Denver Mayor Michael Hancock on Friday hinted about plans for a new state-of-the-art digital health care center that will anchor development around a transit station in the city’s River North neighborhood.
Speaking at the annual Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce State of the City luncheon, Hancock intentionally let slip an upcoming announcement for the center that’s to be located near 38th Avenue and Blake Street, one of 30 current and future transit stations.
“It is to be a model for how the private sector can connect to the downtown area, part of the projects that are transit-oriented development,” Hancock said at the gathering at the Hyatt Regency Denver.
Designed as a downtown gateway for RTD’s East Line from Denver International Airport, Hancock said the RiNo rail station is to be a mix of “housing, retail, innovation and jobs.”
Additional information about the health care center project will be unveiled “in a few days,” he said.
Lamentable, though, is that only 2 percent of new housing stock in the city is owner-occupied condominiums, compared with 20 percent in other markets, according to a panel discussion.
Development is difficult to incentivize, panelists agreed, when midlevel professionals wanting to purchase a home can’t find entry-level offerings such as condominiums. Much of the problem has been developers who face huge insurance costs if they choose to build multifamily housing they wish to sell. Building rentals is cheaper.
“It’s not a matter of whether it’s affordable for the developers,” Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan said. “They simply won’t do it.”
At issue are lawsuits over construction defects, where an entire homeowners association can cause a development to be impacted by a lawsuit affecting one or two units. Three bills that would have changed the construction-defects law were killed during the last legislative session. The issue is expected to be taken up again during the 2015 session.
Lakewood Mayor Bob Murphy said there are 10 multifamily developments currently under construction in his city and none has any units for sale.
“The insurance costs to build them can be up to four times higher than if it’s for rental only,” said Sara Reynolds, executive director of Housing Colorado. “Those costs make it financially unrealistic.”
Said chamber president and CEO Kelly Brough: “To everyone in Colorado who wants to buy a condo: We’re coming.”
David Migoya: 303-954-1506, dmigoya@denverpost.com or twitter.com/davidmigoya
