DENVER–During a recent panel discussion of Denver's movers and shakers at RealShare Greater Denver, investment trends, what's in the pipeline and plans going forward were hot topics. Moderator Kevin McCabe, executive vice president and regional managing director of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, led the discussion with Tamara Door, president and CEO, Downtown Denver Partnership; Jon Gambrill, managing director, principal, Gensler; and Jay Lambiotte, chief financial officer, East West Partners.
With the completion of Denver's Union Station redevelopment, LoDo's brand new transit hub is a further impetus for major projects in multifamily, office and retail. Record-breaking leasing and rental rates from recently delivered product are driving additional construction activity. Downtown Denver is reshaping itself to meet the modern live-work-play demand, and with zoning-imposed height restrictions limiting tenant's ability to expand in LoDo, adjacent downtown submarkets will benefit. Arapahoe Square is in line as the next big project: a dense, mixed-use development with small office, multifamily and integrated amenities.
Lambiotte pointed out that the catalyst for the Union Station was FasTracks being passed in metro Denver. The multi-billion-dollar public transportation expansion plan is now under construction and on pace for an early 2016 debut, with the DIA line the first to open. Moreover, affordable housing and office projects are also underway but one crucial component of the redevelopment must be high-end retail, Lambiotte added.
Door said the region has the largest concentration of baby boomers and needed to also attract millennials, “and they came,” she said. “To go with those younger active lifestyles will be 500 miles of bicycle lanes.”
Gambrill illustrated the trend toward migrating downtown with its mixed-use, amenity-rich environment. Driven by millennials, the concept of live-work-play is edging toward a mixed use concept within one building rather than standalone buildings housing one with retail, one with housing and one with office.
He said, “These environments create buzz among millennials, and help in recruiting and retention.”
Lambiotte cautioned in the development craze that Denver must “keep a sense of who we are. There is a Colorado brand associated with the connection to the outdoors and the corresponding environment within, but some of this must happen organically.”
Gambrill echoed this, saying, “There is a regional contextualism, the qualities unique to Denver's lifestyle, where we work to live, not live to work. Another consideration is keeping older product relevant so our design sensibilities speak to history.”
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Lisa Brown
Lisa Brown is an editor for the south and west regions of GlobeSt.com. She has 25-plus years of real estate experience, with a regional PR role at Grubb & Ellis and a national communications position at MMI. Brown also spent 10 years as executive director at NAIOP San Francisco Bay Area chapter, where she led the organization to achieving its first national award honors and recognition on Capitol Hill. She has written extensively on commercial real estate topics and edited numerous pieces on the subject.
