With thousands of visitors pouring out of the new Colorado Convention Center and wandering down 14th Street to Larimer Square, spiffing up the somewhat seedy thoroughfare has taken on new urgency.
Civic leaders are asking public and private sources for the money to turn it into something the city can be proud of, a lively, pedestrian- friendly corridor they like to think of as its “cultural spine.”
After six months of study sponsored by the Downtown Denver Partnership Inc. and Downtown Denver Business Improvement District, among others, the price tag for transforming 14th Street was determined to be between $6 million and $10 million.
Civic leaders consider it money that would be well spent to support public and private investments of nearly $1.7 billion.
Since 2001, $881 million has been poured into public projects along 14th Street, including the convention center, the Wellington Webb Office Building and the Ellie Caulkins Opera House at the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Another $90.5 million has been spent to add a wing to the Denver Art Museum, just across Civic Center park.
Private developers have joined the party, committing $786 million to projects on the street along which Denver’s first fancy residences were built in the 1800s, including Gov. John Evans’ house.
Other downtown streets have found their identity in past years – 17th as Denver’s financial heart and 16th as its retail core. Civic boosters think 14th’s time has come as it prepares to host students, homeowners, hotel guests, conventioneers and patrons of the arts.
Planners envision a corridor that would complement the 16th Street Mall, rather than compete with it, said John Desmond, vice president of urban planning and environment for the Downtown Denver Partnership. Meanwhile, 15th Street would remain dedicated to transportation, with planners focusing on bringing activity to cross streets such as Arapahoe and Curtis.
“We have to strengthen the named streets and celebrate the corners,” said Desmond. “They are the connection to 16th, and corners are the identity and gathering spots.”
Other plans include:
- Adding brighter lighting and public art to heighten the sense of celebration.
- Widening sidewalks to at least 21 feet to make room for sidewalk cafes.
- Creating a multimodal traffic lane that can serve cars, shuttles or bikes.
- Tying into the Civic Center revitalization and helping connect the art museum with the rest of downtown.
With the addition of 720 hotel rooms, 845 residences and 439 student beds scheduled by 2010 and many of the projects about to get underway, now is the time to improve the street, said Peter Park, the city’s planning director. “It’s difficult to implement it incrementally.”
Denver developer Randy Nichols plans to break ground in September on Spire, a 41-story condo project near the convention center. “We’ve got some time,” he said.
“We don’t need to do landscape work, sidewalks and curbs and gutters for a year and a half. That work doesn’t get done until the building is complete.”
Desmond expects to receive a formal proposal from studioInsite this month and begin testing the concept on prototype blocks.
But funding sources must be identified before any of the work can start. Improving the streetscape will benefit everyone invested in the area, so all will be asked to help shoulder the cost.
Says Park of the city’s role: “It’s an important project, but it’s one of many. We certainly have a lot of other competing interests.”
Desmond’s group is willing to start fundraising conversations.
“It will be some combination of public and private funding, but we haven’t established a formula on who’s going to pay for what,” he said.
While some developers applaud the effort to improve the street, others are concerned that the city won’t share the financial burden.
“I support anything that beautifies the city, but when they don’t have the money, they turn to the property owners,” said Buzz Geller, who plans to develop a 31-story condominium tower at 14th and Larimer streets.
Another concern Geller has is that the city will push developers to design their buildings to comply with the plans for the streetscape. “It shouldn’t be the streetscape driving the design of the building,” he said.
Plans call for 14th Street to lose one lane of on-street parking, but developers such as Nichols aren’t too concerned.
“We will have parking for all our residents and people who are guests,” he said.
Staff writer Margaret Jackson can be reached at 303-820-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com.
