Developers who carefully position themselves to climb aboard a massive makeover of Denver’s Union Station even more carefully choose how they describe the dingy rail hub, which hasn’t changed much in more than a century.
“It’s someone else’s piece of property, so I’m not going to say what I think of its condition,” said Tom Gougeon, chief development officer of Denver development firm Continuum Partners.
“It’s not what I see there today that matters; it’s what could be there in the future that has me so excited,” said Bob Wislow, chairman and chief executive of U.S. Equities Realty in Chicago.
The promise of an $800 million redevelopment of the 124-year-old station and the 15 acres surrounding it is expected to attract nearly three dozen development firms from across the nation to a meeting Thursday with local government leaders. Participants in the day-long confab – virtually a who’s who of building titans – will get tours of the station. They’ll also get a look at adjacent parcels pegged for private construction of what is likely to be a dense mix of homes, offices, restaurants and shops.
The visitors’ observations and questions will help shape a formal request to be distributed nationwide next week, asking developers to say how they’re qualified to handle one of the most significant public projects ever tackled in Denver. The Regional Transportation District, which owns the site, and its partners in the area’s reconstruction and ongoing management – the city and county of Denver and Colorado Department of Transportation – are searching for a master developer to oversee the transformation, which is likely to take more than 20 years to complete.
“We all know this is prime real estate, but none of us knows how to do redevelopment,” said Jim Carpenter, a senior policy analyst in Denver’s Office of Economic Development. “Nor do we have the financial resources to put anything in the ground or the resources to ride herd on a project this size for any length of time.”
Firms wanting to compete for the work have a dizzying array of construction to consider – and civic expectations to live up to.
A master plan for the site released last year calls Union Station “one of Denver’s grandest public spaces.”
The plan insists that the site become a regional transportation hub for the 119-mile expansion of Denver’s light-rail and commuter-rail systems, home to about 4,000 jobs and a vibrant center that enhances the city’s downtown neighborhoods.
Think of the flower vendors in Chicago’s Union Station, the restaurants in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal and the private parties booked in Washington, D.C.’s Union Station all rolled into one. Then add rail for passenger and commuter trains; stops for buses, downtown shuttles and limousines; 2,000 parking spaces; taxi stands; bicycle racks and benches to accommodate the thousands of people expected to visit the station daily.
A public parking lot in front of the station on Wynkoop Street is to be transformed into a plaza filled with street vendors, public art and free outdoor concerts.
The site’s master plan also allows for 1.9 million square feet of private development. Some of that could accommodate 300 homes or a hotel with between 120 and 200 rooms.
“This is such a unique opportunity that we don’t expect any one developer to have done all of this before,” said Jason Longsdorf, Denver’s project manager of the station’s redevelopment. “But we will expect whoever is chosen to know how to pull together all of the pieces needed (to meet the plan’s objectives).”
Many of the developers expected to attend Thursday’s meeting are no strangers to colossal projects. For example, Wislow’s U.S. Equities Realty is responsible for the redevelopment of several train stations and the construction of Chicago’s $475 million Millennium Park. The firm has periodically studied Denver’s Union Station for more than two decades, Wislow said.
“And I am looking forward to being back there,” he said.
Staff writer Christine Tatum can be reached at 303-820-1015 or ctatum@denverpost.com.
Union Station history
1870: First train arrives in Denver’s Central Platte Valley on June 21; only four small temporary stations serve passengers
1881: Union Depot and Railroad Co. build the first Union Station for $525,000; it opens June 1
1894: Original Union Station building burns March 18 when a fire ignited in the electrical system of the women’s restroom; it is quickly rebuilt with a lower roofline and a stone clock tower
1906: Denver’s Welcome or Mizpah Arch is built in front of Union Station on 17th Street between Wyn- koop and Wazee streets
1914: Denver Union Terminal Railway Co. tears down the stone clock tower and puts in the building’s existing lower expanded center section
1931: Mizpah Arch is taken down Dec. 7 as a traffic hazard
1957: Last year that Denver Union Station has more travelers than Stapleton Airport (replaced in 1995 by Denver International Airport)
Source: Denver Union Station Master Plan
Big developments
The meeting on Union Station’s proposed redevelopment is expected to draw some of the biggest names in development locally, including:
Ferdinand Betz, Cherokee Denver
Mark Falcone, Continuum Partners
Bill Mosher, Mosher Sullivan
Steve Moyski, Corporex Colorado
Randy Nichols, Nichols Partnership
Chuck Perry, Perry Rose
Jon Ratner, Forest City Development
John Shaw, Opus Northwest
Mark Smith, East West Partners
George Thorn, Mile High Development
Marilee Utter, Citiventures
Charles Woolley, St. Charles Town Co.
Source: City and county of Denver
