Getting your player ready...
The decade that kicked off in 2000 brought huge changes to the U.S., the world and Denver.
There were the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2011, ongoing wars and turmoil in the Middle East, and the first nationwide housing collapse since the Great Depression. Denver, in particular, was hit by the financial crisis earlier than most areas, losing tens of thousands of high-paying jobs in the tech wreck following the dot.com bust. Denver was confronted by record foreclosures, at a time when many other parts of the country were in the midst of a housing bubble.
Yet, when Lauren Douglas, Director of Research at the Newmark Knight Frank Frederick Ross put the Denver economy from 2000 to 2009 under the microscope, she found it was not all doom and gloom. Earlier today, the oldest commercial real estate company in Denver, released a White Paper by Douglas called “Denver’s Dynamic Decade.” it was released as part of the company’s Mile High Market Trends Forum, held on the 17th floor of its headquarters at 1800 Larimer .
Kevin McCabe, executive vice president of the brokerage and commercial real estate management firm, said the purpose of the forum was to be forward-looking, but it also is important to look where we have come from.
“It’s been called the “lost decade,” but if you look at the numbers from 2000 to 2009, we had an 89,000 net gain in employment in the Denver area – which may not be as much as we would like to see, but it is still a net gain – and we have identified more than $12.8 billion in public and private projects,” he said.
Following is a look at some of the report’s highlights.
Infrastructure projects include:
RTD’s $6.5 billion FasTracks that will deliver 122 miles of new commuter and light rail to the metro area.
T-TEX, the five-year, $1.7 billion light rail projected, completed ahead of schedule in 2008.
The ongoing development around Denver Union Station.
Public projects:
The 2001 completion of Invesco Field at Mile High.
The 1.5 million-square-foot expansion of the Colorado Convention Center completed in 2004, as well as the adjacent Hyatt Regnecy hotel.
The Frederic C. Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum, designed by world-famous architect Daniel Libeskind.
Commercial Real Estate:
More than 13.5 million square feet of new office space was delivered between 2000 and 2009, with more than 60 percent of it in 2000 and 2001.
A modest resurgence in speculative development in 2007 and 2008, adding 1.6 million square feet of new office space in downtown Denver, most of it LEED-certified.
In 2009, DaVita announced it is moving its corporate headquarters to downtown Denver and is currently constructing its 270,000-square-foot, $101 million headquarters in the Central Platte Valley.
Several aging, obsolete regional malls, including “dinosaur malls” such as Cinderalla City in Englewood, Villa Italia in Lakewood and Southglenn Mall in Littleton, were reborn as mixed-use developments.
Eleven Whole Foods Markets, eight Sunflower Markets and five Sprouts Farmer Markets opened in the Denver area.
Denver’s Ritz Carlton opened and the Four Seasons broke ground in 2007, filling Denver’s void for luxury hotels.
Renewable Energy:
In 2008, Conoco Phillips purchased the former 432-acre StorageTek campus in Louisville, where it plans a Global Technology Center,focused on renewable energy reserach.
Also that year, Vestas Wind Systems opened a wind-blade facility in Windsor, and later opened facilities in Brighton and Pueblo.
In 2009, the National Renewable Laboratory in Golden embarked on a $177 million expansion.
Medical:
The Anschutz Medical Campus and the Colorado Science + Technology park replace the decommissioned Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Aurora.
The Anschutz Inpatient Pavilion opens at the former Fitzsimons center in 2004, followed by the University of Colorado Hospital and the Children;s
Hospital moving to the campus in 2007 and 2010, respectively.
In 2003, HealthOne opens the state-of-the-art Sky Ridge Medical Center on 57 acres in Douglas County.
And of course, in August 2008, Denver hosted the Democratic National Convention, focusing an international spotlight on Denver, as well as generating $266 million in economic development benefits to the region.
The report also reminded us that in 2011, the Urban Land Institute for the third consecutive year, named Denver as one of the nation’s top real estate markets to watch.
ULI summed up Denver this way: “The city makes progress positioning for 21st-century growth by strengthening its downtown core through a new light-rail and railroad hub to serve surrounding suburban nodes. As a result, the central business district becomes ‘the place to be,’ and mixed-use, transit-oriented development helps anchor suburban districts. This metro area also has one of the nation’s most modern airports, an attractive Rocky Mountain backdrop, relatively low business taxes, and a broad-based economy.”
Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com
