Denver’s skyline reached rarely visited heights in 2018 when the 40-story 1144 Fifteenth office tower opened in March. Peaking at 603 feet, it is now the city’s fifth tallest building, assuming you count the spire atop the neighboring Four Seasons tower.
The city flirted with a new vertical frontier, too, but the land deal around a proposed 81-story building fell apart last February. At a projected 1,000 feet, that building would have been far and away Denver’s tallest, blowing by current champion, 714-foot Republic Plaza.
There’s nothing quite of that scale on Denver’s 2019 docket but a 30-story building is under construction now in the heart of downtown. A handful more buildings of that stature or greater are in the city’s planning pipeline. In a town with just 16 towers that crack the 30-story threshold today, these projects — should they all be built as planned — stand to make some visible marks on the urban horizon.
Here a look at the towers that could change Denver’s skyline:
Block 162, 675 15th St.
The 30-story Block 162 office building has been in the works since at least early 2016. That’s when Houston-based developer the Patrinely Group announced it was partnering with the property’s owner, local real estate mogul Evan Makovsky, to bring new life to a stagnant patch of prime downtown land that was once home to the storied 15th Street Tavern but more recently hosted a community garden and a sea of parking spots.
Crews broke ground on Block 162 in June. Foundation work is complete and things are set to get vertical this year on the 452-foot tower that will take up the entire north side of 15th between Welton and California streets. When it’s done — likely around the end of 2020 — Block 162 will be Denver’s 11th tallest building, according to the skyscraper trackers at Emporis.com, supplanting the shiny TIAA-branded tower at 1670 Broadway.
Patrinely vice president David Haltom said that within the next few weeks people will start to see the skeleton of the tower going up floor by floor.
“There is a lot going on in Denver and the bar is being raised in the market by the quality of new development,” Haltom said in a recent interview with The Denver Post. “We believe Block 162 is going to be front and center in the discussion of the highest quality projects in Denver.”
Patrinely isn’t new to Denver. It previously built a corporate campus in the Lone Tree area and collaborated on a trio of multifamily housing developments around the metro area. But with Block 162, it is going big. The tower will feature 20 floors of premium office space atop 10 floors of above-ground parking. There are no tenants committed yet. Fellow Houston firm Hines built its 1144 Fifteenth tower on a speculative basis, too, and it signed up companies including Gates Corp. and Optiv before the ribbon was cut.
“We believe we are in a position of advantage because there are increasingly few blocks of contiguous square footage in downtown Denver, and those that do exist are being gobbled up by new and expanding tenants,” said Haltom, referencing VF Corp.’s announcement last year it planned to take over a low-rise on Wewatta Street.
Block 162 will seek to lure office users with its proximity to light rail lines, a columnless design that will provide 360-degree views and plentiful natural light on every office level and a “sky terrace” on the 11th floor featuring an outdoor lounge with fireplaces and an “activity lawn” where gym users can take their workouts outside. The ground floor will have a large lobby facing 15th Street and three retail spaces.
Patrinely is working with architecture firms Gensler and StuidoInsite on the project. Swinerton Builders is the general contractor and Cushman & Wakefield brokers Doug Wulf and Todd Wheeler have been tapped to handle leasing.
Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post
Construction is ongoing Feb. 5, 2019, on the site of a future high-rise building on Block 162 in Downtown Denver.
Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post
Workers continue Feb. 5, 2019, on the site of a future high-rise building on Block 162 in Downtown Denver.
Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post
Activity continues at the site of a future 30-story building Feb. 5, 2019, on the site of a future high-rise building on Block 162 in Downtown Denver.
Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post
Construction is ongoing Feb. 5, 2019, on the site of a future high-rise building on Block 162 in Downtown Denver.
Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post
Work continues Feb. 5, 2019, on the site of a future high-rise building on Block 162 in Downtown Denver.
Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post
Construction is ongoing Feb. 5, 2019, on the site of a future high-rise building on Block 162 in Downtown Denver.
Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post
Workers continue Feb. 5, 2019, on the site of a future high-rise building on Block 162 in Downtown Denver.
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Bell Park residential tower, 1394 Market St.
An angular chunk of property along Cherry Creek that was home to Denver’s first city hall will next be occupied by a 36-story residential tower if the team behind this project has its way.
Bell Park — really a pair of triangular parking lots bounded by Speer Boulevard, 14th, Larimer and Market streets and bisected by Cherry Creek — for the last 18 years has belonged to Buzz Geller, the owner of Paradise Land Co. and a well-known face in Denver real estate.
Pre-Great Recession, Geller and partners had planned to build a luxury high-rise containing full-floor, $10 million condos on the triangle closest to Speer. By the time the project got necessary approvals, however, the economy had collapsed and the plans were scrapped.
The new project appears aimed at a broader client base. According to concept plans project partner Kairoi Residential submitted to the city in December, the 36-story tower would contain 169 apartments or condos, along with 255 underground parking spaces, a pool and a variety of amenities. The plans indicate the building would be 408 feet tall, good for a tie for the 16th tallest building in Denver, according to Emporis.
Kairoi representatives didn’t reply to a request for comment, but Geller is enthusiastic about the project.
“This is meant to be a gateway building,” Geller said of the tower. “I think it’s a good fit.”
In addition to the property that will host the tower, which Kairoi is under contract to buy once approvals are secured, the other lot — the one occupied by Denver’s city hall until 1936 and marked with a bell that once hung in that building — is slated for a five-story office building to be owned by Geller and occupied in part by his company. The office building will leave room for a park along Larimer Street.
Geller knows that real estate plans remain iffy until the buildings are built. He owns the parking lot at 17th and California streets where New York City developer Greenwich Realty Capital had planned to build an 81-story tower. After paying monthly deposits for two years to keep the property under contract, Greenwich’s financing fell apart last year, Geller said. Despite one of the architectural partners on the project recently telling the Washington Post the tower was “still a go,” Geller said he hasn’t heard from anyone involved with the proposal since Greenwich failed to close on the purchase.
The two Bell Park buildings had their first hearing before the Lower Downtown Design Review Board on Feb. 7, and while the Chicago-based architects at Valerio Dewalt Train Associates cooked up some intriguing renderings — presenting a large, glass tower with a distinctive indent near the middle — Geller emphasized the designs remain subject to change.
“Everything at this point is conceptual and it absolutely will be different,” he said.
Geller, touting endorsements for the project from the Downtown Denver Partnership and the LoDo District board of directors, is optimistic work will be underway by the end of this year.
“The goal is to get this thing built as soon as possible,” he said.
Block 176, 1917 Broadway
Moving from the southwest reaches of downtown to the northeast side, there is another potentially skyline-altering project — in this case, a pair of condo towers sitting atop a shared parking pedestal — also under city review now.
The project is thus far known as Block 176 and would top out at 38 stories and 400 feet on a parcel that touches Broadway, 18th Street and Glenarm Place. The plans, submitted in November by the property owner, Canadian development firm Amacon, call for 477 condos and 530 parking spaces in what would be Denver’s 18th tallest building.
There is an existing building on that patch of downtown turf. Lauded watering hole Shelby’s Bar & Grill has occupied the more-than-century-old building at 519 18th St. since 1991.“]
On Wednesday, the Shelby’s team took to the bar’s Facebook page to say its time is not yet up and invited customers to come in and say hello.
Amacon did not return requests for comment. The city’s online permitting center shows there has been no movement on Block 176 since conceptual project plans were submitted in the fall.
Two Tabor, 1200 17th St.
Put on Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” because this one is a throwback to 1984.
The One Tabor Center tower was always supposed to have a sister building, but the oil crash in the 1980s put the kibosh on the project before anything could be built on the still-visible base at the corner of 17th and Larimer streets. In the years since, new plans for the second tower have bubbled up from time to time, but the corner is still a nub.
In March of last year, Denver’s Davis Partnership Architects submitted new concept plans for a second Tabor building on behalf of Chicago-based property owner Callahan Capital Partners. The submittal, which coincided with the rollout of a new project website, twotabor.com, called for a 33-story, 800,000-square-foot office building reaching a height of roughly 494 feet. If constructed as planned, the building would place ninth on the city’s tallest list, according to Emporis.
Renderings in the concept plan portray a sleek building sheathed in blue-tinted glass. A sharp corner faces the street while a curved side is oriented toward the interior of the block, mirroring the One Tabor Center tower. Three ground floor retailer spaces are in the mix but no new parking. All the building ought to need was built along with the first tower in the 80s.
People affiliated with the latest Two Tabor effort last submitted documents to the city in May, online records show. Callahan Capital Partners was acquired by Canadian real estate firm Ivanhoe Cambridge in September. The two companies were already strategic partners when it came to owning and managing office real estate including Tabor Center, according to a news release, so it’s hard to say what effect if any the deal had on plans for Two Tabor.
Todd Hartman, the asset manager listed on the Two Tabor website, did not return requests for comment.
The River Mile
This 58-acre expanse of asphalt and amusement park rides wedged between Speer Boulevard and Interstate 25 promises to transform Denver as it is redeveloped over the next few decades.
And not just because it will eventually bump Elitch Gardens Theme and Water Park off of its spot near the Pepsi Center. High-level plans for the River Mile call for the creation of a new urban neighborhood, complete with 8,000 residential units, office space, schools, grocery stores and more along the eastern banks of the South Platte River.
Property owner/developer Revesco Properties hasn’t publicly released plans for any specific buildings yet, but the company won rezoning approvals from the City Council in December that clear the way for buildings as tall as 59 stories. If a tower of that scope is built, it would become Denver’s tallest by three floors, beating out the 56-story Republic Plaza at 370 17th St.
What does it all mean?
There is perhaps no one outside of the city’s planning office who has kept a closer eye on the Denver skyline over the last 15 years than Ken Schroeppel. The University of Colorado Denver urban and regional planning professor founded the website DenverInfill.com in 2005, and he’s been providing regular updates on construction projects large and small in Denver’s urban core ever since.
When it comes to the 30-story-plus buildings on deck — or at least tentatively on deck — now, Schroeppel believes Block 162 has the best odds to stand out. It’s a matter of geography.
“In downtown, if you look at the skyline there is kind of hole. It’s roughly along the 15th Street corridor, between Arapahoe on the one end and Welton on the other,” he said. “Block 162 is being built in that hole. Kind of filling in a gap, you might say.”
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He’s encouraged by what large-scale condo projects such as Block 176 say about the future of downtown. After years of building apartments — with plenty more coming — perhaps the next phase of downtown residential construction will focus on the for-sale market.
Such a pivot will hinge on how comfortable developers (and their insurers) feel with efforts made to limit the ability of homeowners’ associations in Colorado to sue builders over possible construction defects in condo projects. Both the General Assembly and Colorado Supreme Court in 2017 took steps to make it harder for HOAs to sue builders. Legislators hoped their measure would spur more construction after concerns over the legal liability attached to condos projects scared many developers out of the market.
“We’ve had so little condominium development downtown in the last 10 years or more,” Schroeppel said. “It’s a wide-open market that is pretty untapped at this point.”
When it comes to impact, Schroeppel believes the projects being built in Denver now that have the greatest potential to change the way people experience downtown may not be those reaching for the sky. He pointed to the Market Street Station redevelopment and Rockies West Lot project as examples. Between them, the tallest building being built will be 13 stories high, but with outdoor plazas, ample space for restaurants, bars, shops and other attractions such as the Rockies team hall of fame, those projects could draw foot traffic morning, noon and night. Schroeppel calls them “nodes of activity” — key features in a thriving downtown.
“That just really elevates the entire Lower Downtown area in terms of its appeal and walkability and as a destination,” Schroeppel said. “Tall buildings do not a great city make.”
