly wanted us to come down-
town.”
She said the 17W location
can’t be beat.
“This will be a flagship, or
keystone, location for us,” she
said.
“It’s in a rich, cultural district
where there is so much energy
and so much going on,” Lar-
rabee said.
“That whole LoDo/Union
Station area has so much
depth, from everything from
the Crawford Hotel at Union
Station to being able to walk
to Coors Field or any of the
restaurants and cultural events
available downtown,” she said.
The growth in the area justi-
fies a big store, she said.
“We were talking to Kelly
Brough (president and CEO of
the Denver Metro Chamber of
Commerce) and I think she told
us there were something like
7,000 new apartments opening
up downtown and places like
LoHi in the next year or two,”
she said.
“You also have great access
to the highway,” she said.
In addition, by the time the
store opens there should be a
train running between down-
town and Denver International
Airport.
She said the new store, as all
new Whole Foods stores, will
be extremely energy efficient
and sustainable.
It will have a Green Globes
Certification. Green Globes
describes itself as an “efficient
and affordable alternative to
LEED.”
One green step Whole Foods
will take will be to buy wind
power credits to offset 100 per-
cent of the electricity the store
uses.
All of its coolers will have
glass doors that close, as
opposed to open areas for
milk, eggs and other products,
which are common in many
grocery stores.
That cuts energy costs by 55
percent, she said.
Whole Foods is working
with the architectural firm of
CHSQA out of Boise, Idaho, on
the design of the store.
“Davis Partnership, who we
hired, designed the overall
development and Davis Part-
nership teamed up with Whole
Foods’ architect, which we call
‘Q,’ to design the Whole Foods
store,” Petricca said.
Whole Foods has no problem
competing with a nearby King
Soopers. Indeed, it is used to it.
“For our perspective, it is
something we do day in, day
out,” she said.
“Competition is good for
their business and competition
is good for our business,” Lar-
rabee said.
Also, Whole Foods offers
shoppers choices that can't be
found anywhere else, she said.
And, in some cases, it doesn’t
offer products that are found in
other stores.
“For example, we do not
allow products on our shelves
that have artificial coloring,”
Larrabee said.
It also doesn’t sell foods with
trans fats or high-fructose con-
tent.
What it does do is promote
local food producers.
Local products it will fea-
ture include Justin’s Nut But-
ter, Noosa Yoghurt, 34 Degrees
Crisps, Shakti Chai, Hope
Hummus and Spinelli’s.
She can’t wait for the Whole
Foods to open.
“We’re excited to build on the
Union Station legacy with this
store.”
s
building block the sun.
Also, residents who live near
the pool area can be distracted
by the noise.
“We put our pool on the roof
of the parking garage,” Menefee
said.
“We not only get more sun-
light, but we get some of the best
views of the mountains you will
find anywhere.”
“Just look at these great
views,” he said, while pointing
to the mountains on a recent
tour of Belleview Station.
The second development, on
Block B, broke ground in July.
The first residents will move in
April 2016.
Again, Holland is the general
partner for the community. Its
partner on the adjoining Block B
is North America Sekisui House
LLC, or NASH. NASH also is
Holland’s partner for 17W in
downtown.
Holland hasn’t yet named the
Block B community.
Holland, based in Vancouver,
Washington, also doesn’t yet
know if either of the communi-
ties will be leased up and then
sold, or held for the long term.
“That is a decision to be made
by our partners,” Hagevik said.
The communities are in Den-
ver, but they are part of the
Cherry Creek School District.
“That is like having access to
a public school that is private-
school quality,” Menefee said.
He said that the development
will attract some divorced par-
ents whose former spouse owns
the house and the children are
in a school in the Cherry Creek
School District.
One thing that Hagevik and
Menefee both believe is that
they have a home-run location
along the southeast corridor.
“These projects represent a
significant evolution of the Bel-
leview Station master plan,”
Menefee said.
“They provide a quality of
rental housing not available
today in this market,” he said.
“The mixed-use structures
reflect an urban lifestyle where
one lives, works and plays in
a walkable and transit-oriented
setting.”
That’s exactly right, according
to Hagevik.
“When Holland goes through
its site selection process, it only
wants urban or transit-orient-
ed development sites. This is a
great TOD location.”
s
Shown is the kitchen and living room space in an apartment in Block A at
MileHouse at Belleview Station.
“This project catalyzed and
inspired change in the North
Boulder neighborhood and will
catalyze and inspire change in
the 31 people who moved in on
Nov. 4,” added Betsey Martens,
BHP executive director.
The two-story apartment
building consists of all one-
bedroom, fully furnished units.
Residents also have access to
indoor and outdoor community
spaces, laundry facilities and a
community room for classes and
social events. Each resident will
have a case manager whose role
is to assist residents in obtain-
ing community services, such as
federal income benefits, medical
care, counseling and job training.
Boulder Housing Partners is con-
tracting with the Boulder Shelter
for the Homeless to provide on-
site case management.
A recent campaign raised
$34,000 to help furnish the apart-
ments. Art@1175, a committee
of local volunteers working to
create community connections
through public art, obtained
grant funding for a 32-foot-high
mural designed by North Boul-
der artist Sally Eckert that is part
of the community.
The apartments follow the
national Housing First model
and will increase the number of
permanent housing units avail-
able to Boulder residents who
have suffered from chronic
homelessness, a major compo-
nent of Boulder’s 10-year plan to
end homelessness. The $7.6 mil-
lion development was designed
by Humphries Poli Architects.
Deneuve Construction was the
general contractor.
Funding was provided by the
city of Boulder, Boulder County,
the Colorado Division of Hous-
ing, Colorado Housing and
Finance Authority, Metro Den-
ver Homeless Initiative, National
Equity Fund and U.S. Depart-
ment of Housing and Urban
Development.
s
Humphries Poli designed Boulder Housing Partners’ 31-unit apartment community for the chronically homeless.
