Page 18
— Retail Properties Quarterly — November 2015
W
hen Thomas F. Sloan dug
a well on his squatter land
some time in the summer
of 1866, he inadvertently
tapped into an under-
ground aquifer.When he awoke the
next morning, part of his farmland
was covered in water – this was the
birth of Sloan’s Lake.
The Sloan’s Lake area will experi-
ence a different kind of flood in 2016,
in the form of massive regentrifica-
tion and the construction of a high-
end retail and multifamily urban city
center. This is the rebirth of Sloan’s
Lake.
Sloans is the name of the redevel-
opment of the former St. Anthony
Hospital site located on the south
shore of the lake. This seven-city
block development is under con-
struction fromWest Colfax Avenue
to 17th Avenue. The signalized inter-
section at Colfax and Raleigh Street
will become the main entry to the
massive 17-acre, mixed-use develop-
ment that will have 850 new for-rent
and for-sale residential units, a com-
munity park, an eight-screen movie
theater and over 50,000 square feet of
retail space.
Raleigh Street will become a Euro-
pean-style shared auto and bike park-
way. It will be wider than Denver’s
minimum requirements in order to
accommodate additional pedestrian
amenities, street trees and sidewalk
cafes.
The existing office tower at Raleigh
and Conejos will be renovated com-
pletely. Out goes the 1960s concrete
slab wall panels, and in comes bril-
liant floor-to-ceiling window store-
fronts and modern office space.
Depending on where you stand in the
building, you can
see clear views of
downtown Denver,
the foothills to the
west and south
of the city and, of
course, the expanse
of Sloan’s Lake Park.
“I would pit the
views from the
Penthouse of the
Conejos Street
office building
against any small
office building
in the city,” said
Jonathan Bush of
Littleton Capital
Partners. Bush is developer of Block 7
of Sloans. “Not enough people have
experienced the breathtaking view
of the city and the mountains from
Sloan’s Lake, and the proximity to
both is unmatched by any multiuse
development in the metro area. Five
minutes to downtown and 15 minutes
to the foothills.”
LCP’s project, located on Block 7,
consists of a 6,000-sf multitenant
retail building on Colfax Avenue and a
50,000-sf office building with 8,000 sf
of ground-floor retail space. Running
along Raleigh Street will be 4,500 sf of
the retail space along with a 2,000-sf
proposed patio/beer garden. Alamo
Cinema shares the block on the
west side and all of Block 7 will have
shared access and use of the exist-
ing parking garage north of Conejos
Street.
“Grasping the idea of building con-
dominiums in the city of Denver with
Colorado’s vexing construction defects
law in place was a challenge, but once
we saw the views of the mountains
and downtown from what would be a
penthouse condominium on the lake,
we knew it was a no-brainer,” said
Brian Levitt of Nava Development.
Nava is building Denver’s only new
condominium project on the books
for 2016 on Block 1 of Sloans. Most
new condominium growth in Den-
ver is at a standstill due to the 2005
law that is blamed for creating an
overly litigious environment around
construction defects claims and thus
resulting in a dearth of new, afford-
able condos or townhomes in Colora-
do, according to an editorial in a local
newspaper. Nava’s project also will
contain two retail spaces earmarked
for chef-driven restaurants.
Trevor Hines, Levitt’s development
partner, is the company’s CEO. After
Nava made headway on the condo
development, Hines’s father, Gerald
D. Hines – the founder of one of the
world’s largest real estate companies
– decided Sloan’s Lake was too strong
of an opportunity to pass up. His
company, Hines, is moving forward
on development of Block 2, adjacent
to Nava’s block, with a 275-unit apart-
ment tower. Hines has developed over
270 million sf around the world.
The “play” aspect of Sloans began
with Alamo Cinema breaking ground
this year to open a new boutique
theater running first-line Hollywood
films, independents and classics.
The developers of the project are
looking to collect some of the top
chefs and restaurateurs in the city
to open new venues, as well as
some favorites along the Raleigh
Street parkway, including the Lower
Highland favorite Highland Tap &
Burger.
s
Kenneth Himel
Broker, urban retail
and restaurant
specialist, David
Hicks & Lampert
Brokerage LLC,
Denver
Development Spotlight
The Colfax and Raleigh Street intersection will be the main entry to the 17-acre,
mixed-use development. Raleigh Street will become a European-style shared auto
and bike parkway.
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