The Regional Transportation District’s parking lots are some of Denver’s hottest development spots.
Mile High Development and BMC Investments, both Denver-based firms, submitted plans to the city last month for a new nine-story, 196-unit apartment building on a third of the 4-acre parking lot for RTD’s Colorado Station light rail stop at 4301 E. Evans Ave.
The submission comes eight months after Denver-based Delwest submitted plans to build apartments on the same spot. The site is directly south of the Colorado Center office campus, which consists of a pair of 12-story office towers and an additional 13-story one.
A representative for Mile High Development did not respond to a request for comment. A Delwest spokeswoman said the company is still pursuing development of the lot.
The competing submittals, however, is something that RTD had anticipated. The transit agency follows a specific process when it receives unsolicited proposals, which involves seeing if other developers are interested in the same site.
“In the case of Colorado Station, multiple developers have expressed interest in the site in recent years,” RTD spokeswoman Tara Broghammer told BusinessDen via email.
Both projects would be income-restricted housing. Otherwise, however, the two submissions differ greatly.
Delwest’s plans call for development of the entire parking lot. Two 20-story towers would have 315 units apiece. There would also be a six-story, 55-unit apartment building with a few townhomes in front of it. The buildings would have a total of 15,000 square feet of retail space and 23,000 square feet of amenity space, along with 700 parking spaces, some reserved for RTD users.
Mile High Development and BMC, meanwhile, are proposing to put a building on just the southwestern corner of the parking lot. It would come with fewer parking spaces, no retail space and a smaller amenity offering.
Mile High and BMC have worked together before. In September, they broke ground on a 210-unit project near the Fitzsimons campus in Aurora. It will be reserved for those making 30 to 70% of the area median income.
Other RTD lots around town have attracted developer attention.
In Five Points, local developer Jeff Shanahan is building 62 income-restricted condos at 2907-2915 Welton St. after the agency solicited proposals. At the Central Park Station, RTD is negotiating with one developer, and a second developer has expressed interest in building on a separate part of the station’s parking lots.
And earlier this month, the transportation agency submitted initial plans to rezone its 41st and Fox Station parking lot into something with higher density, in anticipation of future interest there. The site is just south of the 41-acre Fox Park development going up where Interstates 70 and 25 meet.
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