Developer Buzz Geller is moving ahead next month with his purchase of a parcel near Larimer Square – even though he doesn’t have the zoning and boundary changes for a controversial plan to put up a 31-story condominium building on the site.
“It’s a big leap of faith for me,” Geller said. “But I think we’re working well with the city and the landmark commission.”
Geller’s development proposal was part of a land swap in which Mayor John Hickenlooper’s administration gave up prime land near 14th Street and Speer Boulevard in exchange for property it needed for the justice complex.
Geller has been waiting for a zoning change to be approved by the City Council so he can build the condominiums, but a vote on the issue won’t come until early December. That’s at least three weeks past Geller’s closing date with the city.
Additionally, Geller is returning to the Landmark Preservation Commission to seek a boundary change that would put his property out of the historic district and make way for the tower. The nine-member commission rejected a proposal last month to redraw part of the Lower Downtown Historic District to make way for the tower.
Geller’s new suggestion would move the boundary from Speer Boulevard to the middle of Cherry Creek, he said. That would preserve Bell Park in the historic district but allow the tower to be constructed on the south side of the property where there is only a parking lot.
Elizabeth Schlosser, a landmark commission member, said she wasn’t sure whether the commission would take up the new boundary matter at its next meeting Tuesday or wait until later. The agenda for Tuesday’s meeting does not include Geller’s proposal.
The rezoning goes before the council’s Blueprint Denver committee Oct. 26. If it passes through the committee, which oversees the city’s long-range transportation and land-use plan, a public hearing would take place around the first week in December.
Jeanne Robb, chairwoman of the committee, said she would use the rezoning meeting to discuss what long-term plans the city has in mind for developing Speer Boulevard from West Colfax Avenue to Federal Boulevard. The downtown master plan, set in 1985, needs to be updated. Most of the Speer Boulevard area was not included.
“I’m hearing from a lot of LoDo residents about what the future might look like,” Robb said. “I’d like to see what ideas the planning department has.”
Although the city could have taken Geller’s property near City Hall by eminent domain, Hickenlooper struck a deal with Geller to buy the lots. In return, Hickenlooper sold Geller two lots of downtown property for $60 a square foot near Cherry Creek.
The mayor, in the contract, also promised to support Geller’s plan to rezone the area residential. In an e-mail Geller sent Deputy Chief of Staff Sarah Kendall Hughes in June, he asked, “Could you please do what is necessary to put this rezoning on the fast track?”
Staff writer Karen Crummy can be reached at 303-820-1594 or kcrummy@denverpost.com.
