16 Market Square Denver, Colorado
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16 Market Square Denver, Colorado Project Type: Mixed-Use/Multi-Use Case No: C034010 Year: 2004 SUMMARY The 388,010-square-foot (36,047-square-meter) mixed-use project known as 16 Market Square is located between a 1980s urban renewal district and the revitalized Lower Downtown (LoDo) area. The building contains three levels of underground parking; 183,860 square feet (17,080 square meters) of Class AA office space on five floors; 23,498 square feet (2,183 square meters) of neighborhood shops and services; and 23 penthouse condominiums on the top two stories. It is the largest mixed-use commercial construction project in LoDo in the past 15 years. The developer, Continuum Partners, chose to build its first project on vacant parcels near a public transportation hub and within walking distance of major public venues such as Coors Field and the Pepsi Center. Continuum Partners, which owns 16 Market Square, provided its own equity during the financing and sees the project as a long-term investment. An unusual but effective leasing strategy allowed the office tenants to design interiors to their specifications. The building’s sympathetic facade and a significant emphasis on high-quality streetscape design combine to create a pleasant pedestrian experience. FEATURES Infill project in historic area Transit-oriented development Commercial tenants and condominium buyers were able to tailor space to their needs Developer owned 16 Market Square Denver, Colorado Project Type: Mixed Use/Multiuse Volume 34 Number 10 April–June 2004 Case Number: C034010 PROJECT TYPE The 388,010-square-foot (36,047-square-meter) mixed-use project known as 16 Market Square is located between a 1980s urban renewal district and the revitalized Lower Downtown (LoDo) area. The building contains three levels of underground parking; 183,860 square feet (17,080 square meters) of Class AA office space on five floors; 23,498 square feet (2,183 square meters) of neighborhood shops and services; and 23 penthouse condominiums on the top two stories. It is the largest mixed-use commercial construction project in LoDo in the past 15 years. The developer, Continuum Partners, chose to build its first project on vacant parcels near a public transportation hub and within walking distance of major public venues such as Coors Field and the Pepsi Center. Continuum Partners, which owns 16 Market Square, provided its own equity during the financing and sees the project as a long-term investment. An unusual but effective leasing strategy allowed the office tenants to design interiors to their specifications. The building’s sympathetic facade and a significant emphasis on high-quality streetscape design combine to create a pleasant pedestrian experience. SPECIAL FEATURES Infill project in historic area Transit-oriented development Commercial tenants and condominium buyers were able to tailor space to their needs Developer owned PROJECT ADDRESS 1400 16th Street Denver, Colorado 80202 OWNER/DEVELOPER Continuum Partners, LLC 1430 Wynkoop Street, Suite 100 Denver, Colorado 80202 303-573-0050 Fax: 303-573-0011 www.continuumpartners.com ARCHITECTS Hartman Cox Architects 1074 Thomas Jefferson Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20007 202-333-6446 Fax: 202-333-3802 www.hartmancox.com QPK Design 450 South Salina Street Syracuse, New York 13201 315-472-7806 Fax: 315-472-7800 www.qpkdesign.com David Owen Tryba Architects 620 Logan Street Denver, Colorado 80203 303-831-4010 Fax: 303-894-5363 www.dota.com STRUCTURAL ENGINEER John P. Stopen Engineering 50 South Salina Street Suite 401/P.O. Box 29 Syracuse, New York 13201-0029 315-472-5238 Fax: 315-472-8430 CONTRACTOR Turner Construction 1873 South Bellaire Street, Suite 1200 Denver, Colorado 80222 303-753-9600 Fax: 303-753-9700 www.turnerconstruction.com GENERAL DESCRIPTION The first new office space built in downtown Denver in a decade, 16 Market Square also is the first major mixed-use office building outside of the central business district (CBD). Located at a major transportation node, the site abuts the 16th Street Mall, Market Street Station, and major access highways. In consideration of the historic area, the developer preserved an alley that now bisects the building; it also had to work within height limitations. The project contains 23,498 square feet (2,183 square meters) of retail space, 183,850 feet (17,080 square meters) of office space, and 46,000 square feet (4,273 square meters) of residential space in 23 units. All of the residential units were sold before construction began, and each has a large private outdoor patio with panoramic views of the Rocky Mountains and downtown Denver. The facade pays tribute to the historic area but is not a strict re-creation of period architecture. SITE DESCRIPTION The area now known as LoDo, which was settled by General William Lattimer in 1858, is the birthplace of the city of Denver. It began as a small cluster of buildings set up to support gold mining along the South Platte River. After a major fire in 1863, the city mandated that structures be built out of fireproof materials, a requirement that gave LoDo its signature orange-red brick look. The establishment of nearby railroad yards allowed the area to evolve into a bustling commercial warehouse district. In 1893, however, the repeal of the Sherman Silver Act drastically slowed government demand for silver and, in turn, slowed Denver’s economy. Construction in LoDo virtually halted and, after World War II, the area devolved into a skid row. During the mid-1970s, preservationists fought to save the area from the bulldozer and established the Larimer Square historic district. From that success, the neighboring LoDo district was established in 1988. LoDo has become home to a hip mix of eclectic shops, coffeehouses, boutique hotels, and restaurants. It is close to the Cherry Creek bike path, the 16th Street Mall (a bus- and pedestrian-only shopping district), Coors Field, and the Pepsi Arena. The district’s housing options range from million-dollar lofts to market-rate apartments. LoDo’s designation as a historic district has allowed much of the district’s historic architecture to be preserved. This designation includes height limitations and strict design guidelines for new construction and rehabilitation. Once a hodgepodge of parking lots and vacant land, the 16 Market Square site is located between 15th and 16th streets and Blake and Market streets. Lying at the center of a multimodal transportation hub, it is accessible via bus service that runs along the 16th Street Mall, close to train service at Union Station, and located between major highways that carry commuters to and from the surrounding suburbs. Half of all buses entering Denver drop passengers off at the nearby Market Street station, and half of all automobile traffic passing through Denver travels by the site along Market and Blake streets. It is a short distance from Denver’s CBD, which underwent a major redevelopment during the 1980s. Large glass office towers were erected, while most of the older buildings were vacated or demolished. Denver’s economic upturn during the early 1990s refocused attention on older areas of the downtown, and businesses began relocating in historic structures. DEVELOPMENT PROCESS Continuum Partners’s mission is to “accelerate the development of human habitats built according to the best practices of community design and ecological sustainability.” The company seeks to build smart growth projects and hold them as long-term assets. Partners Will Fleissig and Mark Falcone, who established the firm in 1997, wanted their first project to be a sustainable, mixed-use project. They felt that a high-end mix of uses was a desirable and highly marketable concept for the site, which was in a prime location and of sufficient size to allow the project to work. They acquired the site in 1998 from three separate property owners and, over a six-month period, worked closely with the community’s design review board, city agencies, the transit authority, and the transit mall management group to plan the largest new commercial building ever built in the historic district. The project was designed in concert with the Regional Transit District (RTD), the Downtown Denver Partnership’s (DDP) Mall Management District, and the Lower Downtown District, Inc. (a neighborhood property owner association). The RTD provided funding to reconfigure the transit station side of the mall, and the DDP upgraded the sidewalk materials for 16 Market Square to establish a new standard for the mall. The project required the design approval of the Lower Downtown Design Advisory Board. Because of the cooperative efforts of these groups, and the City of Denver Planning Office, approval was achieved in only five months. This expedited approval process allowed Continuum Partners to meet the timing requirements of its lead office tenants and maximize the rents during a strong market cycle. Fleissig is a former Denver planning director, and his familiarity with the processes allowed for smoother permitting. The building is in a part of Denver recently zoned B-7, which permits complex mixed-use projects. FINANCING Continuum Partners sees 16 Market Square as a long-term investment—the company plans to hold the property for 20 to 30 years—that could achieve the highest long-term revenue at a building cost that will retain value over time. The firm is the sole owner of the property and provided its own equity during startup. This strategy gave the developer more control over the project and the ability to overcome some of the financing obstacles typically faced by mixed-use projects. The project has proved extremely successful—in its first year of operation, 16 Market Square achieved a 27 percent return on equity. Wells Fargo provided the construction loan. DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION Ground was broken in fall 1999 and construction was completed in March 2001.