Movement on 14th Street

Today's Post reports that local developer Charlie Wooley and Wally Hultin have sold the 25,000-sq.-ft. parcel at 1417 Stout where they had planned to build a condo tower for seniors. The buyer is Bhaman Shafa of Focus Property Group, which has five other investment opportunities listed on its website. The Post's lead real estate reporter, Margaret Jackson, points out that Focus also is pitching two sites at 14th and California (a cash generating surface lot) and another at 14th and Stout, for which Shafa paid $4.3 million and is eager to develop.

Jackson writes that both Wooley and Hultin, of Byers Street Properties, plan to direct the $7 million sale of the 1417 Stout sale into "smaller infill projects. Wooley's St. Charles Town Company is currently converting 10 landmark residential buildings at Lowry, St. Charles's first foray outside of central Denver. Wooley pulled off a coup of sorts with the redevelopment of the Lowenstein Theater by luring the Tattered Cover and Twist & Shout to Lowenstein. These two independently owned businesses are institutions in Denver and have created further momentum along East Colfax, thanks in part to the creation of three Main Street zone districts along Colfax. Over the past several years, Hultin's Byers Street Properties developed infill residential developments: Downing Street Station along the D-Line right rail in Curtis Park, the Lofts at Berkeley Park and Tennyson Parkside, both in northwest Denver.

14th Street has been dubbed a cultural corridor, as envisioned, for example, by the 14th Street Initiative, and the Post article ends with mention of other future residential projects:

• Developers Michael Brenneman and Jeff Selby recently closed on $200 million in financing and plan to start construction on the Four Seasons hotel and condo project at 14th between Arapahoe and Lawrence streets by midyear.

• Randy Nichols is expected to break ground this spring on Spire, his 41-story condo project near the Colorado Convention Center.

• Buzz Geller is in the final approval stages for the condo tower he wants to build at 14th and Speer Boulevard. If the Denver City Council approves his project at its Feb. 20 meeting, he said, he expects to break ground on the site within a year.

• Toronto developer Great Gulf Group is planning a 51-story condo tower at 14th and Lawrence streets. Great Gulf expects to start construction on the sales center in March.

In an atmosphere of uncertainty surrounding the prospects for future condo project in Denver, The Four Seasons project is a safe bet, but the other projects have been "on hold" for several months. We'll have to wait and see if the stars and in alignment later this year for groundbreaking and construction.
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On the employment front, The Rocky reports today that McData will lay off 270 by this summer - 128 in Broomfield, 73 in Westminster and 69 in Louisville. The company was acquired by Brocade Communication Systems for $973 million in August 2006. At acquisition, 570 of 1,470 of McDatas employees were located in Colorado.

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The Greeley Tribune reports on The Group Inc.'s forecast for 10,791 home sales for 2007, slightly higher than 2005, which it made public at the brokerage firm's annual market forecast. But wait: The Group's prediction for 2006 overestimated home sales in northern Colorado by about 10 percent. Indeed, no evidence is cited by the Tribune or a similar article in the Coloradoan, and it is fair to question whether a commission-driven brokerage business will present housing data impartially.

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While we're still in northern Colorado: a Post columnist does a casting call for those interested in appearing on HGTV's "My First House Program" (Ahem, the show's actually called "My First Place"). If the show is to appear in Colorado, Berthoud real estate broker Lou Grassner must produce a camera-ready buyer within a week.