Trump's team, which includes the local Barry Group and the New York City-based Bayrock Group LLC, is going for the maximum height. Trump earlier this month announced he was continuing to pursue a building in Denver, after his bid for the $1 billion redevelopment of the Denver Union Station site was rejected. Trump's team made a last-minute decision to enter the bidding for Union Station and about 20 acres around it, and only submitted six paragraphs to a request for qualifications. The oversight committee on the station deemed the proposal inadequate.
But Trump's team didn't give up on Denver. "We think Denver is a fantastic and beautiful city, with very significant growth ahead of it," Felix Satter of Bayrock tells GlobeSt.com in an e-mail sent from Moscow. "We chose the El Jebel site because of its fantastic location."
John Huggins, Denver's economic development director, agrees. "Realistically, a bigger building will never be built in that area," Huggins tells GlobeSt.com. "And it sits up on the shelf, so you will always have these dynamite views."
David Owen Tryba, the Denver architect who is designing the building for the Trump/Bayrock team, tells GlobeSt.com that the location is a hidden gem and much better than many skeptics may think. "It is less than two blocks from the Brown Palace," Tryba tells GlobeSt.com. "And from a business standpoint, the location is terrific because the greatest concentration of office space is at that end of Downtown. Right now, you basically only have the Brown Palace and the Adam's Mark hotel serving that part of Downtown."
It contrasts the planned Four Seasons, which like the proposed Trump tower, would have a mixture of upscale condos and hotel rooms. The Four Seasons is planned at the other side of Denver, on 14th and Arapahoe streets. "The Four Seasons is more oriented toward the entertainment part of town, with all of the sports venues, the performing arts center and its proximity to lower Downtown," Tryba says. "This is closer to the financial district and it also has a growing cultural arts center with what is going on with the nearby Denver Art Museum," which is undergoing a massive expansion.
John Montgomery, president of Horwath Horizon Hospitality Consulting/Montgomery & Associates, also thinks that the site is a winner. "I really think it could be a homerun," Montgomery tells GlobeSt.com. "Two years ago, if you asked me about that location I would have said that it is at the edge of the CBD. Now, with so much interest in new residential developments in that area, I would just tell you it's Downtown."
However, the partnership that owns El Jebel still needs to work out an internal problem before it can sell the property to the Trump group. According to document obtained by GlobeSt.com, the partnership needs 75% of the owners to agree to a sale. However, the largest single owner, Trent Cole, who owns 33.3%, so far refuses to sell. Martin Wohnlich, a co-owner of El Jebel, says the Trump deal will not only be good for the ownership group, but is the best deal for the city, especially since the development agreement calls for the renovation of El Jebel, which would be incorporated into the hotel.
Satter tells GlobeSt.com that is the ownership group is unable to deliver the site, the Trump group will continue to search for a triple-A site in Denver. Sources tell GlobeSt.com that Trump's development will reach 60 stories, but the exact number of hotel rooms and condos has yet to be decided.
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