CREJ - Property Management Quarterly - April 2016
Whether you’re traveling northeast on Market Street from downtown Denver or heading southwest on Brighton Boulevard after exiting Interstate 70, you can’t help but notice the multitude of activity taking place in Denver’s River North neighborhood. Wedged between Denver’s historic northeast neighborhoods like Ballpark, Globeville, Elyria-Swansea, Curtis Park and Cole, this former industrial warehouse district has been undergoing a transformation since the area was designated as the RiNo Art District in 2005 – co-founded by artists Tracy Weil and Hadley Hooper. The transformation is moving along at hurried pace since the Denver real estate market awoke from recession just a few years ago. First and foremost, RiNo is an art district. Going back 15-plus years, artists and independent creative businesses have been “activating” the beautiful, old – and in some cases, abandoned – warehouses in this portion of northeast Denver, making it one of Denver’s most culturally unique areas. The Tracks nightclub and EXDO Event Center are an example of this type of adaptive reuse. Opened in 2002 before the art district itself was formalized, Tracks repurposed an old film reel production factory that was active during the golden age of Hollywood but had been used for storage for several decades since. Following the creative class into RiNo were pioneering developers like Susan Powers (Fire Clay Lofts), Matt Palmer (Dry Ice Factory) and Mickey and Kyle Zeppelin, whose multi-acre, multiuse Taxi project along the west bank of the Platte River opened in the mid- 2000s has since been nationally recognized with a number of awards – and rewarded with an eclectic group of creative office tenants and residences. After it was established that an off-the-beaten-path neighborhood like RiNo can be a viable location for business and residences alike, other developments followed, including the many restaurants, creative office and retail outlets developed by Gravitas, Downtown Property Services and Focus Property Group on Larimer Street, the Bindery creative office project on Blake Street, and several signature projects on Brighton Boulevard, including co-working giant Industry, Great Divide’s large-scale brewery and tap house, and the Zeppelin’s nationally renowned food hall – The Source. Catalyzing the next wave of growth in RiNo is the soon-to-be operational 38th and Blake commuter light-rail station, part of RTD’s University of Colorado A Line connecting Denver Union Station to Denver International Airport. The line will kick off April 23 with a party hosted by the RiNo Art District. Surrounding the station, which RTD projects will have 985,000 boardings in the first year of service, are a number of signature commercial real estate projects that include multifamily, large creative office, retail, and for-sale condos and townhomes. Projects currently under construction include the Zeppelin’s Source Hotel; Mill Creek’s Denargo Market residential project and Alliance Residential’s Broadstone at RiNo multifamily project on Brighton Boulevard; Littleton Capital Partners’ mixed-use residential/retail project Link 35 on Larimer Street; the mixed-use office/retail Backyard on Blake and The Factory Flats on Blake Street; and Blue Moon’s brewery and tap house near the Platte River. On the docket are a number of dynamic and exciting projects such as the mixed-use office-hotel-retail project HUB from Elevation Development, located directly across from the station platform; Zeppelin’s office/retail project Gauge, across the 35th Street pedestrian bridge from HUB; Mill Creek’s Modera apartments on Blake Street; Lynd Co.’s multifamily project next to Industry; Koelbel & Co.’s Catalyst creative office dedicated to health care technology and innovation; an entertainment district connected to the Blue Moon Brewery; Tom and Brooke Gordon’s DriveTrain redevelopment; and Westfield Development’s yet-to-be-announced plans for adaptive reuse and new construction on the multi-acre Midtown Industrial complex on Brighton Boulevard, near the redevelopment of the National Western Stock Show Complex. Even the new World Trade Center Denver will be relocated in the heart of RiNo, at 38th and Blake Street across from RTD’s pedestrian bridge. The challenge for the neighborhood now is, how do we keep RiNo wild? How do we maintain RiNo’s cultural uniqueness, creative vibrancy and industrial grit and yet make RiNo a neighborhood that welcomes future development of all shapes and sizes? By passing a new Business Improvement District in 2015, Denver now has the tools to take on those challenges, such as the creation of design review; funding for distinct way-finding and signage to make RiNo a more walkable, bikeable and parkable neighborhood; a program that connects RiNo-based artists with art buyers; and a robust marketing budget to attract more visitors (read: customers) to those art galleries and independent businesses that made RiNo special in the first place.