DenverInfill Blog

A few days ago, Margaret Jackson at the Denver Post reported that DaVita, a Fortune 500 company that makes medical equipment, is planning on moving their corporate headquarters from California to Denver and is scouting several locations in the Downtown Denver area for their future home. One of those locations is Block 022 in Lower Downtown, the block bounded by 18th, 19th, Wazee, and Blake streets that is owned by developer Grand American, Inc.

Block 022, you may recall, was the site of the late-1990s “Stadium Walk” project proposed by Grand American and partner Arnold Schwarzenegger that was to include a Planet Hollywood, a multi-screen movie theatre, condos, restaurants, and a grocery store. Of course, that project never got off the ground, but now Grand American is pursuing the DaVita headquarters by proposing a mixed-use office development on their LoDo block. While the program and space needs for DaVita’s future headquarters building is still in flux, the company is apparently looking for approximately 150,000 square feet of office space. Grand American is proposing a 7-story office building of about that size at the corner of 19th and Wazee. This morning, that proposal was considered by the Lower Downtown Design Review Board.

The LoDo design guidelines set the maximum building height for most of the historic district, including Block 022, at 55 feet; however, a building can be approved up to 85 feet in height if it includes residential uses. Grand American is proposing to use the full 85 feet for the DaVita headquarters and to defer the required residential component to a future phase elsewhere on the block. Due to the weak housing market, a requirement to build residential at this time would make the project financially unfeasible. This phased concept was the focus of today’s LDDRB meeting, which the Board did approve, with conditions.

Grand American owns the entire block. Most of the Wazee side is surface parking, along with two buildings that are non-contributing structures to the historic district that could be razed. On the Blake Street side, the two one-story buildings in the center of the block (directly above the words “Blake St.” on the aerial photo) are also non-contributing structures to the historic district. Consequently, Grand American’s proposed project in its entirety is the “T-shaped” site formed by the whole Wazee side of the block and the center one-quarter of the Blake Street side.

Phase 1 of Grand American’s plan would include constructing an underground parking garage along the entire length of the Wazee side of the block and the 7-story office building at the 19th Street and Wazee corner. Subsequent phases to the project would include a building at the 18th Street and Wazee corner—either all office, all residential, or a mix of both—as well as a residential building on the Blake Street parcel that would necessitate, at that time, the demolition of the existing non-contributing buildings and the construction of more underground parking that would connect beneath the alley with the underground parking on the Wazee side. All three buildings would have ground-floor commercial uses. There’s even the possibility that DaVita’s space needs may require construction of office buildings on both halves of the Wazee side of the block in Phase 1, leaving only the Blake Street residential building as a future phase. It’s too early to say at this point what the entire project's final program will be, but the Board’s approval today of the phased residential deferral concept allows Grand American and their design partner, Shears-Adkins Architects, to continue in their pursuit of landing the DaVita headquarters.

I mentioned the Board gave its approval, with conditions. Several of those conditions were technical in nature which I won’t get into, but one that I will mention involved the question of what to do with the 18th and Wazee corner after the underground parking goes in but before a building is constructed on top of it as part of a future phase, which could be years away. The developer proposed putting in a surface parking lot, edged along 18th and Wazee by some type of artistic/interactive urban design element that would serve as an attractive screen to the parking lot. The Board nixed the parking lot idea (except for one row of parking directly off the alley) and required the developer to identify, instead, something else—a park, plaza, garden, pavilion, whatever—that would serve as an engaging, if temporary, use for the site until it is covered with a future structure.

The next step requires Great American/Shears-Adkins to come back with more detailed plans showing the proposed mass, scale, form and program for all three buildings. This project is still very early in the design and approval process and, of course, if DaVita chooses to go to a competing location, all bets are off. But for now at least, this project moves forward.

I’m thrilled that DaVita appears to be focusing on Downtown Denver for its new corporate headquarters, and equally thrilled that an ugly, parking-lot-infested stretch of Wazee may be developed in the near future.

Posted by Ken @ Thursday, November 05, 2009 ~ Permalink ~  4 comments ~ links to this post ~

Here's a press release from the Downtown Denver Partnership with good news!

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Downtown Denver's 14^th Street will soon emerge has a vibrant pedestrian-oriented thoroughfare, thanks to the successful result of the November 3^rd election in which private property owners along the street voted to contribute $4 million to the overall $14 million cost of the streetscaping project through the formation of a general improvement district.

Through this public-private initiative, sidewalks will be expanded, encouraging outdoor seating and ground floor shopping and dining uses that will bolster the experience one has when walking down the street. Key elements include the addition of about 200 trees, as well as new flower planters, better "wayfinding" signage, crosswalk bulb-outs, improved pedestrian lighting, decorative street corner monuments, bike racks and enhanced maintenance. A dedicated bicycle lane will be added in the street and on-street parking will be retained.

14^th Street is becoming known as the "Ambassador Street" due to the diversity of visitor-oriented uses found along this corridor, including the Colorado Convention Center, the Denver Performing Arts Complex, the Hyatt Regency at Colorado Convention Center, and four other new or recently-constructed hotels. Altogether, $1.5 billion in public and private investments have been made along the corridor since 2002. The new streetscaping project will build on these investments to strengthen this new identity. The district covers the entire the 12 block length between Market Street and Colfax Avenue and extends approximately one-half block on either side of 14th Street.

"With the completion of this ambitious plan, 14^th Street will serve as an excellent complement to the 16^th Street Mall," said Tami Door, President & CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership. "Consistent with the vision of the 2007 Downtown Area Plan, 14^th Street will truly be a magnet for pedestrians, which will benefit residents, business owners and the overall community."

The project will cost roughly $14 million, with property owners contributing $4 million, and $10 million coming out of the Better Denver Bond Program, which was created in 2007.

"14^th Street will see improvements on every level, from bike lanes to traffic signals, to sidewalk improvements and other placemaking installations for a truly multi-modal corridor," said Deputy Mayor and Manager of Public Works, Bill Vidal. "The project is unique in that in addition to the Better Denver Bond funds, we have the property owners contributing to the improvements and we are thrilled to see this public private partnership moving forward."

Meeting and consulting with property owners in the District was a four year process, assumed by the City, the Downtown Denver Business Improvement District and the Downtown Denver Partnership. A consultant team including Parsons Brinkerhoff, CRL & Associates and studioINSITE assisted with design and consensus building services. From February 2009 to June 2009, eight two hour workshops were held with interested property owners, other stakeholders, City representatives and representatives from the Downtown Denver Partnership.

"We are glad we could contribute to a greater 'sense of place' along 14^th Street," said Josh Fine of Focus Property Group. "As property owners in the area, we recognized the opportunity we had not only to improve the value of what we own, but the type of experience people have when they're here."

Construction is slated to begin in the summer of 2010 with the goal of completion in the fall of 2011.

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Here is a 3D animation video of the project, modeled and produced by Parsons Brinkerhoff's Project Visualization Group in Denver. Animation team: Brian Peterson (Viz lead), Eric Martens, Leslie Hodgdon (PM), Ryan Sander, Barry Bankhead, Larissa Holderness, and Sara Wedul (AE Intro).

Posted by Ken @ Wednesday, November 04, 2009 ~ Permalink ~  27 comments ~ links to this post ~