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November 2017 — Multifamily Properties Quarterly — Page 27
BIG OPPORTUNITIES ARE AVAILABLE
IN DOWNTOWN SUPERIOR.
Just outside Boulder and a short commute from Denver,
a vibrant, new Downtown Superior is taking shape. This
urban hub offers land for office and mixed-use residential/
retail, plus new office and retail space built to suit. The
area offers competitive economics, easy access to Denver
International Airport, an educated employment pool and
a sought-after location. It will be an energetic, eclectic
mix of retail, shopping, dining, entertainment and living—
walkable, sustainable and surrounded by acres of gorgeous
Colorado open space.
Fully entitled for up to 817,600 square feet of office,
retail and restaurant space; 1,400 residential units;
and 500 hotel rooms.
Visi
FRESH OPPORTUNITIES FOR BUSINESS,
RESTAURANTS, RETAIL AND MORE.
That’s a Superior idea.
M ultifamily design in Denver
has evolved from a minor
part of most architectural
practices to a booming
business endeavoring to
deliver a rental experience defined
by lifestyle-based amenities and the
increased demand for service and
convenience. And that convenience
comes in many forms – everything
from a community’s location, to its
amenity spaces to its service offer-
ings.
As consumer preferences have
shifted and the supply of apartments
has skyrocketed, developers and the
architects who design their buildings
have looked for new, creative ways
to differentiate each community and
stand out from the competition.
• Zeroing in on renter profiles. In
order to effectively program a build-
ing, developers and architects must
first understand who will live in it.
Today, there are two types of renters:
“renters by need,” or those who can-
not qualify to purchase a home, and
“renters by choice,” who may qualify
but choose to rent for increased flex-
ibility.
These two renter cohorts may have
the same demands – for example, a
preferred number of bedrooms – but
often they are on opposite ends of the
price spectrum. Therefore, the market
has adapted to capture each of the
two respective markets, fine-tuning
variables like unit mix, size, finishes
and amenities.
With renter profiles spanning the
demographic spectrum, new mul-
tifamily buildings are increasingly
designed to have multigenerational
appeal. Amenities such as a playroom
cater to both young
couples with chil-
dren and empty
nesters with grand-
children. Health-
oriented offerings
such as fitness
centers, pools and
yoga studios also
have stood the test
of time during this
most recent cycle.
• Reimagining for
maximum return. In
metro Denver, con-
dominium construction was booming
prior to the Great Recession, while
apartment construction lagged. Once
the economy shifted, it became clear
that three-story walk-up apartments
– the most common and economi-
cal subset of the multifamily housing
genre – would be the first housing
type to reemerge.
During the recession, we set out
to redefine the common three-story
walk-up from a typical garden apart-
ment – historically surrounded by a
ring of parking – to a uniquely urban
turned the traditional
model inside out, hiding the parking
in tuck-under garages and court-
yards between and behind buildings,
while addressing the streets in an
urban rowhouse fashion, often with
porch stoops leading to the public
sidewalk. Doing so gave these classic
apartment homes a new and widely
appealing aesthetic.
As large, undeveloped sites became
harder to find, and land costs esca-
lated, developers needed to increase
density to achieve desired returns.
Today, in addition to designing
high-rises, we are designing more
apartment projects of five, six and
seven stories in height – often with
wood-frame construction over a
concrete parking podium. TriVista on
Speer, a 322-unit rental community in
Denver’s Golden Triangle, which we
designed and is being developed by
Legacy Partners, features a five-story
wood frame atop a two-story con-
crete podium. Scheduled to open in
2019, it is the first project of this con-
struction type approved by the city
and county of Denver, even prior to
Denver’s adoption of the 2015 Inter-
national Building Code, which first
allowed such construction.
• Expanding beyond the traditional. As
Denver’s multifamily market contin-
ues to evolve, there is a growing con-
cern, particularly in center city neigh-
borhoods, that supply is catching up
with, or surpassing, demand. As a
result, some developers are choos-
ing not to compete head-to-head
with the new product coming on line.
Instead, they’re diversifying, either
geographically outside the downtown
core or by targeting alternative – yet
similar – product types, such as age-
qualified (55+) apartments or condo-
minium projects.
It may seem that the recent influx
of people moving to Colorado are
mainly millennials, who account for
52 percent of in-migration. But the
growing number of people retiring in
the state is staggering. From 2010 to
2025, the number of people retiring
is expected to increase by 74 percent
Design
Terry Willis
Principal, KTGY
Architecture +
Planning, Denver
KTGY Architecture + Planning
TriVista on Speer, designed by KTGY Architecture + Planning and developed by Legacy Partners,
is a 322-unit apartment building under construction in Denver’s Golden Triangle neighborhood.