It’s official. The Continuum/East West Partners team has been
selected to enter into exclusive negotiations for the purchase of
Union Station and the 19.5 acres of development land.

Wiki Entry at Denver Union Station - New Proposal

Here is the official article

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Union Station developer chosen
The Denver Business Journal - 12:32 PM MST Wednesday
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The successful bidder emerged Wednesday for the redevelopment of Denver’s Union Station.

A team headed by East West Partners and Continuum Partners was chosen as the master developer of the project, which involves adding office, retail and residential space to the lower downtown train station and the surrounding 19.5-acre site.

The two companies have created a partnership called Union Station Neighborhood Co. LLC.

The decision was made by the Denver Union Station Executive Committee, a partnership made up of the City and County of Denver, the Denver Regional Council of Governments and the Colorado Department of Transportation and Regional Transportation District.

The project has so many players because the idea is to make Union Station the hub of RTD’s FasTracks transit system, which will involve light rail, commuter rail and the city’s bus system.

Union Station Neighborhood said it could have the project done by 2011 at a cost of about $300 million, or $75 million less than the competing proposal offered by Union Station Partners LLC, led by Cherokee Investment Partners and including Hensel Phelps Construction and Beyer Blinder Belle LLP.

“With opportunity comes responsibility,” Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said at a press conference Wednesday morning to announce the decision. “We’re going to hold them to the highest standard and make this the greatest infill project in the United States.”

Union Station Neighborhood’s proposal was more modest than what Union Station Partners offered, which emphasized dramatic additions to the surrounding skyline, including high-rise residential and hotel structures and a bold, two-block-long, curving roof line as a backdrop for the historic Union Station terminal.

Union Station Neighborhood’s plan calls for the construction of two 23-story buildings to the west of Union Station that will contain office space and residential units. The project will add 950,000 square feet of office space, 300,000 square feet of retail space and 950,000 square feet of residential space, along with another 1,980 parking spaces.

They also recommend keeping light rail lines above ground, reducing the financial cost of having to build underground facilities for all three transit modes: light rail, heavy commuter rail and buses.

The main facets of the project would be finished by 2011.

Union Station Neighborhood said its team includes transportation engineering company DMJM Harris; contractor Kiewit; architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; the law firm of Kaplan, Kirsch & Rockwell; construction-management companies PACO Group Inc. and Civil Technology Inc.; DRG Construction; and Ronald A. Straka Urban Design.

The FasTracks program is a 12-year, $4.7 billion effort that’s expected to wrap up in 2017. The project will create six new commuter rail and light-rail lines, extend three existing lines, expand bus service and add 21,000 parking spaces.

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Union Station team falls short
One of the two bidders has a financing “gap,” the site’s owners say. The Cherokee group has been urged to redo its financial plan.
By Jeffrey Leib
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated:11/10/2006 10:02:34 AM MST

Denver Union Station’s owners say one of two real estate teams bidding to redevelop the historic site can finance the project and the other cannot unless it quickly comes up with a new proposal to close a financing “gap.”

Only one team has met the requirement for doing more than $400 million in transit and public space development at the station, Denver economic development chief John Huggins told members of the Union Station Advisory Committee Thursday night.
The owners urged a team led by Cherokee Investment Partners to redo its financial plan if it wants to be considered to redevelop the station.

The Union Station owners’ group could select a winner as early as next week.
The Cherokee group and a rival team led by Continuum Partners/East West Partners have been vying since midsummer for the development prize, which could be worth $1.5 billion after all private construction is completed on the 19-acre site.
The Continuum/East West proposal for light-rail, commuter rail, bus and public-space improvements would cost about $420 million, while the Cherokee group’s plan is pegged at $495 million, Huggins told the advisory committee, which has been monitoring Union Station proposals.

Part of the difference in cost comes from the Cherokee team’s plan to put light-rail trains in a tunnel under 17th Street west of the station - an expensive alternative.
The Continuum/East West proposal would leave light rail at street level about two blocks west of the station.

RTD has about $230 million earmarked for Union Station transit improvements, with nearly all of it coming from the agency’s $4.7 billion FasTracks plan, which area voters approved in 2004. Huggins said Denver, RTD and other Union Station owners decided to come up with their own financing plan for public improvements and then see if each team’s proposal could close the gap between the available $230 million and their full cost.

One of the groups has not offered “enough of its own resources to close the gap,” Huggins said.

Mike Reininger, an official with the Continuum/East West group, said “we believe we have a solution that closes the gap.”

Brad Buchanan, a Denver architect and member of the Cherokee team, said Thursday night that Cherokee executive Ferd Belz would have to answer questions about the group’s plans.

Belz could not be reached for comment.

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Trammell Crow announces new project
© Trammell Crow Co.

Artist’s rendering of the 335,00-square-foot 1900 Sixteenth Street building. It will include about 1,200 parking spaces, as well as 10,000 square feet of ground floor retail.

November 8, 2006
Trammell Crow Co. on Wednesday unveiled details of a $100 million, 18-story office building near the Millennium Bridge in the Lower Downtown, Central Platte Valley area.
The 335,00-square-foot 1900 Sixteenth Street building is being developed on behalf of its owner, Multi-Employer Property Trust, said Bill Mosher, area director of for Trammell Crow Co.’s Development and Investment Group.

The building will include about 1,200 parking spaces, as well as 10,000 square feet of ground floor retail.

Parking currently provided on the site to the adjacent Gates Plaza building will be included in the project. The master plan for the 3.3-acre block at 16th and Delgany streets includes a 250,000-square-foot office tower, for a total of 585,000 square feet on the property. The property is across from the Denver Union Station, where a $1 billion redevelopment is planned; the world headquarters for Gates Corp., and the future Museum of Contempary Art.

This is one of three major office projects in the area, which will have a total cost of more than $300 million , bringing almost a million square feet of new office space to the area.

The other two developments are by Opus Northwest and Hines.

Mosher said that there is room for all three.

“I think the occupancy rate is high and the vacancy rate is low,” said Mosher, who is separately working on one of the two teams that is competing for the Denver Union Station redevelopment.

“There is no question there is the demand for a more first-class office space in that area,” Mosher said. “I think what is distinctive about 1900 Sixteenth Street is that it will be a 250-foot high building. It will be more of an office tower than some of the other buildings. You can’t really do too many 250-foot towers in the historic Lower Downtown district. It’s also right across from Denver Union Station, where there will be a new light rail line and new bus facility It will be well-positioned to benefit from the development proposed at Union Station.”

Building construction will begin in mid-2007 with completion in late 2008. Office rates will be in the mid $20 per square foot. Trammell Crow brokers David Hart and Chris Phenicie will lease the building.

David Tryba of David Owen Tryba Architects is designing this Class AA office project, which will be certified by the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

The building will be designed with exceptionally efficient floors and will incorporate building systems that will ensure energy efficiency in heating, cooling and lighting systems. Mosher said.

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Rumor is that a train to the mountains might actually have life again over the next few years. RTD and the TREX Project are not only on schedule, they report to be under budget. Denver is building one of the most talked about and well planned transportation networks in the country. Whether it is heavy rail, light rail or our bus system you are going to be able to shoot from the heart of Denver at Union Station to DIA, to Boulder, or in any direction across the city. We have years left for the full build out, but the most recent announcement is that the T-Rex South East light rail will be opening on November 17th.

Now to tie this all together with the Mountains.

T-Rex is looking to be a success, and people are getting more used to train travel and to leaving their cars in the garage (I LOVE that part). Count me as one of those people, I would much rather sit back with cup of coffee, read the paper or blog, talk with a neighbor, and ride a train to my destination than to get in my auto and fight bumper to bumper traffic. Call me one of the true believers.

So now that folks are learning the benefits of rail travel in the city, the question is coming up of how to get that same benefit when heading to the mountains. Everyone who has taken a weekend warrior trip knows that this voyage by car is getting worse every year. Congested, snail like movements in crowded traffic during unpredictable and dangerous weather week after week might just be converting some of those white knuckle drivers to consider other options again. I say again because the proposal for a rail system to the mountains has been voted down in the past.

But today is different! Rail is working! Gas prices are still going up with no long term end in sight. Perhaps this financial reason will make the difference, although any environmental benefit should be the strongest arguement. Lets build the rail system all the way to Grand Junction.

And that is what is rumored to be the conversation. Once folks are done wrapping up T-Rex that might just be the next focus. YEAH!!

Just picture this… Its a cold and stormy night, the kind where the roads are filled with accidents left and right and traffic isn’t just slow, its stopped. The dazzle of flakes in front of windshields is playing out like an asteroid field and visibility is only about one foot into the storm. People are just crossing Vail pass, thinking that their final destination might still be 5 or 6 hours away, if the roads aren’t closed. Gripping the steering wheel in terror everyone in the car quickly loses their ski day endorphins and stress sets in.

OR…

Sitting comfortably in their cozy train seat, sipping on a warm cup of coffee everyone chats about the adventures of the day looking outside as a huge storm creates a show of white against the windows. It’s freezing cold outside, but the inside cabin is warm and relaxing. Muscles are stretched, folks fall asleep against their seat cushions knowing that the train is safely making its way down the mountain side. Jokes, snacks, and toasts are exchanged from the confort of the train cabin while mother nature buries the roads in fluffy snow for tomorrows skiers. Some read books, others play cards, some are just laughing. What a way to travel and THAT ROCKS!!

So if we get a chance at a train system again to the mountains, lets make it happen. Long term, short term, the environment, our lives and the quality of it are all positively impacted. Just my opinion, feel free to share yours. And I concede that I am a skier, so I will use the train and go to the mountains. That holds true in every season. How to spread a tax that some use more than others, the same way it happens with everything else. Sometimes doing the right thing is simply the right answer.

Some Great Links on the subject

Reduce automobile dependence
Transportation Alternatives

Don’t forget to vote for your own brain on this one! Vote Here

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