INSIDE
by Jennifer Hayes
Downtown Denver’s availability of
multifamily land is shrinking but that
doesn’t mean interest in developing
in the metro area – and along the
Front Range – is waning.
“Land availabilities downtown are
few and far between,” noted Steve
O’Dell of ARA Newmark, who spe-
cializes in multihousing land sales.
“There are still parcels but the prices
are pretty high. The ‘low-hanging
fruit’ was picked a long time ago.”
Interest – and creativity – from
developers, however, persists in
downtown and in other “good” infill
spots like RiNo and Highland, as well
as along the Santa Fe corridor, South
Broadway and points farther, said
O’Dell.
“Denver is the center of the bull’s-
eye,” added O’Dell, explaining that
since the end of the Great Recession,
multifamily development has been
growing in concentric rings farther
out around the city.
“Development and developers are
spreading out around the metro
area,” agreed Cary Bruteig, principal
of Apartment Appraisers & Consul-
tants.
“They also are getting pretty cre-
ative in terms of sites,” he added,
noting that developers are eyeing
everything from a former restaurant
in Lone Tree to older buildings in the
middle part of the city to a retail cen-
ter off Federal Boulevard and Colfax
Avenue to be rebuilt with apartments.
“So, you might look at a map of
Denver and think there isn’t any
vacant land,” said Bruteig. “However,
there are certainly a lot of sites that
don’t have a very profitable use on
them that can or will be sold and
the improvement on them will be
bulldozed and apartments will be
built on the site. We’re seeing that as
more desirable sites disappear. But if
you look at downtown, there are a lot
of parking lots that can have apart-
ments built on them.”
Bruteig, who also owns and main-
tains the Apartment Insights’ data-
base and authors its quarterly report
on the multifamily market, noted
that in the second quarter there were
around 23,000 units under construc-
Multifamily development has been growing since the Great Recession and in points farther around the city.
