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ULI Colorado’s second Impact Awards program attracted 29 entries in three categories from across the state. A jury meets in April to choose three winners,
whose identities will be a closely guarded secret until the awards gala on Thursday, April 30, at the Seawell Grand Ballroom in Denver's Theater District.
Meet the Impact Awards Finalists
SPOTLIGHT
25th & Larimer fashioned 29 reclaimed
shipping containers into 8,200 square
feet of creative retail and office space.
Gravitas Development Group enlisted
branding experts to cultivate local
tenants specializing in innovative
products. These include Cart-Driver, an
Italian eatery specializing in wood-fired
pizzas and oysters; Huckleberry Roasters,
a coffee and café concept from the
Denver-based high-end coffee roaster;
and Work & Class, a restaurant serving
roasted, braised and rotisserie meats sold
by weight. Service and retail tenants
include Colorado-based outdoor apparel
and equipment company Topo Designs’
flagship store; hospitality and travel
PR firm B Public Relations; Sprung
Construction; and digital design and
web firm Cirro. In 2012, when Gravitas
began researching shipping container
structures, there were no other Colorado
mixed-use buildings made entirely of
shipping containers. After researching
container projects from the UK and
New Zealand, Gravitas tested local
construction and finishing techniques
on an empty lot two blocks away for
three Colorado seasons. The results have
created a new gathering place in rapidly
emerging RiNo.
Developer/Owner: Gravitas
Development Group Architect: Davis
Urban (formerly Studio 11b) General
Contractor: Sprung Construction
Engineers: Monroe & Newell
(Structural), Creative Civil (Civil), JK
Mechanical Design (MEP) Debt/Equity
Participants: Centennial Bank and
Gravitas Development Group
Wow factor: Socializing and working
in a building whose walls have crossed
the seven seas.
Once-ghostly Denver Union Station has
been reborn as the pride of the region. The
120-year-old-landmark terminal closed
in 2012 for a $54 million renovation, a
partnership among the Union Station
Alliance (USA), the city and county
of Denver, and RTD, which owns the
historic building and its former railyards.
Carefully restored and connected to
21st-century transit systems, Union
Station reopened on July 26, 2014 as
“Denver’s Living Room,” a singular public
space combining a train waiting room
with local transit hub, hotel lobby, eating
court, meeting space, and special event
venue. The Great Hall and wings host
13 local retailers and restaurants and 600
works of public art. Using innovative
outreach techniques, Union Station’s
retail spaces were 100 percent preleased
to creative local businesses. In its first
year, The Crawford has become one of
the city’s top-performing hotels for room
rate and occupancy. Union Station and
the Crawford Hotel have spurred a $1.8
billion wave of development in the area.
Developers: Union Station Alliance
(Dana Crawford, Founder/CEO, Urban
Neighborhoods Inc.; Joe Vostrejs,
Pat McHenry, Rod Wagner, and Jeff
Hermanson, Development Partners,
Larimer Associates/City Street Investors;
Walter Isenberg, President/CEO,
Sage Hospitality, Denver; Ferd Belz,
Principal, REGen; Chad McWhinney,
CEO/Founder, McWhinney Owner:
RTD Architects: Tryba Architects, JG
Johnson Architects Engineers: Monroe
& Newell Engineers (structural); RK
Mechanical, (mechanical/plumbing);
MDP Engineering Group; Cator, Ruma
& Associates (electrical) Design/Build
Contractor: LEI Companies Debt/Equity
Participants: Financing by FirstBank
General Contractor: Milender White
Construction Company
Wow factor: The Great Hall rolls the
dice on a new type of public space and
comes up a big winner.
Hangar 2 opened in March 2011
transforming a mothballed military
facility into a community asset. The
reuse plan integrates the 107,000-square-
foot structure into its neighborhood.
While restoring the landmark 1939
hangar, the developers added a dining
district, retail and offices, and storage.
Anchored by the Lowry Beer Garden,
the dining district has become a draw
benefiting the adjacent Wings Over
the Rockies Museum with 30 percent
increased visitation. Unique among
storage properties, Hangar 2 is solar-
powered and uses half of the energy of
similar buildings of comparable size.
Hangar 2 also houses Lowry’s first
EV charging station and the Lowry
Recycling Center, both free for the
community.
Developers: Joe Vostrejs, Pat
McHenry, Rod Wagner, and Jeff
Hermanson, Larimer Associates/
City Street Investors; Jim Hartman,
Development Partner, Development
Manager and Concept Architect
Manager, Hartman-Ely Investments
Owner: Hangar 2 Partners, LLC
Architects: Bryan Schmidt, Principal,
Semple Brown Design; Tricia Mueller-
Calandra, in-house architect, Larimer
Associates; Jim Hartman, Manager,
Hartman-Ely Investments Engineers:
John Malcolm, Peak Engineering
(renovation structural); David Lee,
Design Mechanical (mechanical); KVA
Consultants (renovation electrical);
Harris Kocher Smith (civil); Monroe
& Newell (restaurant structural);
Belfay Engineering (restaurant MEP);
Peak Civil Consultants (restaurant
civil engineer) Landscape Architect:
Christopher Hoy Design Group
Graphic Designer: Brenda Voglewede
Debt/Equity Participants: Tracy
Huggins, Denver Urban Renewal
Authority, and Ron Tilton, FirstBank
Contractors: TRC Construction,
Rand Construction, Rod Wagner and
Catamount Constructors
Wow factors: A hangar becomes a
Lowry Neighborhood hang-out.
Colorado has seen its share of new projects, but which are truly innovative?
Category 1: Innovation Sponsored by
Page 20AA — COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL — March 18-March 31, 2015