New residential high-rises, unseen in Denver for many years, are popping up in increasing numbers in the central city.
Several projects are now under construction and others are on the drawing board that developers attribute to growing demand–particularly from Baby Boomers and empty-nesters seeking maintenance-free housing–and renewed interest in the city’s core (See John Handley’s report, “Urban revival,” in the Tribune’s Nov. 1 Real Estate section).
“With the growth of Denver, we really are capable of supporting a fairly large amount of development in town,” said Bob Chase, a broker associate with Coldwell Banker Moore & Co. in Cherry Creek neighborhood. “It’s now a lot more acceptable to live in and around Downtown.”
Three projects that meet city planners’ criteria as “high-rises”–at least 75 feet, or roughly seven stories, tall–are planned or under construction near the city’s center.
A 16-story, 76-unit condominium tower is being built by Penn Development LLC. Condos in the $25 million building will go on sale after construction is complete, Penn Manager Brian Pesch said, a unique strategy that shows both the developer’s confidence in the market as well as its deep pockets. Pesch wouldn’t reveal the price range for the condos, but said penthouse units would probably cost more than $2 million.
The 16-story, 72-unit Belvedere Tower in the Golden Triangle neighborhood also is under construction. When complete in February 2000, the $25 million, 140,000-square-foot building will include ground-floor retail and four penthouses. Condos in the building, developed by BCN Development, will range from $179,000 for a one-bedroom to $1 million for a penthouse.
No. 25 Downing–a $20 million, two-tower project of 12 and six stories, is planned to begin coming out of the ground in February. Steve Owen, who developed the posh One Polo Creek in Cherry Creek with partner Don Betts, also is behind No. 25 Downing. But ownership in the 80-unit project will be considerably less expensive, with one-bedroom units starting at $179,000 and two-bedrooms at $354,000.
Other high-rise proposals are in the works. Developer Bruce Berger’s long-term plan in the Golden Triangle south of Downtown includes several high-rises between eight and 14 stories that could host as many as 400 rental units. But more condo high-rises may be on the way, as well.
“There are definitely a couple more people hunting through the neighborhood to do high-rise, mostly for-sale product,” said Seth Berger, principal and vice president of Bruce Berger Realty. “I think the demand down here is still very strong.”
Also in the Golden Triangle, developer Larry Fullerton is building the 8-story, 24-unit Trieste lofts.
But until Penn Development started construction on its project in December 1997, “we really had not had one built in almost 15 years,” said Jerry Thompson, a broker at Coldwell Banker Moore Commercial in Englewood, Colo.
Thompson, who recently sold the No. 25 Downing site to Owen, said he listed that property in 1992 and had no luck: “We had five very legitimate contracts, but people looked at it and felt it wasn’t quite time yet. It seems right now to be good timing.”
For its part, the city of Denver welcomes high-density residential development in the city’s core. City Planning Director Jennifer Moulton said mass-transit systems, which the city would like to see more of, succeed in densely populated areas.
And the Downtown Denver Partnership, a coalition of Downtown property owners, also favors residential growth near the center, which officials say hasn’t captured its share of new housing starts.
Presently, there are about 1,300 rental high-rise units in Downtown and Lower Downtown, and 1,200 condominium units, according to the partnership.
As part of a thriving housing market, high-rises were popular in the early 1980s before Denver’s overbuilt real estate market collapsed. They didn’t rebound until recently because of the enormous costs involved, particularly the rising cost of land.
But now developers find it is again popular to live in the inner city.
“It really ends up being lifestyle,” said Pesch of Penn Development, whose nearly complete building can easily be spotted south of Speer Boulevard. “We are on the edge of a residential neighborhood, we’re equidistant between Downtown and Cherry Creek. So you get all the advantages of being in an urban setting as well as a quiet neighborhood.”
The demand has pushed prices high enough to justify the costs of high-rise construction.
