A preliminary drawing of the 8 luxury units proposed to be built on the third-floor deck of Larimer Place.
A proposal to develop eight luxury townhome-style units on the third floor of the Larimer Place high-rise, provides a rare opportunity not only for residents of the tower, but a chance to spruce up an important intersection in downtown Denver, the president of the homeowner association said on Friday.
“This is a unique opportunity,” said David Stafford Johnson, president of the HOA for the building at 1551 Larimer St.
“We view ourselves as a centerpiece of Lower Downtown,” Johnson said. “Just look at everything that is going on at Union Station and our proximity to Larimer Square and Writer Square and the 16th Street Mall. Larimer Place is a wonderful building and has a wonderful location, but it is quite dated. It is 30 years old. It was built during a different era, when Lower Downtown wasn’t what it is today.”
The proposal for the new units was reported publicly for the first time by InsideRealEstateNews.com on Thursday, is to create the new townhomes where tennis courts are now on the third-floor deck of the 31-story building. The tennis courts would be moved, under the current proposal, but the existing swimming pool on the deck would remain.
Davis Partnership Architects has presented a detailed preliminary proposal for the units, which are estimated to sell for $560 per square foot. Two of the new units would have 2,000 square feet each, while the other six units would have about 1,677 square feet each, for a total of 14,060 square feet of new residential units.
Existing units in the tower are selling in the neighborhood of about $300 per square foot, but are larger than the units being proposed under the current plan, Johnson said. He said it is likely the new units, if built, would increase the value of existing units.
“I know if I were looking at buying one of the new townhome units, I would look to see what is available in the tower,” he said.
The idea is that there would be no net cost to the homeowners in the 168-unit building constructed in 1981.
A view of the proposed luxury units at Larimer Place from the ground.
There are no living units on the third floor, but some condo owners on the fourth and fifth floors might have some of their views of Larimer Square obstructed by the new, 2-story townhome-style units, he said. The views of the vast majority of the residences would not be impacted, he said.
“Personally, I am quite excited about it,” Johnson said. “We are just now going through the process of informing all of our homeowners about it. It will take a super majority of the homeowners to approve it.”
Another perspective of what the proposed townhomes at Larimer Place could look like.
He said that David Partnership and its construction parter, BuildMark, are being incredibly open about the process.
“Yes, they would make a profit,” Johnson said. “They should make a profit, because they are taking all of the development risk. If the HOA wanted to make the profit, it would need to take the development risk. I don’t know if that is appropriate for the HOA.”
Johnson said he is not aware of any HOA of any condo tower ever having tackled a similarly structured development.
“This is a one-of-a-kind project,” Johnson said. “It is totally unique. We were able to do this because of our great location and because we have this huge, under-utilized deck. I think it is 40,000 square feet in size.”
Think now is a good time to be buying at Larimer Place? Please visit COhomefinder.com.
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Good luck to the (soon to be ex)HOA president getting this one passed. He is going to need it.
Why does the HOA just open it up to a non arm length biding process. See if any developers want to pay for the space before giving it away. The reason a deal like this has never been done is most HOAs would not give away the land. Be smart.
I don’t know if this is the same David Safford Johnson as the president of this board. But, if so, he seem to have no problem with conflicts of interest.
http://www.coloradosupremecourt.com/PDJ/ConditionalAdmissions/Johnson,%20Conditional%20Admission,%2011PDJ095,%2012-13-11.pdf
Bend over, this corn cob won’t hurt.
I think this would be a dramatic improvement to that street corner facing Larimer Square. Good for them!
Larry, the vacant land owned by the Kobels on I-25 and Orchard would be also be dramatically improved if developed. But, I don’t see them giving it away a portion of the land to a developer to make it happen.
Jason, I was really just interested in the fact that the design will dramatically improve that corner rather than the process. That bldg and a number of others in that area could benefit the streetscape dramatically by creating a more pedestrian friendly environment and relate better to Larimer and even Writer Square. It will also add a few more residential units downtown contributing to its vibrancy.
I’m not too sure I’m concerned about how they get there, unless it’s illegal. It might be difficult or impossible to pass and the HOA may not benefit, but the HOA wouldn’t do this anyway because they’re not a developer and I not convinced that a bid process is all that great unless it’s managed well.
I guess whatever floats their boat. It seems like if it works, than I’d like to see other 70′s and 80′s era buildings do the same thing. Anything to add more people and less cars to the core area.
I’m with Larry: this is a great visual improvement to a building that, to me, has always looked blighted, from the day it opened. I’d like it even better if they’d make similar improvements to the Sixteenth Street side, where a blank wall greets Denverites and tourists getting off the Free Mall Ride.
The irony here, as those of us who lived in Denver then will remember, that the land underneath this high rise was practically given away to the original developer (L.C. Fulenwider, if memory serves) by the Denver Urban Renewal Authority. Yes, building housing here was a great idea, but how I wish they’d hired an architect capable of producing a design that actually responded to its environment, rather than creating what looks like a defensive fortress. Davis Partnership’s design will go a long way toward improving this building, if it gets built.
I hope it inspires owners at the Windsor two blocks up Larimer to make a similar improvement–a building that is just as anti-pedestrian as Larimer Place (and it has that wasted space facing 19th, perfect for town homes)
Mark, I agree with you completely. I hope to see more of this kind of change down there.
Although, in defense of the original architect (whoever it was), that was the end of a misguided time in urban history when they believed that the ascendancy of the car was paramount. They had some “great” plans for Denver with highways crisscrossing downtown and all the city center blocks filled with buildings that were more suburban in nature. So, there was no drive to create a streetscpe that was pedestrian oriented. I guess he was just responding to the needs of the time. Hopefully our current approach to urban planning will turn out better in the long run than it did in the past.
I not have anything against marketing, but I can’t figure out who is doing the marketing here, and to whom. This is all speculative at this time, no actual units to sell for a couple of years, so this can’t be targeted to end buyers.
JohnD, I completely understand where you are going with the last post. This is 100% marketing spin for the owners of the units in the building. Are you thinking the same thing?
I am thinking most likely the Builder on behalf of the HOA, as they share the same interests here. But it could be the Architects doing some self promotion. Or the target audience could be the city committee that has to approve this.
The more I think about this, the less desirable the units seem. $560/sq ft for a 3rd,ish floor condo.seems really high to me, street noise and limited views, not sure where the value is over the $300/sqft units in the existing building other than a modest ‘new’ premium.
Good points JohnD. You will also have to worry about special assesments for this building. Nothing like spending $900 per sq foot on new constrution only to get hit by special assessment. This is a 40 year old building with 40 year old problems.
Meant to say $560 psf.