Nearly four years after construction began on the 41-story Spire condominium tower in downtown Denver, plans are flying forward to move residents and retail operations into the building starting next month.
The first move will be to bring the sales office — currently housed across the street inside the Colorado Convention Center — into the tower at 14th and Champa streets the first week of March.
“We’re going to have four model suites eventually,” said Chris Crosby, executive vice president of Spire’s Denver-based developer, Nichols Partnership. The two models that are set up inside the Convention Center sales center will be dismantled and moved over next week.
Retailers who have signed leases are Revolution Cleaners and Ninety Plus Coffee, a Denver-based coffee wholesaler and retailer. It will be the first retail store for the “green” company, whose clients include Whole Foods.
“They’re building a cupping room — like a wine-tasting room — where buyers will come in and sample the beans,” Crosby said.
Snarf’s, a local chain of sandwich shops with six locations in the metro area, looks to open in June. Crosby said his company is still looking for a restaurant operator to put into the 8,000-square-foot space that looks out onto the Blue Bear sculpture.
After numerous delays because of financing issues, Spire has obtained its temporary certificate of occupancy from the city, with the permanent certificate expected next month. That is when residents — who have bought roughly 135 of the 496 units — will be able to take possession of their new homes.
The Nichols folks hope sales continue to ramp up so the tower will meet new Federal Housing Administration regulations, which say the building must be 30 percent sold to qualify for FHA loans. FHA loans are attractive because they require the low down payment of 3.5 percent and have looser credit standards.
Rocky road again.
Jeff Kass, who lost his job as a Rocky Mountain News reporter nearly a year ago when the paper folded, is out of work again after he was laid off Friday from Denver Magazine.
Kass, who had been the associate editor for nearly eight months, said magazine owner Michael Ledwitz told Kass the magazine was “having money troubles” and couldn’t afford to keep him on the payroll. Ledwitz, however, said they were “looking for a change.”
Kass, the author of “Columbine: A True Crime Story,” said he is considering writing another book.
“I didn’t start small with Columbine, and I want to stay on a big topic,” he said.
Walls come tumbling down.
I told you last month that the Four Points by Sheraton Denver Southeast at Interstate 25 and East Hampden Avenue would be coming down to make way for a new life as a mixed-use property, which will be named Highpointe at Hampden.
Deconstruction started Sunday and will continue piece by piece using heavy equipment rather than explosives. Alpine Demolition Inc. of Arvada is the prime demolition contractor.
The hotel opened in 1974 as the Denver Marriott Southeast and changed its flag to a Four Points by Sheraton in 2004.
The 11-acre parcel under the hotel is owned by the Denver real-estate developers the Gaiser-White family.
EAVESDROPPING
A man at Marco’s Coal-Fired Pizza:
“I’d rather be panhandled than Greenpeaced.”
Penny Parker’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-630 AM. Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail pparker@denverpost.com.
