Auraria Higher Education Center (AHEC) planners have come up with a vision for how the 126-acre urban campus can be reconfigured to provide more retail for students, smoother connections with downtown and stronger identities for the colleges that share it.
They’re considering working with private developers to bring the plan to life.
The AHEC board already approved the concept, which will be refined by spring.
The conceptual plan identifies two prime locations for commercial development, said Dean Wolf, executive vice president for administration at the campus: the northeast corner of Speer Boulevard and Auraria Parkway and the southwest corner of Speer and Colfax.
“This would be our first foray into public-private partnerships,” he said.
The vision includes relocating Speer Boulevard between Auraria Parkway and Lawrence or Arapahoe to encourage development on the campus’ southwestern edge and extending Larimer Street as a pedestrian walkway from Speer to a new light-rail station that will be built on the west side of the campus.
About 22,000 people a day are expected to make transfers at the station, creating another opportunity to bridge the gap between the campus and downtown.
“There’s now a wonderful opportunity to physically and philosophically link the campus to downtown, so it is part of downtown as opposed to being separated by Speer,” said Dennis Rubba, owner and principal of studioINSITE LLC, which is developing the plan.
Susan Powers, who developed the Campus Village student housing on the western edge of campus, is interested in partnering with Auraria to create a Main Street transit-oriented development along Fifth Street that would include campus-related retail such as coffee shops and dry cleaners.
“It would be lower density – not tall buildings – but both sides of the street would accommodate retail on the first floor with residential or office above,” she said.
Powers’ team is updating its market study for student housing as well as assessing the market for housing faculty and staff.
“Putting housing on the campus is beginning to change (its) culture,” Powers said.
Rubba can see more than just students living on the campus and surrounding area.
“Nationally there’s this emerging market of people who had either spent many years working or teaching on a campus and still want to have that connection,” he said. “Part of the market would be retired faculty, young faculty and married students. There also could be lifestyle living for people who are retired, looking for an urban lifestyle and wanting to be part of a campus.”
The plan also calls for establishing identities for each of the three institutions that share the campus.
“For so long, it was the Auraria Higher Education Center, but if you asked any student where they go to school, it would be Metropolitan State College or University of Colorado,” Rubba said. “For the first time, there’s this notion that these institutions need to have a stronger identity and celebration of who they are without losing what makes Auraria special, which is the shared classroom space.”
Staff writer Margaret Jackson can be reached at 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com.
