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New life for industrial area
For Immediate Release On: 11/19/2008
For Further Information, Please Contact:
John Rebchook - Rocky Mountain News at rebchookj@RockyMountainNews.com
Relevant Info on the Web: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/nov/19/new-life-for-industrial-area/
Developers gather landowners to talk about the future
Property owners and developers are in the early stages of transforming 90 acres of warehouses, parking lots and junkyards minutes from downtown into what is anticipated to be a multibillion-dollar transit-oriented development.
Eighty of the 100 landowners in the area will have a private meeting today in one of the giant warehouses scattered in the industrial region in the River North area along the Platte River to discuss how the neighborhood can be transformed into the mixed-use plan.
The 32.7-acre Denargo Market, where Jack Kerouac once roamed, already has been cleared of all but one warehouse.
A development team in the coming weeks will be digging a hole for the $65 million luxury and super-green Beleza condo project.
FasTracks is expected to bring a light-rail station to the edge of River North, creating the potential for a transit-oriented development that would rival or exceed in size the development planned around Union Station.
In addition to Austin, Texas- based Cypress, the land developer that owns Denargo, owners in River North include well- known developers such as Dana Crawford and Evan Makovsky.
"River North is obviously a great opportunity for the expansion of downtown and using the (South Platte) river as a focal point," Crawford said. She and her son, Jack, own 1.82 acres that have been rezoned as RMU-30. They received a height waiver to construct a 95-foot-tall building on their property, which they likely will sell.
These city-approved development plans are required by Denver for large, typically phased developments. The plans provide a framework for future development and infrastructure systems of roads, drainage, parks and open space.
Virtually all the current buildings, ranging from the Giambrocco Food Service warehouse to junkyards, are expected to be razed eventually. Preliminary plans call for closing Arkins Court, which runs parallel to the Platte River, allowing a park to extend from developments like Beleza to the river. In addition, several two-acre water retention ponds would be created that would serve as lakes with features such as fountains.
"We call it downtown suburban," said Curt LeRossignol, co- owner of River North Properties, developer of the proposed 12-story, 66-unit Beleza. He said it is minutes from downtown and the bike path along the South Platte River, but without the noise and congestion of LoDo.
Neil Boucher, a River North Properties partner, said the focus now is bringing the neighborhood together with the General Development Plan."
"Curt and Neil have been out talking to the vast majority of the property owners," said lawyer Dianne Miller, who represents River North Properties, whose principals also are limited partners with Cypress on the Denargo Market.
"They think if they bring a larger neighborhood community vision to the city, it will have a lot more impact," she said.
LeRossignol said the area is not that much different from the Central Platte Valley before East West Partners bought the land and transformed it into Riverfront Park.
"Ten years ago, this was a no-man's land," he said. "And it is still a no-man's land to a large extent. But change is coming."
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