Riverfront Park’s Undeveloped Park Front Real Estate
Most everyone knows the triangle piece of land in Riverfront Park just in front of the Glass House. This piece of real estate has been closed off for years awaiting news of development plans to offer new condos and homes. There are many reasons for all the buzz. After all, Riverfront Park is one of the hottest, if not THE hottest, neighborhoods in all of Denver. This triangle piece of prime real estate has been watched so closely by home shoppers because it occupies a huge section along Little Raven Street looking out to the Commons Park.
If you are familiar with how rare it is to find a home directly on Wash Park, or Sloan’s Lake, you get the idea.
Well in case you didn’t notice, behind those wooden fences there has been quite a bit of activity this week. Trucks and drilling machines have been going around this little spot of land digging into the ground.
Are they taking soil samples? Is it just a routine service call? Could this be the first step in planning out a new Development in Riverfront Park.
If so, it is the first brand new residential project in Riverfront Park since ONE Riverfront and The Park at ONE Riverfront were offered going back all the way to 2007.
And that could get a lot of people excited. Unfortunately it is our guess that what was once thought to for sale residential will likely be for rent residential. With the current market conditions and the boom of apartment construction it seems more likely to see another apartment development on this site, and most likely in the back corner where the height zoning is the highest.
The zoning and height restrictions for this parcel don’t lend themselves to something that might be a tower such as Glass House, but instead some lower or Mid Range Buildings. Usually the zoning along Little Raven by the park is much lower. This is why you see the ONE Riverfront Townhomes and The Brownstones facing Commons Park.
So it is reasonable to expect that we might see a lineup of new Townhomes or Rowhomes lining Commons Park.
As you move away from the park the zoning usually allows for some more mid range buildings. This could allow for a small tower like structure.
Which, if you wanted an example, is exactly what happened in the design of the ONE Riverfront Tower. Townhomes line the street and a higher structure goes behind it.
Either way it is too early to know for sure what is being planned until the developer makes an announcement, but make sure to contact someone on our Denver Urban team to stay updated. Plans to develop this parcel years ago were going fast following the success of Glass House. Then everything came to an abrupt halt when market conditions changed and prices weren’t as attractive to creating new condos.
Prices sure have bounced back. Maybe that is the carrot needed to spark something new on the triangle.
