Denver Union Station’s owners say one of two real estate teams bidding to redevelop the historic site can finance the project and the other cannot unless it quickly comes up with a new proposal to close a financing “gap.”
Only one team has met the requirement for doing more than $400 million in transit and public space development at the station, Denver economic development chief John Huggins told members of the Union Station Advisory Committee Thursday night.
The owners urged a team led by Cherokee Investment Partners to redo its financial plan if it wants to be considered to redevelop the station.
The Union Station owners’ group could select a winner as early as next week.
The Cherokee group and a rival team led by Continuum Partners/East West Partners have been vying since midsummer for the development prize, which could be worth $1.5 billion after all private construction is completed on the 19-acre site.
The Continuum/East West proposal for light-rail, commuter rail, bus and public-space improvements would cost about $420 million, while the Cherokee group’s plan is pegged at $495 million, Huggins told the advisory committee, which has been monitoring Union Station proposals.
Part of the difference in cost comes from the Cherokee team’s plan to put light-rail trains in a tunnel under 17th Street west of the station – an expensive alternative.
The Continuum/East West proposal would leave light rail at street level about two blocks west of the station.
RTD has about $230 million earmarked for Union Station transit improvements, with nearly all of it coming from the agency’s $4.7 billion FasTracks plan, which area voters approved in 2004. Huggins said Denver, RTD and other Union Station owners decided to come up with their own financing plan for public improvements and then see if each team’s proposal could close the gap between the available $230 million and their full cost.
One of the groups has not offered “enough of its own resources to close the gap,” Huggins said.
Mike Reininger, an official with the Continuum/East West group, said “we believe we have a solution that closes the gap.”
Brad Buchanan, a Denver architect and member of the Cherokee team, said Thursday night that Cherokee executive Ferd Belz would have to answer questions about the group’s plans.
Belz could not be reached for comment.
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-954-1645 or at jleib@denverpost.com.
