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Page 22 — Retail Properties Quarterly — May 2015
I f you have not found yourself
strolling through Union Station
either with friends or clients
– with its modernized retro
styling, chef-driven cuisine,
huge transit platforms, rental bikes,
car sharing, slick light-rail trains and
rows of shiny new underground bus-
ses – and wondered to yourself, “Am
I still in Denver?” then you are walk-
ing with your eyes
closed. You blinked,
and Denver grew
up. Union Station
along with projects
like Industry, Taxi
and The Source,
have challenged
traditional “cow
town” thinking and
brought Colorado
into the ring with
its big brothers in
Chicago, Dallas and
New York City.
Projects in down-
town Denver are no longer shying
away from creativity, instead devel-
opers, architects and brokers are
stretching out across the state to
find the most unique tenant mix
and combine it with dramatic and
enticing architecture to create proj-
ects that beckon customers to their
developments. This is big boy stuff.
When people in our industry refer to
Union Station, they typically are not
talking about the 100-year-old his-
toric building and its hipster inhabit-
ants, but instead the 2 million-plus
square feet of mixed-use retail,
office and residential space that is
either under construction or recently
completed in the six-block former
rail yard behind the building.
Whole Foods, for example, had
several downtown options but even-
tually settled on Union Station due
to the added departing transit cus-
tomers not available in other parts
of the city. The combination of civic,
commercial and transit all in one
trade area has been the basis for
every great city in the world, and
Denver is getting the message loud
and clear.
Union Station is the obvious tran-
sit-oriented mecca, but the outreach
of the light-rail system is sprout-
ing new miniversions and cultures
throughout the lines. The mere
mention of a light-rail stop at 38th
and Downing streets has Denver’s
biggest corporate giant, Coors, sign-
ing up to build a Blue Moon Brewery
as close as it can get to the station.
There is a referendum to turn Blake
Street into a two-lane boulevard to
go along with a proposed boutique
hotel – all in an area that was home
to Denver’s skid row less than 10
years ago. Groundbreaking projects
like Industry and Taxi have changed
the office landscape in urban Denver
with collaborative offices and ame-
nities. The addition of light rail will
make this area a metrowide destina-
tion for business. Along with the rest
of the nontraditional space in this
area, retail is forced to think outside
the box, literally.
“In a neighborhood like this, why
create ordinary retail?” asked real
estate developer Jonathan Bush,
when asked why he created a 1,500-
sf beer garden in the center of his
mixed-use retail and residential
development located at the south-
east corner of 35th and Larimer
streets, instead of creating more
leasable space. “The character of the
neighborhood is more important
than the few extra rent dollars. We
will end up getting more exciting,
creative tenants that will last longer
if we steer more toward what the
new urban customer is looking for,
and thereby create longevity for the
overall project.” Bush’s project is
slated for delivery toward the end of
2015.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock
established the North Denver Cor-
nerstone Collaborative in 2013 and
gave it the goal of unifying a num-
ber of improvement plans along
what Hancock calls, “the corridor
of opportunity,” the 23-mile stretch
between Union Station and Denver
International Airport. The idea is to
create energy throughout the light-
rail line similar to what is seen at
future light-rail stops, including the
one in RiNo.
The opposite end of the line is
also following its lead as far as cre-
ativity and scope. Peña Boulevard
Station is the project at the other
end of the line, although DIA is one
stop beyond. Peña Boulevard Station
sits in the center of what will be the
Denver International Business Cen-
ter. DIBC wants to be an integrated
live-work-play environment serviced
by the rail line. The project will fea-
ture a large platform that leads to
a plaza where all of the mixed-use,
multistory buildings will be centered,
creating an urban feel without losing
a sense of place. The project gained
momentum from Panasonic Corp.’s
announcement of the Panasonic
Enterprise Solutions new technology
center and business solutions hub
that will bring in more than 330 jobs
and the need for some serious retail
amenities. In addition to the rail sta-
tion, the project also will have an
800-car parking structure, and plans
are in motion for a health and body
center along with a proposed day
care, health club, urgent care facility
and another hotel. Peña Boulevard
Station also will have over 30,000 sf
of inline retail and four freestand-
ing restaurant and hotel pads, all set
between 60th and 61st avenues, two
streets that as of today do not exist.
Fast forward one year and Pana-
sonic will be pumping out giant video
screens alongside a slew of new res-
taurant and retail operators servicing
the general area and, of course, the
transit customer.s
Shopping Trends
Ken Himmel
Broker, David,
Hicks & Lampert
Brokerage,
Greenwood Village
An aerial view depicts the future development near the Peña Boulevard light-rail station.
The light-rail station at 61st Street and Peña Boulevard will be the center of a compact, dense, urban development.