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.

Contact us to stay updated on the triangle

The post Activity in the Riverfront Park Triangle appeared first on Denver Urban Living.

Riverfront Park’s History:  An Empty Rail Yard to a Master Planned Community

Many people don’t realize that Riverfront Park, which has consistently been number one in our most popular neighborhoods, has a great deal of design and vision based upon the fundamentals of a Colorado Ski Resort.

The Developer, East West Partners, who originally purchased the approximately 20 acres of land that would eventually become Riverfront Park began with roots and experience developing resort real estate communities such as Beaver Creek, Bachelor Gulch, Arrowhead, Vail, Park City, and Northstar at Tahoe.   If you have ever skied Beaver Creek you know just how special this ski village is.  The village offers great open spaces to enjoy (ice skating rink, fire pits, creekside paths) and the surrounding buildings are designed to make you feel like you have entered a European village.  Don’t forget about the fresh baked cookies that Vail Resorts friendly employees pass out to ski visitors.  It’s pretty amazing.  Two things are very evident when you are at Beaver Creek.  The village is beautiful, clean, and safe.

So how did a Resort Real Estate Developer become the visionary for Riverfront Park.  The vision started before any developers got involved.  If you look waaaaaaay back at the urban planning documents for the area you see they included a lot of the elements of a park, public space, and mixed use.  Under Denver’s mayor Webb a deal was created with then landholder Trillium to provide the area called “The Commons” and would eventually become Common’s Park” to the city in exchange for the city implementing needed infrastructure for development.  For those who remember this area at the time there was little except vacant rail lines and dirt.   Mayor Wellington Webb was quoted as saying “I wanted parks to be my legacy, and I saw parks as a value-driven investment—an investment that would enhance surrounding areas.”

It was an investment to be sure.  Decades of the land being used as a rail yard meant investing remediating the brownfield railroad land that had accumulated coal dust.  Looking at Riverfront Park now it is hard to imagine what this land once looked like.

In 1997, the city government and the County of Denver Planning and Development Office, and Trillium Corporation and Design Workshop, released a comprehensive urban design plan that included the various design elements of the neighborhood (architecture, signage, parking, pedestrian flow, set backs, lighting, etc.) and the major public amenities including the  set aside for the more than 20 acres for the centerpiece park and integration of the Cherry Creek Bike Path.  It was a brilliant plan and design for everything we see today.

And that may be why East West Partners leapt at the chance to buy the land with partner Crescent Real Estate for  a reported $25 per square foot. and develop here.   Which is exactly what happened next.

Building a Heart of Riverfront Park

The first area of development focus was the Plaza in Riverfront Park in what I like to think was a great example of building the heart of a community.   A beautiful Architectural design became a reality as the Millennium Bridge and open Plaza Public Space took shape.  Around this plaza, three initial buildings were built (2002) as Riverfront Park welcomed The Promenade Lofts, the Park Place Lofts, and Riverfront Tower.  These three buildings remain some of the most popular addresses to call home in Denver, and a balcony facing the plaza or Commons Park is a coveted amenity.

At roughly the same time these initial buildings were coming to market land was being sold to Apartment Developers to build what is currently the Station and the Manhattan and commercial tenants were sought to fill those first floor spaces in the Plaza.  When you visit a ski village it’s nice to have great places to eat, drink, and shop outside your front door.  This lesson was not lost on the Riverfront Park project as we slowly saw INK Coffee, Zengo Restaurant, McLoughlins Pub and other enjoyable tenants were recruited to continue making Riverfront Park an amazing place to live.

The Master HOA Provides Beauty and Security

One of the great amenities within Riverfront Park has nothing to do with architecture.  It is all about place making, perhaps taken from the principles of Beauty, Cleanliness, and Security that are fundamentals of a Ski Village.  Riverfront Park implemented a Master HOA, meaning that every resident of the entire neighborhood is a member.  This Master HOA is funded by payments from residents, meaning in addition to your building HOA fees you have a smaller fee that gets added on.

This fee does something pretty amazing.  It is used to employ a team that works throughout the neighborhood keeping everything beautiful.  They plant, maintain and seasonally change out the various landscaping features and planters in the neighborhood.  They put up holiday lights and other aesthetic elements.

And perhaps of the most value, these funds employ off duty police officers to provide security and assistance in the neighborhood.  When people talk about reasons they love living in Denver’s Riverfront Park the story almost always includes the peace of mind they have on their morning run, walking their dog in the park, venturing out with tickets for a Rockies, Broncos, Nuggets or Avalanche game (all walking distance) or returning from a night of dining in LoHi or LoDo.  It is pretty amazing.

Off duty police officers offer a very unique advantage.  They can enforce the laws.  If someone is misbehaving, or causing a disturbance, Denver’s finest can quickly resolve the situation and their presence in the neighborhood has a value unique anywhere in our city.

Let’s face it, you can’t get a whole bunch of buildings, let alone the residents within, to agree on the same thing very easily.  Duplicating this benefit anywhere other than in a master planned community such as Riverfront Park would be tough.

There are so many reasons why Riverfront Park is an amazing place to call home.  It has, without question, the benefit of one of the most amazing locations in Denver adjacent to the new Union Station with awesome transportation access.  Riverfront Park enjoys being our Central Park neighborhood with acres of green space and trails to enjoy.  And of course residents constantly share their love of the accessibility to great restaurants in LoHi, LoDo, West Highlands and more.

To learn more about living in this amazing neighborhood contact us today.

Helpful Links in your Search

• Riverfront Park Listings
• Union Station Listings
• Highland / LoHi Listings
• West Highland Listings
• Riverfront Park Buildings
  • Creekside Flats
  • Creekside Lofts
  • Creekside Townhomes
  • Glass House
  • Monarch Mills
  • ONE Riverfront
  • Park at ONE Rivefront
  • Park Place Lofts
  • Promenade Lofts
  • Riverfront Tower
  • The Art House
  • The Art House Townhomes
  • The Brownstones
  • The Delgany

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The post How Riverfront Park’s Master Planned Approach Creates an Urban Advantage appeared first on Denver Urban Living.