Real Estate Blog

An effort to bring a 150,000-square-foot entertainment and dining complex to Glendale — a plan that has been repeatedly sidetracked in recent years — this month took its most significant step forward when city leaders approved a development agreement with a Texas company.

Glendale City Council approved the agreement with Lincoln Property Co. on Feb. 6, a deal that could eventually result in 9 1/2 acres of city-owned land along the banks of Cherry Creek being transferred to the Dallas-based company as the project, dubbed Glendale 180, gets built out.

The development, which calls for a hotel and 25 bars and restaurants where adults could walk around carrying to-go alcoholic beverages, has been beset by multiple delays in recent years.

A financing agreement between Glendale and Lincoln will have to be negotiated, likely sometime this spring, before any shovels hit the ground, but deputy city manager Chuck Line said this is the furthest along the $175 million project has gotten to date…

By Michele Lerner, The Washington Post

Will I or won’t I? An essential concern shared by prospective home buyers who need to finance their purchase is whether they will qualify for a mortgage for the amount and terms they require.

Pushback against overly tight credit after the housing crisis, a shrunken proportion of first-time buyers and worry about affordability as home values rose led to some tweaks to guidelines that could ease financing pressures for home buyers this year.

“We are seeing thoughtful underwriting of loans and a greater understanding that younger first-time buyers are in a growth phase of their careers,” said John Pataky, executive vice president of the consumer division of EverBank in Jacksonville, Fla. “The approach is measured and guided, so we know that people becoming homeowners have the wherewithal to repay the loan as their income and career grow.”

Among the main changes to mortgage loans in the past year or two are the availability of low down-payment loa..

DURANGO — A nonprofit political advocacy group has withdrawn its campaign against a Colorado county’s proposed land-use codes.

The Durango Herald reports Americans for Prosperity Deputy State Director Tamra Farah says the group would pull back its campaign against La Plata County after announcing last month it would take an active role to influence the county’s proposed land-use codes, which the group says are harmful to farmers and ranchers and infringe on individual property rights.

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The politically conservative advocacy group launched a series of digital ads asking people to sign a petition against the land-use codes.

But when La Plata County staff members and commissioners announced last month they would put the land-use codes on hold to address serious concerns raised by residents, Americans for Prosperity decided to end its local efforts.

Information from: Durango Herald

Jeff Hermanson was a co-developer on Denver’s Union Station. He understands the landscape-altering power of real estate redevelopment. Now, the Larimer Square owner is working to bring changes to his own historic block that would transform it via new and taller buildings, workforce housing and rooftop gardens.

“I have been constantly thinking, ‘What’s its next step? What does the block look like in 50 years?'” Hermanson, the CEO of Larimer Associates, said Wednesday. “And that gives rise to an opportunity.”

Specifically, Hermanson and his development partners at Denver’s Urban Villages Inc. are proposing two new buildings along Larimer between 14th and 15th streets. As outlined this week, those structures would utilize space on the block’s existing alleyways, behind the many historic buildings lining Larimer, adding density and bringing new uses to the commercial district, which dates back to the 1860s, while respecting its historic character.

Urban Villages chief development o..

Metro Denver’s chronic shortage of existing homes for sale will push more buyers towards new home communities this year. But those buyers won’t find much relief from tight supply and rising prices.

“We expect we will see Denver builders experience a significant uptick in traffic that shows up at their sales office. So few options are available on the resale side,” John Covert, senior regional director for Colorado and New Mexico with Metrostudy, said in a market update Wednesday.

Metro Denver, with a population of 2.8 million, had fewer than 4,000 homes listed for sale at the end of December or January. The average price of a home sold in January topped $490,932, while the median price was $416,000, according to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.

The average price of a new home sold last year in metro Denver was $560,000. New homes are priced mostly in the $450,000 to $700,000 range, with the under $300,000 pretty much extinct and the under $350,000 getting there, Covert said..

Metro Denver’s runaway population growth and rising home prices are putting the squeeze on local airports, which are warning that roads and neighborhoods creeping ever closer to runways and under flight paths could threaten the safety and quality of life for those on the ground and in the air.

This intensifying push-and-pull is playing out this week in Lone Tree, which has heard concerns from the Federal Aviation Administration about plans to effectively double the size of the city by placing up to 12,000 homes on 2,200 acres just south of Centennial Airport.

At the center of the FAA’s concerns about the RidgeGate development is the prospect of thousands of new residents and up to 9 million square feet of commercial space going up in an area that sits directly under the path of around 500 corporate jets and smaller planes taking off and landing every day from the south side of the airport.

In a letter the agency sent to the city on Feb. 6, it urged it to “not approve the development..

The Denver City Council approved a long-debated affordable housing strategy plan Tuesday, but lingering disagreements over its details will influence budget debates in coming years.

Setting its sights on the next five years, the plan — called “Housing an Inclusive Denver” — expands on existing approaches and lays out potential new strategies to spend a new $150 million local housing fund that will be raised over the course of a decade via property taxes and development impact fees. That money is on top of longstanding, but dwindling, streams from federal programs and other sources that, combined with the fund, will provide a total of $31.3 million this year.

But key decisions will be made through annual housing action plans, which the council doesn’t approve but can influence, and the city budget, which faces final council approval. Those will give council members outlets to apply pressure if they disagree with Mayor Michael Hancock’s administration on the proper programs to fund.

T..

Colorado’s House of Representatives is gearing up for a dog fight as it tackles a bill to prohibit community associations from banning dogs based on their size or breed.

“People with big dogs are having a hard time finding a place to live,” said Rep. Paul Rosenthal, D-Denver/Arapahoe, explaining why he drafted the legislation, scheduled for a floor debate Wednesday.

The bill summary, only two sentences long, “invalidates any covenant that prohibits the keeping of certain types of dogs based solely on a breed, weight, or size classification.”

Community rules on nuisance barking, the disposal of waste and the number of dogs allowed per household would remain valid. Municipal rules barring vicious breeds, primarily pit bulls, aren’t impacted.

Rosenthal said he ran into a problem with housing several years back when his brother went on military deployment and he had to watch his dog, a Samoyed and Golden Retriever mix.

He ran into the issue again when a fellow teacher at his school br..