September 2-September 15, 2015 —
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— Page 39
story buildings, but the city’s
master plan calls for zoning for
up to 12 stories.
“If we decide to seek a rezon-
ing, I don’t think we would
go higher than eight stories,”
Powers said.
For now, they are playing it
by ear.
“We want to see what hap-
pens with NIMBL,” Powers
said.
It is possible that so many
companies will want to be
near NIMBL that it largely will
become an office center, Pow-
ers said.
However, there absolutely
will be a restaurant along the
banks of the South Platte.
Hayden Hirschfeld and
Dorit Fischer of NAI Shames
Makovsky are marketing and
leasing the project.
“We’ve had a ton” of restau-
rants and beer gardens already
wanting to operate out of the
building along the river, Pow-
ers said.
Powers said the city has been
very encouraging to open up
the space to the river, which is
now enclosed by a fence
Across the river is Sun Valley,
one of Denver’s poorest neigh-
borhoods.
The Denver Housing Author-
ity has bought much of the land
across the river from Steam on
the Platte.
“Sun Valley is the highest
priority of DHA and the city,”
Powers said.
That’s exactly right, accord-
ing to Paul Washington, Den-
ver’s economic development
director.
And Steam on the Platte will
play a big role in helping to
revitalize the area, according to
Washington.
“Steam on the Platte is a
catalyst for both the redevel-
opment of Sun Valley and the
Platte River, which are high
priorities of Mayor Hancock,”
Washington said, when Powers
first announced the project.
Pedestrians, bikers and
motorists can easily cross the
river on Old Colfax Avenue,
just to the north of the site.
The site is walking distance
to Sports Authority Field
and the Auraria campus and
is minutes from downtown.
RTD’s FasTracks West Corridor
is along the southern edge of
the property.
In fact, RTD has right of way
just to the south of the Steam
on the Platte site that the joint
venture formed by Powers and
White likely would buy when
RTD decided to sell excess
property it required for Fas-
Tracks that it doesn’t need.
“We would be the logical
buyer,” Powers said.
Also, just south of their prop-
erty is the Xcel Zuni steam gen-
eration plant. Xcel plans to raze
the current plant and replace
it with a much smaller, more
efficient facility.
That site also could be a
future development opportu-
nity for them, Powers specu-
lated.
“I hope they keep the smoke-
stacks,” she said, noting other
cities have built housing
around smokestacks.
Powers and White initially
were pursuing the acquisition
of the site independently of
each other.
When they learned they were
both interested in it, they decid-
ed to join forces.
“I had never worked with Tim
before, but now I feel like I’ve
known him for years,” Powers
said.
They share the same values
of preserving and breathing life
into older buildings and they
aren’t afraid of tackling projects
that might scare off others
She said the deal was proba-
bly a bit too big for her to tackle
on her own.
“I also felt like it was prob-
ably a bit too big for us to do
on our own and I really wanted
someone with a lot of develop-
ment experience, like Susan, as
a partner,” White said.
He likes that it isn’t a typical
deal and has a lot of challenges.
“I like these deals that have a
bit of hair on them,” he said.
“These are the kind of deals
a lot of other people stay away
from,” he said.
He also likes that it is not pre-
ordained how the development
ultimately will take shape.
“I really like that it is sort of
this clean canvas where we can
create whatever we think is the
best use for the site,” White
said.
There is not only a story
behind the building and the
site, but also a story behind the
acquisition.
They bought the parcel from
the estate of a late Englewood-
based real estate agent Arvin
Weiss, who in 2008 had been
sentenced to seven years in fed-
eral prison after being convicted
of fraud and witness tampering
in a sophisticated scheme to
cheat mortgage companies that
funded federally insured home
loans.
“We had looked at it several
years ago,” when Weiss was in
prison and a judge wouldn’t let
him sell it, Powers said.
Then, Weiss was diagnosed
with cancer and released from
prison in 2013.
“When I met Arvin, he was
really frail and had just fallen
and broken his hip,” White said.
“I never met Arvin,” Powers
said.
After he died, Urban Ventures
and White Construction bought
it from his estate.
They ended up buying it from
his two grown daughters who
lived in New York City.
“They wanted nothing to do
with it,” Powers said.
s
Developer Susan Powers points at the Platte River from the roof of the
building.
TimWhite and Susan Powers stand in front of a warehouse that they are
converting into offices.
A big selling point of Steam is its proximity to the Platte River.
Another view of the building at 1401 Zuni St.
Loveland, who represented
UCHealth in the transaction.
The deal is believed to be the
first corporate headquarters
transaction in Loveland since
Crop Production Services com-
pleted its headquarters at Cen-
terra five years ago.
“Our vision to provide the
industry’s highest-quality, best
tasting beef, along with our com-
mitment to environmentally
sound practices and humane
animal treatment, is what has
allowed us to experience tremen-
dous growth in this industry,”
BobMeyer, Meyer Natural Foods
owner, said in a press release.
“This project is a reflection of that
growth, and as we move forward
from here, our vision will remain
untouched.”
“University of Colorado
Health andMeyer Natural Foods
have been working on this very
distinctive project over the past
10 months,” said Kuehl. “Meyer
has an awesome vision for this
project and its design and has
engaged a great local team to
bring his vision to reality.
“This is going to be a very
distinctive facility,” he said.
Designed by Loveland-based
Infusion Architects, the building
will feature a contemporary look.
JPL Development is the project
manager.
Construction will start this
month, with completion antici-
pated in July, Kuehl said.
The facility will accommodate
the company’s growing U.S. nat-
ural and organic beef business as
well as its expanding beef export
business. Founded by Meyer in
1990, the company acquired Lau-
ra’s Lean Beef in 2008 and two
years later purchased Dakota
Beef. Its Loveland offices have
grown from 1,500 to 18,000 sf
over the last 10 years, according
to Kuehl.
Also at Centerra, a master-
planned development at Inter-
state 25 and U.S. Highway 24,
Hahns Peak Drive is being
extended from Rocky Mountain
Avenue to McWhinney Boule-
vard at an estimated cost of $1.44
million.
Other News
n
McWhinney
has broken
ground on Hahns Peak Two, the
first speculative Class A office
building to be built in Northern
Colorado since 2007.
The 56,000-square-foot build-
ing at 1880 Fall River Drive is
part of a two-building office cam-
pus at Centerra in Loveland. It
will offer open floor plans and
approximately 225 parking spac-
es. The building was designed by
Ware Malcomb
and being built
by
Brinkman Construction.
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