The former University of Colorado Health Sciences Center received a big boost Tuesday with preliminary approval of a $47.9 million city subsidy for redeveloping the east Denver site.
A Denver City Council committee issued the tentative go-ahead, subject to approval from the full council Dec. 8.
“This is a very good milestone,” said Frank Cannon, development director of Continuum Partners, developer of the 26-acre property at East Ninth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard. “It allows us to keep the project moving.”
that will include apartments and for-sale housing, office space and retail.
The project’s new-urbanism vibe is receiving mostly positive reviews from surrounding neighborhood groups who had fought previous development proposals that featured
The property has been vacant — and deteriorating — since the medical campus moved to Fitzsimons in 2008.
Continuum is scheduled to finalize its $30 million purchase of the property by the end of January. Soon after, demolition and infrastructure work would begin.
Almost all of the site will be razed except for a parking garage at East 11th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, the historic nurses’ dormitory on Ninth and the five-story bridge across Ninth, which is proposed for conversion to a hotel.
“I desperately want this to be a thriving area we can be proud of,” councilwoman Jeanne Faatz said.
The $47.9 million subsidy would be delivered via a tax-increment financing plan in which the Denver Urban Renewal Authority would issue bonds for the project and give the proceeds to Continuum. Sales and property taxes from the development would be used to pay off the bonds.
The incentive would be one of the largest ever issued for a Denver development. As a percentage of total project cost, the subsidy is 11.4 percent. Some projects have received far higher ratios of incentives, such as 23 percent for the $104.5 million Denver Pavilions and 28.4 percent for the $44 million South Broadway Marketplace.
Continuum Partners is an urban infill development specialist with a focus on creating pedestrian-friendly projects that include an array of residential and commercial uses.
The firm developed the Belmar mixed-use complex in Lakewood on the site of the former Villa Italia mall and was co-master developer with East West Partners of the Denver Union Station project in Lower Downtown.
Continuum’s contract for the CU hospital campus marks the Previous efforts failed because of a combination of difficult market conditions and neighborhood opposition.
Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948, sraabe@denverpost.com or twitter.com/steveraabedp
