As RTD plans to build a $200 million commuter rail maintenance operation near downtown Denver, it can do so in a way compatible with nearby development or it can ride roughshod over efforts to revitalize the area, say those who live and work nearby.
Denver planning officials have been promoting residential, office and commercial development in the Brighton Boulevard and South Platte River industrial corridors northeast of Coors Field, and some private interests, notably Zeppelin Development Co., have led the way in converting old industrial properties to new mixed uses.
“We took a $20 million risk and said, ‘Let’s change what’s happening here,’ ” Mickey Zeppelin said.
His company developed the former Yellow Cab site near 31st Street and Ringsby Court, just west of the South Platte River, into Taxi, a project that includes condominiums and office space filled especially with architectural and design firms.
“This was the last great frontier” for urban redevelopment near downtown Denver, Zeppelin said. “It has that grittiness that stirs creativity.”
His company was poised to start on its third phase of development when the Regional Transportation District announced early this year that it planned to construct the commuter rail maintenance operation on land RTD owns next to the Taxi project as well as adjacent property owned by Zeppelin Development and other private landowners.
Area in transition
RTD currently stores and repairs buses on its property.
The new facility will maintain and house about 108 commuter rail cars that will operate on train lines serving Arvada/Wheat Ridge; Boulder/Longmont; north Adams County; and Denver International Airport from Union Station. All are to be built as part of RTD’s FasTracks project.
The transit agency settled on this site after efforts to buy land from the Union Pacific Railroad for the maintenance facility collapsed.
Some of the owners and businesses at Taxi fear that RTD’s rail maintenance center, if not well integrated with existing uses, will stall momentum for developing the Brighton Boulevard and River North corridors.
“Converting these areas that are rough around the edges needs help and support,” said Kyle Zeppelin, Mickey’s son and a principal in the firm.
Economic development and planning officials from Denver should help ensure that RTD’s train maintenance operation is built in a way that is compatible with Taxi and other emerging mixed-use projects, Kyle Zeppelin said.
City to mesh plans
That’s the role that Denver is taking, said Steve Gordon, manager of comprehensive planning for the city’s department of Community Planning and Development.
Denver will couple its existing plans for River North and the Brighton Boulevard corridor with a general development plan for the RTD maintenance site and surrounding properties to guide a successful integration of the rail maintenance facility, Gordon said.
The possibility of land swaps between RTD and Taxi as part of the siting of the maintenance operation could mean that Zeppelin Development ends up with more property along the Platte River than it has now, Gordon said.
“We see the opportunity for a positive outcome.”
RTD is eager to work with the Zeppelins, Denver officials and the Greenway Foundation and other entities promoting riverfront preservation and sustainable development, said Nadine Lee, RTD’s engineering project manager for the rail maintenance facility.
RTD plans to select a team of private companies to build the rail maintenance center, along with Gold Line train to Arvada/Wheat Ridge and the east corridor train to DIA, in a deal valued at about $1.9 billion.
As part of RTD’s contract with the private partnership, it can write in requirements for design compatibility with surrounding properties, Lee said.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
