What’s up with the First Avenue Hotel on Broadway? Vacant since 2013 when El Diablo restaurant moved out, this fine old lady, built between 1907 and 1909 by the incredibly prolific Fleming brothers, sold last year for $6.55 million. The developer, Zocalo Community Development, is planning 106 studio and 1-bedroom “micro” apartments at very low rents, with retail and restaurant spaces at street level, allowing Zocalo to take advantage of tax credits for its historic designation and affordable housing. Construction should start in early October, according to Madeline Grauey, Zocalo’s Business and Marketing coordinator. Site development plans are currently under review.
“The apartments—studios and one-bedrooms—[will] average 350 square feet,” said Zocalo’s principal, David Zucker, speaking to BusinessDen in April, saying rent would cost between $850-$900 per month.
The 1st Avenue Hotel is “a good local example of Neo-Classicism,” according to History Colorado. In his book, The Spirits of South Broadway, Phil Goodstein, tells us that the 11,000 square-foot street level once housed a Walgreen’s that made its own ice cream in the 30s and 40s, but by 1970, it was a transient flop house with rooms costing $3.18 a night. On May 12 of that year, police accidentally shot Gilbert Franco in a case of mistaken identity, and had to fork over a $175,000 settlement, the first of many in the following years. The building has been entirely empty since El Diablo moved out in 2013.
Who needed those 90-some parking spaces anyway? You may have noticed that a big section on the east end of the Safeway parking lot at 1250 E. Evans Ave. is now enclosed in a big blue fence. The plan is to build a Safeway gas station, projected to open in December, with three double-sided pumps and a one-story building architecturally similar to the Safeway building. “This gas station project did go through multiple meetings with Rosedale/Harvard Gulch RNOs and two public hearings prior to City Council rezoning it in 2013,” says Andrea Burns of Community Planning and Development. ”Safeway was present at the meetings and presented the proposed gas station.” Permits for fuel tanks, plumbing, etc. are still under review.
Next door, Jim Archibald of Morgan’s Liquor is cautiously optimistic. “I think it will be good for us in the long run,” he said in a recent interview, while two yellow backhoes were ripping up trees and tarmac. “Though I’m not thrilled with the construction.” He thinks the gas station will generate more folks dropping in for a bottle of wine or other liquid refreshment, but the sale of cigarettes will suffer because the kiosk behind the pumps will stock them. To be fair, the trees will be replaced.
The University of Denver-area and its seemingly endless building craze continues with two projects at South York Street and East Iliff Avenue. Construction at the entrance to the Iliff School of Theology is costing about $800,000 for new landscaping and a parking lot, due to be completed by early October. Cliff Richardson of Iliff Communications says the new landscaping will sport a bubbling rock water feature surrounded by benches, trees and about 90 new parking spaces.
When you read this, construction should be underway at Birdcall II, 1535 E. Evans Ave., on the former site of Twisters Burritos and Sandwiches. Watch for the opening in mid-November, according to Peter Newlin, who is also a partner in Park Burger. The menu features all locally produced chicken, bread, beef, coffee, tea and even spices, along with beer, wine and perhaps signature cocktails. Birdcall I is at 800 E. 26th Ave. in Five Points.
The ever-developing Cherry Creek shopping area is stretching up First Avenue and has now reached the defunct strip mall containing the old Gigantic Cleaners on the corner of First Avenue and Cook Street. Its assessed “actual value” was $22,218 in 2017, but that’s clearly extremely low. The rendering shows a proposed five-story “Class A” UC Health Medical Pavilion with 234 parking spaces underneath. UC Health plans primary, specialized, outpatient, advanced and cancer care, and a state-of-the-art imaging center. The site plan is still under review, so the fencing and trashed-out parking lot will be hanging around for a while.
The former Performance Cycles building at 1990 S. Broadway, on the corner of East Asbury Avenue, is being renovated to house the Fellowship Denver Church, at the moment a guest in the Seventh Day Adventist church around the corner at 2005 S. Lincoln St. The huge 24,804 square foot, half-block, blond brick building sold a year ago for a cool $5 million—almost 10 times what it last sold for in 1994. Local historians probably remember when it was Skateland Roller Rink in the 1950s.
Alameda Crossing, aka Alta SoBo Station, is getting another five-story apartment building at 500 W. Cedar Ave. This one, on 2.24 acres between South Elati Street and the light rail tracks, will have 187 apartments and parking for 227 cars and 96 bikes. The site, which until 2014 had been part of the Atlantis Community Foundation, sold last January for $725,696.
The University of Denver-area and its seemingly endless building craze continues with two projects at South York Street and East Iliff Avenue. Construction at the entrance to the Iliff School of Theology is costing about $800,000 for new landscaping and a parking lot, due to be completed by early October. Cliff Richardson of Iliff Communications says the new landscaping will sport a bubbling rock water feature surrounded by benches, trees and about 90 new parking spaces.
A second project in the immediate area at South York Street has resulted in that street’s closure from the Newman Center down to East Wesley Avenue. A DU employee says it’s easier to make way for a new exit from the Newman Center parking garage onto York Street rather than South University Boulevard. York will become one-way to the north, encouraging drivers to take advantage of the light at Iliff to make turns onto South University.
After a long wait, construction has finally begun on the vacant lot at 1200 S. Gilpin St. across from Washington Park, which sold in 2014 for $1.9 million. Local gossip held that the new house would have a swimming pool on the roof. “Oh, I wish there were a swimming pool, but there isn’t—on the roof or otherwise,” said Stephen Stone of Character Builders Colorado, the design/build firm for the mansion. It will be a single family home in contemporary style with four bedrooms, and five baths. Character Builders also built the home at 1066 S. Franklin St.
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