Page 8 —
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— July 15-August 4, 2015
Greater Denver
by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
A sneak peek at projects com-
ing to River North, and a look
at existing developments in that
distinctive, fast-growing part of
the city, were part of a recent
bus tour organized by the Colo-
rado Chapter of the Society of
Industrial and Office Realtors.
Pioneering RiNo developer
Zeppelin Development, which
recently announced develop-
ment of a 100-room hotel next to
the Source on Brighton Boule-
vard, is looking to break ground
next year on a 120,000-square-
foot office/retail building called
Gauge at 3501 Wazee St.
The five-story building will
offer 14-foot ceiling heights and
operable garage doors opening
to outdoor terrace space. There
also will be approximately
20,000 sf of first-floor collabora-
tive retail space. Stephen Dynia
Architects is basing the design
on the Drive and Drive 2 build-
ings at Zeppelin’s 400,000-sf
mixed-use Taxi development in
River North.
Also coming to RiNo is Stride,
the repurposing of a cold stor-
age warehouse at 38th and Wal-
nut streets by the same group
that developed Industry Den-
ver. The existing building will
be rewrapped to create 150,000
sf of collaborative office space
for creative and technology
companies. A second phase will
include construction of 300,000
sf of office and amenity space.
Industry Denver, meanwhile,
will open its third phase of
72,000 sf in October, anchored
by CorePower Yoga’s headquar-
ters. “We have opened every
phase full. We anticipate that
will be the case with Phase 3,”
said Industry’s Sean Campbell.
Construction of 52 townhomes
along the Platte River will com-
plete the development.
SIOR and tour leader Murray
Platt of CBRE said land prices
have appreciated markedly in
River North and currently range
anywhere from $60 to $120 per
sf. One River North property
to watch will be the Hardware
Block, a 2.44-acre site between
32nd and 33rd and Walnut and
Larimer streets, which is being
marketed for sale.
It’s rare for an entire block in
RiNo to come on the market,
noted co-listing broker Jeremy
Ballenger of CBRE. “There are
probably 15 ideas for what might
be done there, which I think is
reflective of RiNo,” he said.
The tour also included a
drive through Westfield Co.’s
Midtown Industrial Center, a
350,000-sf industrial project that
will be redeveloped as leases
expire in 2017. Westfield’s Kevin
McClintock said plans include
activating Wynkoop Street with
a pedestrian-oriented market-
place-type atmosphere as well
as construction of two office
buildings at the south end of the
development for larger users.
The property will have com-
muter-rail access via the new
38th & Blake station on the East
Rail Line, which will open next
year.
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by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
With more than 2,600 hotel
rooms completed or under con-
struction, downtown Denver’s
hotel market will top the 10,000-
room mark.
The new inventory is among
$4.8 billion worth of commer-
cial real estate development in
71 projects downtown within
the last five years, according to
the Downtown Denver Partner-
ship.
“More people are living
and working downtown than
ever before, creating a strong
demand for development,”
Tami Door, the partnership’s
president and CEO, said at the
organization’s annual Devel-
opment Forum June 30. “It’s
clear that our collective com-
munity efforts to build a world-
class center city and to achieve
our vision of an economical-
ly healthy, growing and vital
downtown are attracting inves-
tors and developers alike.”
Saunders
Construction
released a development map at
the forum that highlights the 71
hospitality, office, multifamily
and mixed-use projects, as well
as public projects, developed
and coming to downtown Den-
ver.Atotal of 3.06million square
feet of office has been added or
is under construction; 5,565 res-
idential units have been added
or are being built; and 2,630
hotel rooms have been added or
are under construction.
“That construction is really
in response to demand,” Bill
Mosher of Trammell Crow
Co. and chairman of Denver
Civic Ventures said of the new
hotel inventory. “We build, and
everyone continues to see high-
er rates.”
Matt Frankiewicz, senior
director of development and
asset management for White
Lodging, which is developing
two dual-brand hotels in down-
town Denver, said Denver is
one of the top 25 hotel markets
in the country.
One of the reasons White
Lodging likes the market, he
said, is that, “From a hotel
standpoint, we love to have
supporting amenities – great
walkable retail, entertainment
concepts – near the hotels for
our guests to patronize.”
Citing the Rocky Mountain
Lodging Report, Frankiewicz
said as of May downtown Den-
ver hotel occupancy was 82 per-
cent, with rates averaging $192
per night – up 7 percent year
over year.
White Lodging will break
ground within the next 30 days
on a 495-room building that will
include one of the first urban
AC Hotels by Marriott in the
country and a Le Méridien. The
hotels will be located at 15th
and California streets.
Michael Everett of Sage Hos-
pitality gave an overview of
Z Block, a mixed-use devel-
opment it is building with
McWhinney and Grand Amer-
ican near Denver Union Sta-
tion. The $169 million project
will include 200,000 sf of office
space, 96,000 sf of retail and a
170-room independent hotel.
Everett said Sage wanted an
unbranded hotel, something
that was unique to Denver, for
Z Block. “We think there’s a dis-
tinct lack of great independent
hotels downtown,” he said.
A new office project – the Tri-
angle Building at 1550 Wewatta
St. – also was highlighted. The
top three floors of the iconic
227,534-sf building are pre-
leased. Developer East West
Partners, which developed Riv-
erfront Park, will complete the
building within 45 days.
The Downtown Denver
Development Map is avail-
able at
towndenver.com/wp-content/
uploads/2013/10/2015-Down
town-Denver-Development-
Map-FINAL-for-web.pdf.
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