Tag Archives: construction

Denver News: Clear Creek Crossing Development

Ever since 2011, there has been an 80-acre site in Wheat Ridge that has gone unused.  It was originally to be the home of a 185,000 square foot Cabela’s store and showroom, but the retailer backed out of their decision to go forward building on that space.  For five years the land went unused until it was picked up by a Phoenix based real estate group called Evergreen Devco who are very excited about contributing to the area.

“It’s very well-located real estate being at the intersection of the two highways, and we love the visibility and access.  It’s an important piece of property for the city, and we want it to be sustainable for the community long-term,” said Evergreen’s Tyler Carlson.

Evergreen held a community meeting at the end of 2016 where they announced their tentative plans for the space, which was to be used for residential units, an office complex, and a Super Walmart.  Since then, Evergreen and the city have shared that Walmart may no longer be part of the plan.

Wheatridge’s city manager Goff said that “the biggest (change) is that Walmart is uncertain about whether they will be apart of the development now.  It’s just part of the current retail market.  The internet is taking over. Amazon is taking over.”  With that in mind, the city is looking for alternatives in case Walmart doesn’t come through.

Another change is in the amount of space intended for office and housing space.  Originally, 10 acres were to be used for housing and 30 for offices.  However, the revised plan now has 15 acres for housing and 25 for an office complex owned by a Denver area employer.

Construction is set to begin in the fall of this year, starting with “hook ramps” being built onto I-70, with buildings going up in 2018.  All that’s left is for the new plan to be approved by City Council and the city’s planning commission.

“It’s really not changing all that much from what we thought it was going to look like,” Goff said. “We’re excited it’s getting much closer to the finish line than it has been in a long time.”

Boulder News: Boulder Plot Approved for Development

During the last 20 years there have been four separate proposals for development at the 20 acre space at McKenzie Junction.  This plot, surrounded by highway, first had an office and hotel project in 1998, a five building office park in 2000, and two separate multi-use plans in 2006 and 2015.  None were approved due to concerns about noise and the dangers of people settling in a space cut off by highways on all sides.

In April, a plan was approved by the Boulder Planning Board.  The same team who made the most recent proposal in 2015 came back with a new multi-use plan.

Called Diagonal Crossing, this plan will consist of 357 housing units, a quarter of which will be affordable housing, with 20 units given to faculty of Naropa University.  Additionally, three local nonprofits, Meals on Wheels, Studio Arts Boulder and Bridge House’s Ready to Work, have dedicated space allocated to them.

While the Planning Board has given its blessing, the city council must now approve to proceed.  During the next few weeks the council will have the opportunity to examine the proposal, ask questions, and possibly reject the project because previous concerns including, traffic, noise, are still factors.

The Planning Board raised these concerns when reviewing the project as well, but eagerness to develop the site seems to have increased over the last two decades.  “While this is not a perfect site, it’s not the worst site either,” Chairman John Putnam said.  He added that the access to trails, open space, and access to east Boulder and the Diagonal Highway could be very enticing.

Approximately 10 neighboring areas of the site came to the board with concerns and complaints about the development including Allison Management, Trammell Crow Residential, and Coburn Partners.  “It just doesn’t seem like a nice entrance into our Boulder town,” Gary Carmichael stated. “There’s just too much density on this, and it needs to be lightened up.”

One board member, David Ensign, also shared concerns about the project being the first thing people see coming into Boulder.  “We can talk a lot about the positive aspects of this, but I also know that as you’re driving in on the Diagonal, you’re going to see this very isolated pool of housing surrounded by these highways.  It doesn’t seem like something that is a gateway to me.”

“We have horses, cattle, dogs, kids,” Erin Harding said. “To hear that it’s going to be an active area 24/7 is very disconcerting to us, because that’s not our lifestyle out there. … The density is everyone’s huge concern.”  Many also noted that McKenzie Junction already suffers from traffic problems that this development would only exacerbate.

When the plan was proposed in 2015, many of the council members made it clear that the location rather than the plan was what made them believe the project wouldn’t work.  What might give this plan more of a chance than it had two years ago, according to board members, is the decrease in available housing.

Denver News: New Aurora Community Could House 60,000 People

Steamboat’s ski resort has enjoyed a rising level of commercial success ever since 2007 when Intrawest first arrived and made the $265 million purchase of the ski area.  This was nearly triple what the asking price was 6 years previously, and was a strong hint at what plans were in store for the resort.  The market noticed, and the real estate market erupted for both buyers and developers with sales hitting a record level of $1.5 billion.

When looking back on whether or not Intrawest was actually the cause for this boom, David Baldinger, owner of Steamboat Sotheby’s International Realty, had this to say.  “We can’t figure out if it was just the tail end of the real estate boom or if it was Intrawest.  We think it was Intrawest, because the financial crisis was underway but Steamboat had strong volume for another year. We think it was enthusiasm for a new owner.”

The trend of a resort getting a new owner stimulating the real estate market is one the high country is very familiar with.  The same thing occurred in 2002, also involving Intrawest, and Winter Park.  Then again in 2003 with the purchase of Crested Butte.

This year Aspen Skiing Co. and KSL Capital Partners have partnered to purchase six of Intrawest’s resorts including Winter Park and Steamboat.  It is expected that this purchase won’t make the same waves as earlier ones, however, largely due to the recession.  “We had locals buying condos in luxury developments purely as an investment, but it didn’t make sense given their capability if anything changed.  Then everything changed,” said Jon Wade, the owner of the Steamboat Group real estate firm.

Intrawest’s great success came to a screeching halt with the recession in 2008 and 2009.  They were forced to sell off some of their 11 resorts just to cover the debts they accrued.  Aspen Skiing and KSL intends to learn from this and use third parties for developing real estate on their 1,100 acres of slope-side land.

“We would love to see those areas developed in a responsible manner,” KSL Capital Partners chief Eric Resnick said. “But developing that real estate is not our main driver.”  Winter park has already been enjoying a growth period, with $30.1 million in sales in February alone, and the ski resort going to new owners is expected to bolster that growth according to local real estate owners.

“These guys, Aspen and KSL, they live in a world of responding to what resort and travel customers are looking for. I think they will add new fresh thoughts to the mountain and the village,” said Walter Koezbel, owner of a 1,100 acres of residential project.  “Activity begets activity, and they will take experience they have learned from their multitude of properties and they will bring new ideas to Winter Park and Grand County. It will shine a light on what we have up here.”

Baldinger summed up the mood with his statement that “I like the idea that the people in the ski business will be focusing on the ski business and the talent in the development community can focus on the development pieces.”

Boulder News: East Edge

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In December of 2016 a team of designers and developers volunteered their time for a technical advisory panel.  The goal of this panel, the Urban Land Institute Colorado (ULI Colorado) was to design a redevelopment plan for the area of East Boulder north of Arapahoe and west of 55th.  This 325 acre space is primarily used as an office park with some small industrial sites as well.  The panel was tasked by the Boulder Chamber and Boulder Area Realtor Association with seeing how this space could be used for more workforce housing. The panel took this request a step further.   They addressed a complete overhaul of the area, rather than just focusing on housing.    Their vision of this new hub of creativity would be called East Edge.  Linked with new transportation options, East Edge would be broken into three districts that mix residential and commercial use.  Existing business would continue being supported and add new ones as well.  The idea being that each of the businesses within each district would be within walking distance.  This more ambitious and extreme plan is not what many current residents had in mind.  A large scale expansion is seen by many as inconsistent their own vision for their neighborhood.  However, there are some potential benefits in this plan worth considering which may influence public opinion.

This panel envisions East Edge as a “creativity hub”.  ULI Colorado hopes to encourage the growth of new jobs here as well as housing, services, and transportation growth. .  They envision transition from an office park to a more multi-use neighborhood.

One challenge to East Edge’s redevelopment plan is in zoning.  The panel suggests that the city allow them to go beyond the current 55ft height limit in place (up to 90ft in some areas).  This would allow for residential and retail services in the same space.  Additionally, office buildings could have shops on the ground level.  Because of the area’s low ground level relative to the rest of Boulder the panel believes the view shed would not be harmed.

Another concern ULI Colorado has for East Edge, and all potential development plans, is flooding.  The entire area is located within a floodplain, and said to be in need of mitigation.  The panel suggests that the Flatiron Golf course be used for mitigation before moving forward.

The top priority of the East Edge plan is to begin by redeveloping the land between Arapahoe and the BNSF rail corridor.  This land would become one of the mixed-use neighborhoods for residential and commercial space with an interior main street.  This would have the advantage of much safer pedestrian and bike traffic.  But this is just one of many steps and details outlined for East Edge.  The entire plan is available for all citizens to see on the better boulder website, and are encouraged to do so.

Colorado News: Colorado’s Economy to Grow in 2017

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The Business Economic Outlook at CU Boulder predicts that Colorado’s economy will continue to grow through 2017.  Construction, tourism, and healthcare are anticipated to be the main drivers of the expected 64,000 new jobs in Colorado in the coming year.  Expected 2017 growth of 2.4 percent exceeds the 2.2 percent seen in 2016.

Colorado is likely to remain within the top 10 states for job growth, a position Colorado has held for the last 6 years.  The population is also on the rise because of the new jobs.  In fact, Colorado is predicted to become the second fastest growing population in the country this year.

Richard Wobbekind, an economist at Leeds school of Business at CU Boulder, commented on the matter.  “The growth will be across every sector except natural resources and mining and again will support the strongest period of employment growth that we’ve had since the 1990s.”  Wobbekind stated that workers in the mining sector are able to find other jobs opening up.

The construction sector is expected to see the largest increase in jobs.  Approximately 9,000 jobs are expected with more single family home construction predicted.  That would be a 5.7 percent increase over 2016.  Voters passed a large number of bonds which will fund many projects, creating the demand for jobs.

Leisure and hospitality is expected to be second to construction in growth.  This sector is estimated to increase by over 12,000 jobs, or 3.7 percent.  Health and education look to see the least growth with an increase of over 10,000 jobs is expected.  However, farmers are likely to see continued difficulty in the coming year.  A combination of weather, drought, and commodity prices predict further decrease in farmer income.  Agriculture annual income decreased from $850 million to $444 million statewide between 2014 and 2016.  Income is predicted to fall to $392 million in 2017.

 

Boulder Community Hospital Expansion

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The Boulder Community Hospital (BCH) at Foothills will be getting a major expansion very soon. Early in October the City Planning Board approved Boulder Community Health’s plan. This expansion will add new facilities just east of the current campus in the Riverbend office park.

The plans are for two major structures to be constructed during the expansion. The first will be a 76,000 square foot medical building. This building will be used for services such as inpatient and outpatient behavioral health, as well as inpatient rehabilitation. Once the expansion is complete, they will begin providing inpatient care first. Only when that is complete will outpatient care will be provided. At the current time, both of these services are done out of the hospital’s Broadway campus. With this transfer of service location, the city will assume ownership of the Broadway campus by the end of 2017. The second major expansion will be a new parking structure according to the plan. The five story parking garage, able to hold close to 500 vehicles, is a direct response to a shortcoming reported by current hospital officials. The garage is designed for possible future.

This expansion is just one part of a 10 year improvement plan BCH. David Ghent, the CEO of BCH, stated that they “ developed a 10-year action plan of operational improvements and changes that are designed to keep BCH the premier provider of health care services in Boulder County.” The expansion project will help accomplish this by consolidating medical services and create newer facilities.

Commenting on the expansion in its entirety, the board chairman John Gerstle and his colleagues said it is a project they are “very supportive” of. “I think for (BCH), it’s quite clear there’s insufficient parking presently available in the new hospital area there, and this will deal with that issue,” Gerstle said, “and the building which will contain…the facilities presently in the old  hospital on Broadway — they need a place to move to once the city takes over. This will be where they wind up, which is an efficiency location, given the nearness to the other hospital facilities and emergency room. So I think people recognize that this makes sense.”

Being a non-profit facility, BCH plans to pay for this expansion in a few ways. The first will be through existing savings, and fundraising. Another source of funding is through issuing bonds. Its A-ranking as a non-profit makes these bonds very appealing to investors.