Golden – Residents and officials of this city of 17,000 perhaps can be forgiven for celebrating a building demolition with coffee, doughnuts and balloons.
For nearly 30 years, the Hested’s department store building at Washington Avenue and 13th Street has been vacant – leaving a noticeable hole in Golden’s historic downtown.
The walls will begin tumbling down with a celebration at 9 a.m. Saturday, making way for a mixed-use project called Gateway Station that is scheduled for completion in late 2007.
“This has been a long time coming,” Mayor Chuck Baroch said. “We had lots of public input on it so it blends in with downtown.”
The Hested’s development is part of a downtown building boom, from condos along Clear Creek to new office space.
“This has been one of the thorniest thorns for redeveloping downtown Golden,” Mark Heller, executive director of the Golden Urban Renewal Authority, said of the Hested’s project.
“In-fill redevelopment is always harder. It’s on a prominent corner, the purchase price was always quite high, and there are environmental challenges from when it was a dry- cleaners,” Heller said.
The city, GURA, Golden Civic Foundation and historical groups worked more than a year on the Hested’s deal.
Gateway Station will feature parking, street-level retail and a restaurant, residential and office condos and penthouses.
Bricks from Hested’s, built in 1957 and the chain’s largest store until it closed in 1977, will be sold for $5 each beginning Saturday. Proceeds from the bricks will be given to the Golden Landmarks Association, which will use the money to preserve sites that have more architectural significance that Hested’s.
Also kicking up dust downtown is the Clear Creek Square redevelopment project that began with the office building and public parking structure at 13th and Jackson streets in 2001.
People began moving this week into the first Millstone condos along Clear Creek between Washington Avenue and Jackson Street.
The former Mitchell Elementary School site eventually will feature three Millstone buildings with 78 total units.
Work on the Jackson Court project between the outdoor patio at the Buffalo Rose and the parking garage began in March, and the nine-member Dauer Haswell architectural firm will move from Denver’s LoDo in two weeks.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
