A large piece of the former University of Colorado Health Sciences Center will be imploded Aug. 29, as work continues to .
The old eight-story Biomedical Research Building at East Ninth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard will be demolished at 8 a.m. Aug. 29, triggering up to nine hours of road closures, developers Continuum Partners and CIM Group announced Monday.
Closures are scheduled to begin at 3 a.m., extending from East Sixth Avenue north to East 13th Avenue, and from Colorado Boulevard east to Bellaire Street. All streets and walkways will reopen by noon.
The implosion itself should only take about 30 seconds, said Frank Cannon, development director for Denver-based Continuum Partners.
The controlled implosion will require only the one major road closure, rather than months of traffic trouble on Colorado Boulevard, he said.
“More conventional demolition methods, similar to those we are using for other buildings on the site, would require approximately four-months of daily demolition activity to complete, with greater risk and impacts to the community,” Cannon said in an e-mail.
The building will be the first major implosion in Denver since 2010, when the to make way for the Ralph L. Carr Judicial Center.
A city demolition permit was set to be issued Monday or Tuesday, planning department spokeswoman Andrea Burns said.
In addition to standard permit requirements, the city also asked developers to submit engineered plans and expand the notification area, she said. Typically, notification is only required for adjacent property owners.
Developers held to go over details of the implosion. They also plan to distribute door fliers to all residents and businesses in the area bounded by Sixth Avenue, Clermont Street, Hale Parkway and Harrison Street, a project spokeswoman said.
Demo work began in March on the 26-acre campus. Plans call for razing every building on site, except for a 1,000-car parking garage, the historic Nurses’ Dormitory building and the five-story bridge across Ninth Avenue.
In their place, Continuum and CIM have proposed , with apartments and for-sale housing, office space, hotel, and national, regional and local retail.
The property has been vacant since the medical center moved to Aurora in 2008.
In December, the city of Denver approved for the project, one of the largest development incentives ever issued in the Mile High City.
A previous development proposal — — fell apart in 2012 amid vehement neighborhood opposition.
Emilie Rusch: 303-954-2457, erusch@denverpost.com or twitter.com/emilierusch
