Panel offers sneak peek at new Denver developments

Officials from four development companies presented their visions and plans for new buildings and public spaces coming to metro Denver during the University of Colorado Center for Real Estate’s Annual Forum on Wednesday.

Projects included an apartment building in Denver’s River North neighborhood that will include open-air “slotted canyons,” a 12-story office building in RiNo, a multiuse 13-acre development in Cherry Creek and a Mexican market and restaurant retail development in Aurora.

“Denver’s development community has taken a long view on the city’s future, rebuilding, and revitalizing entire neighborhoods while being a leading edge in design, sustainability and resiliency” is how organizers described the Transforming Denver panel.

Panelists included Jon Ratner, co-founder and CEO of The Max Collaborative; Kyle Flippen, development manager, Schnitzer West; Amy Cara, managing partner, East West Partners; and Doug McMurrain, owner of Capital City Development.

“This is the most challenging individual building I’ve ever worked on in my career, but in many ways it makes it the most exciting as well,” Ratner said of the company’s One River North apartment building in RiNo. “We’re trying to push the envelope in terms of design.”

Ratner was formerly with Forest City, which redeveloped the area around the old Stapleton Airport, which is now called Central Park.

The 187-unit tower, located at Blake and 40th streets, has “slot canyons” exposing whole sides of the building to open-air, with natural vegetation and water features. Plans call for 16 stories.

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The design comes from MAD Architects.

“I like to think of it as a new vision for city living, influenced by the Colorado’s enduring landforms,” said Ratner. “It’s a way to bring nature into our built environment.”

Developers have broken ground on the project and it’s expected to open in 2023.

Schnitzer West broke ground on The Current, a 12-story office building at 3615 Delgany St., in April 2021. Crews started work on the 240,000-square-foot, Class A building without any pre-leases.

“There’s really unimpeded view of the Front Range and downtown,” Flippen said. “A lot of the amenities in this building are really important to differentiate yourself in the market.”

So they polled CEOs, community leaders, tenants and human resource directors to build the next-generation office building.

Some of those amenities include a conferencing center for up to 200 people, ceiling to floor windows, rooftop sensors that track the sun’s position and tint the affected windows appropriately and an HVAC system that recycles all indoor air daily.

“That’s going to eliminate the need for shades, which is great because we’re selling the building on these great views,” he said.

Schnitzer officials signed a lease for 20% of the space to a professional services firm in the fourth quarter, Flippen said.

Cara, of East West Partners, laid out plans for the company’s 13-acre, mixed-use development called Cherry Creek West that connects the Cherry Creek Shopping Center with the area neighborhood and emphasizes pedestrians over cars. The site is on the southeast corner of University Boulevard and East First Avenue, and is owned by the Buell Foundation, which also owns the land under the shopping center.

“This is a 13-acre site that has been slowly vacating itself for years,” she said.

East West was the lead developer for the Union Station Neighborhood. Its last project there, The Coloradan condominium building, opened in 2018 and is fully occupied.

She said company officials are conducting surveys, and will be holding community meetings, to make sure the development is embraced.

She called it “friend raising.”

“We have a really unique opportunity in how you think about placemaking in this location by looking at how people want to move through the site,” Cara said. “We really want to connect the community to the creek.”

She talked about “meandering pathways” mixing with the retail, office and residential developments planned for the site.

“There’s been substantial redevelopment in Cherry Creek, but very little of it includes much by the way of public spaces,” Cara said, noting plans for an amphitheater and a market square area.

Plans for Cherry Creek West have yet to be submitted to the city.

McMurrain told the audience at Mile High Station about his plans to recreate Atlanta’s Plaza Fiesta, which he developed, at 15200 E. Colfax Ave. in Aurora.

He said the company just closed a loan with Academy Bank, so it can begin redeveloping the 100,000-square-foot building, a former Kmart, into a Mexican market, community gathering place and food hall with 26 restaurants. He’s filling the space with shipping containers for the restaurants and small businesses.

“We have more than 70 vendors on the waiting list,” McMurrain said. “By serving the community, and giving small business owners an opportunity, it will become a gathering point.

“It’s a village where people assemble to gather ideas and ensure great food.”