The Union Station Alliance may not have been our first choice for redeveloping historic Union Station, but we’re hardly disappointed that the Regional Transportation District board chose the group Tuesday in a unanimous vote. Not only did the alliance tweak its plan to accommodate critics, but its expertise in historic preservation is second to none.
Alliance members have been responsible for numerous impressive redevelopments in Lower Downtown and the Central Platte Valley, from Larimer Square to the Flour Mill Lofts. Perhaps more relevant to this project — since their plan for Union Station includes 130 hotel rooms on the second and third floors — is that alliance members have had a hand in preserving historic hotels and train stations across the country.
The latter even include Grand Central Terminal in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C.
All of this expertise will come in handy not only in planning the upcoming restoration work, but in obtaining still-needed signoffs from Denver’s Landmark Preservation Commission, Historic Denver and the Interior Department (whose thumbs-up is required to qualify for $7.5 million in historic preservation tax credits).
Since Union Station is on the Historic Register, no developer would have been been allowed to dramatically alter its appearance. Nor does Union Station Alliance have any intention of trying to push the envelope in that regard.
As Sage Hospitality chief Walter Isenberg, a member of the Union Station Alliance, told us, “A person on the outside of the building will not notice any change” in appearance, while someone entering the great train hall “will experience the same historic grandeur.”
And as an added bonus, the alliance proposal is projected to generate more tax revenue for RTD and Denver than the competing plan would have, as well as ensure that the transit agency doesn’t have to expend revenue over the next few decades in maintaining the structure.
Although Union Station can trace its origins to the 19th century, its heyday occurred in the 1920s and 1930s, when it handled scores of trains a day. The hope is that the buildout of FasTracks, approved by voters in 2004, and the redevelopment of surrounding blocks will not only transform the station into a bustling center of transportation but also — to quote the original request for proposals — “give life to the adjacent public realm.”
The goal is to have the restored station and new hotel ready to open by the spring of 2014.
Readers who have followed news regarding Union Station over the years may have thought a developer was selected long ago. Such confusion is understandable, since RTD and the city chose a master developer in 2006 for a number of acres surrounding the site.
Meanwhile, however, the jewel at the center of this larger vision — Denver Union Station itself — still awaited a new direction. Until now.
