CREJ - Retail Properties Quarterly - May 2015
If you have not found yourself strolling through Union Station either with friends or clients– with its modernized retrostyling, chef-driven cuisine, huge transit platforms, rental bikes, car sharing, slick light-rail trains and rows of shiny new underground busses – and wondered to yourself, “Am I still in Denver?” then you are walking 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 downtown Denver are no longer shying away from creativity, instead developers, 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 projects 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 historic building and its hipster inhabitants, 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 eventually settled on Union Station due to the added departing transit customers 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 transit-oriented mecca, but the outreach of the light-rail system is sprouting 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, signing 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 amenities. The addition of light rail will make this area a metrowide destination 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 southeast 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 Cornerstone Collaborative in 2013 and gave it the goal of unifying a number 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 lightrail 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 creativity 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 Center. DIBC wants to be an integrated live-work-play environment serviced by the rail line. The project will feature 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 station, 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 freestanding 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 Panasonic will be pumping out giant video screens alongside a slew of new restaurant and retail operators servicing the general area and, of course, the transit customer.