DENVER | Main Development Thread #7

[TakeFive]

You May Proceed; This Project is SkyscraperPage approved

FoundryLine Apartments


Image courtesy McWhinney via Mile High CRE

17-Story Apartment Community to Break Ground at 38th & Blake
May 3, 2021 - Mile High CRE

McWhinney, in a joint venture with PGIM Real Estate, plans to break ground on FoundryLine this month, a new 17-story lifestyle-driven and luxury apartment community in the heart of Denver’s RiNo.

Located on a 1-acre site adjacent to the RTD’s 38th & Blake A-Line commuter rail station, FoundryLine will feature 348 refined apartment homes, ranging from elegant studios to spacious three-bedroom residences and top floor penthouses. Unique to this property, 30 units are planned to be attainable homes offered to qualifying residents who meet the income requirements set by the City of Denver.

Is everything lined up and ready to go?

Hensel Phelps is serving as the general contractor on the project, in partnership with AvroKO, Craine Architecture, Inc., and Dig Studio Office of Architecture. Dedicated to sustainable building practices, McWhinney is working with Denver’s Group 14 Engineering to design a building that is planned to earn two Green Globes & National Green Building Standard Bronze certification.

“As the first major luxury development in the River North area, FoundryLine will define a new standard for housing in this neighborhood. Influenced by a legacy of craft and curation, FoundryLine bridges and celebrates the past, the present, and will become the trendsetter for its future,” said McWhinney President and Chief Operating Officer Ray Pittman.

[Curtis Park]

Originally Posted by CurtisParkChris

38th St Underpass reconstruction, please

I hope that this happens. But how do they improve it? I am curious what people think the solution is. Is it a bridge? Another underpass? I don't know how the current underpass can be widened given the private property and development on either side. I'm all for a bridge but since the railroad requires such a high clearance, how would that work? Maybe adding a crossing at 36th, 39th or 40th?

[The Dirt]

The Blake St and commuter rail bridges are already wide enough to handle it and there's enough ROW on either side. It's just a matter of expanding the freight tracks bridge. There's a lot of tracks there, so they could probably do it in two phases.

[Curtis Park]

Originally Posted by The Dirt

The Blake St and commuter rail bridges are already wide enough to handle it and there's enough ROW on either side. It's just a matter of expanding the freight tracks bridge. There's a lot of tracks there, so they could probably do it in two phases.

Thanks. I guess I didn't really notice that those two bridges were built a bit wider. I had to look at Street View to see it better. So the probable plan is to just widen it? No other bridges or underpasses?

[mr1138]

It seems to me that the RR underpass at Alameda is at least as important as the one at 38th. But I presume it would be significantly more complicated and expensive?

[gopokes21]

Originally Posted by SirLucasTheGreat

If these go up, this will be an infill project worth "drooling over". Looks like something from Vancouver

The thing is, not only is the City permitting process expensive and arduous to undergo and complete as they nearly have, but Davis is an incredibly expensive arch firm. Pulling permits for two towers could cost $500,000 or more and the design from Davis is probably at least a million dollars of fee, and much more for construction oversight. That's a lot of sunken cost for Amacon, so they have to have some form of equity in place.

[DenvertoLA]

I'd love to see the Amacon towers built. I'm just worried that private equity and foreign investors are going to eat it up. Does Denver have rule on the books to prevent that ?

[sphinx88844]

Are they doing pre-sales for this project/is there a site for people to put in deposits - I can't find anything yet.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by DenvertoLA

I'd love to see the Amacon towers built. I'm just worried that private equity and foreign investors are going to eat it up. Does Denver have rule on the books to prevent that ?

You mean restrictions on what entities can buy private property? I can’t think of anything that would prevent a Russian oligarch from buying every single unit in the building solely for his border collie.

Though if Denver adds additional affordable housing requirements I’m sure that could affect such an outcome. The collie would then have a few dozen neighbors that the bodyguards would have to deal with.

[The Dirt]

Do we really have a private equity buyer issue in Denver? Condos have not been flying off the shelf like SFHs have.

[laniroj]

Originally Posted by twister244

Cool renderings of the Amacon development, but again.... I will believe it when I see it. Still no sales website.....

No sales website is not a problem. Assuming Amacon has a huge balance sheet (which they do else they couldn't build this project) then they'd be foolish to lock in sales contracts right now when home prices are generally escalating >10% annually. It willbe 2-3 years before this hits the market and they will want/need every bit of any home price appreciation during that time. Obviously, markets can change but that's the risk developers take!

[TakeFive]

Just Spitballing

Originally Posted by sphinx88844

Are they doing pre-sales for this project/is there a site for people to put in deposits - I can't find anything yet.

Chances are Amacon is still 4-5 months away from breaking ground. As gopokes21 points out they are spending money and may be able to fund preliminary foundational work before going vertical. That could encompass another six months so there will be plenty of time to do presales.

Amacon is currently working on four towers in Canada. Avia and Avia 2 in Mississauga (near Toronto) are selling from $785,900+. However their Alaska Condos in Burnaby B.C. (near Vancouver) start at $589,900 to over $1,799,900

Alaska is a new condo development by Amacon currently in preconstruction at 4433 Alaska Street, Burnaby. Sales for available units range in price from $589,900 to over $1,799,900. Alaska has a total of 164 units. Sizes range from 576 to 1547 square feet.

Not sure how comparable to Denver.

[EngiNerd]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Just Spitballing


Chances are Amacon is still 4-5 months away from breaking ground. As gopokes21 points out they are spending money and may be able to fund preliminary foundational work before going vertical. That could encompass another six months so there will be plenty of time to do presales.

Amacon is currently working on four towers in Canada. Avia and Avia 2 in Mississauga (near Toronto) are selling from $785,900+. However their Alaska Condos in Burnaby B.C. (near Vancouver) start at $589,900 to over $1,799,900

Not sure how comparable to Denver.

Those are Canadian dollars BTW, I'm sure the Google can help you compare

[The Dirt]

Canada definitely has a lot of foreign money buying up condos, but even there, they have incredibly restrictive zoning. You're either allowed condo towers on 10% of the land (which are expensive to build) or SFH zoning (which ends up driving up land prices) on much of the other. Not much room for missing middle.

For anyone who's curious, here's the conversion.
CAD $589,900 = USD $479,220
CAD $785,900 = USD $638,446
CAD $1,799,990 = USD $1,462,194

[TakeFive]

Excellent Point

Originally Posted by EngiNerd

Those are Canadian dollars BTW, I'm sure the Google can help you compare

Given the number of Canadian gold miners they could be accepting Gold Coins, Bitcoins, Dogecoins and certainly American $'s

The current exchange rate (which changes every day) is 1 United States Dollar equals 1.23 Canadian Dollar. But given the inflationary pressures building in the U.S. this could change a lot over the next couple of years.

Well Done

Originally Posted by The Dirt

For anyone who's curious, here's the conversion.
CAD $589,900 = USD $479,220
CAD $785,900 = USD $638,446
CAD $1,799,990 = USD $1,462,194

[bunt_q]

Originally Posted by DenvertoLA

I'd love to see the Amacon towers built. I'm just worried that private equity and foreign investors are going to eat it up. Does Denver have rule on the books to prevent that ?

Rules that say foreigners and companies (but only certain types of companies) can't buy real estate? Does anybody in this country have those rules on the books?

[gopokes21]

Yeah, given that developers and construction lenders are still skeptical of condo unit absorption in our market, I would say anyone who wants to buy a unit should be welcome. Condos are still very challenging in Denver to the point that we really have the opposite problem of Vancouver.

[DenvertoLA]

well I'm glad home hoarding isn't a problem there. That's one of the reasons so many people from California are moving to Denver /Austin. It's almost impossible to compete with all cash offers from equity firms.

So Denver has the Evolve and Amacon towers in the pipeline. Is that all for condos ?

[SirLucasTheGreat]

I believe Evolve and Amacon are all condos but watch them convert to apartments. Also, I drove by the Mission Ballroom and that Hines project is really coming along. It looks like the elevator cores are nearly topped out.

[SirLucasTheGreat]

I saw today that Andrew Yang is planning on raising $900 million in revenue for New York City by increasing property taxes on undeveloped parcels. Would a plan like that help downtown Denver?