Will Proposal ‘Activate’ East Virginia Village Neighborhood Or Help ‘Destroy’ It
by Mark Smiley
Old Headquarters: CDOT moved its headquarters from this location pictured to a new $70 million building southeast of the West Colfax Avenue and Federal Boulevard interchange.
The recent departure of the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) from its headquarters located at 4201 E. Arkansas Ave. has left neighbors and surrounding businesses wondering what the City and County of Denver will do to their neighborhood. Initial indications are they are planning the usual — massive high density and crippling traffic.
The City of Denver is uniquely in charge of the large 13.2-acre parcel as the plan to purchase the old CDOT headquarters, between Louisiana and Arkansas Avenues east of Colorado Boulevard, as well as a second 11.5-acre CDOT-owned property at 2000 S. Holly Street (Holly and Evans) for $19.25 million. State law mandates that the CDOT properties were first offered for sale to other government agencies.
Developer: Dimitrios Balafas of Kentro Group will oversee the development of the old CDOT property at 4201 E. Arkansas Ave and 2000 S. Holly Street once the sale is complete.
So Denver owns and will do all the planning on this critical piece of the East Virginia Village neighborhood property. Councilman Jolon Clark has stated that Denver needs, and wants, to expand and improve its inner city park system as “green spaces are getting too crowded” and is proposing an increase in the sales tax which would provide over $45.9 million for such purposes.
Cynics suggest that the Clark proposal is little more than Denver overpaying for property owned by those close to City Hall that developers nor anyone else wants. However, they note the CDOT property is one in a beautiful neighborhood setting that could be exploited for a great deal of profit by a developer and thus perhaps not the type of property which would be covered by the proposed project.
In turn, Denver will buy the land and immediately flip it to the politically connected Kentro Group, a local developer of such projects as Trader Joe’s at 8th and Colorado Blvd., the new TMobile store on Colorado Blvd. and Kentucky Avenue, the development at Cherry Street and Leetsdale in Glendale, and the Colfax Collection at York and Colfax and Josephine and Colfax.
But it will only do so after getting it rezoned for massive high density which, of course, the City controls through the Denver Planning Board and City Council.
Kentro Group has held a series of community meetings dating back to January 25, 2018, laying out their plans for the 13.2-acre property where CDOT once stood. Some neighbors who attended for the first time the July 12, 2018, meeting at Infinity Park in Glendale claimed it is the first notice of any meetings held by the group. And, some were not pleased with what they saw.
One neighbor said, “Don’t bring the tech center to our mid-century neighborhood.” And, Shelley Stuart-Bullock said, “Picture multiple 110+ foot buildings; 11,200 more cars daily on residential streets. I chose to live here in 1989, but would need to leave. I am greatly saddened by the prospect.”
The traffic along Colorado Boulevard and in and around their neighborhood is what neighbors are most concerned about. Some say adding 11,000 more cars along Colorado Boulevard will cripple the corridor between Alameda and Evans, rendering it next to impossible to drive a car.
I’m all for drive-by traffic. Many businesses, including ours, survive on eyeballs seeing your business every day while driving by — but let’s face it, it [Colorado Blvd.] already has plenty of traffic, said Sean Sutton, owner of SleepNation which is
Neighbors Activated: Kentro Group and CRL & Associates have held a series of community meetings to inform the public of their plans for the old CDOT property. This July 12 meeting held at Infinity Park in Glendale sparked a lively discussion about the increased traffic along Colorado Blvd. and the surrounding neighborhood.
situated directly on the corner of Colorado Boulevard and Arkansas, two blocks from the old CDOT property. “What you don’t want is for it to end up having so much traffic, and cause so much congestion that people eventually take alternate routes and stay away from you. People who live in surrounding neighborhoods that pass through on Colorado Blvd. and see our sign every day may take a different route to avoid traffic.”
“We are trying to help minimize the impact,” said Chris Viscardi, Director of Development for Kentro Group. “My concern is that what ends up on that property enhances rather than overwhelms it,” said Denver City Councilman Paul Kashmann. However, it is difficult to imagine how the impact can be minimized when that many more cars will be planted on the busiest street in the state. Denver Public Works will weigh in on the traffic impact later in the process.
Kentro Group began the process of inspecting the old CDOT property in February 2018 and has 150 days to continue inspections. And, since the property at 4201 E. Arkansas is zoned for campus and not retail, they will need to get approval from the Denver Planning Board and eventually City Council to be able to build a mixed-use development of housing and retail.
And those plans currently call for buildings as tall as eight stories with an additional 150,000 square feet of commercial retail space. The overall project will also include 150 units of affordable housing according to representatives from the Kentro Group. The mixed-use development is “to create diversity and for Kentro, to create a destination,” said Stacey Weaks, Principal of Norris Design who is drawing up plans for the property.
A person associated with the Denver Planning Department indicated that what that actually means is: “The Virginia Village neighborhood is filled with older middle-class whites who are generally despised by City Hall. They want a City with young hip kids who don’t drive cars and do what they are told. According to Channel 9 families with younger kids are actually moving in to the Virginia Village area which City Hall believes has to be stopped. These people are not welcomed in the new City and County of Denver. Only the young hipsters, the undocumented, the very wealthy and the existing poor are officially welcomed. The rest are welcomed to move out to the god-forsaken suburbs as soon as reasonably possible.”
For those familiar with the yet to be completed 29-acre project at 9th and Colorado Boulevard, Dimitrios Balafas, co-founder and managing partner of Kentro Group admitted this project can be seen as “9th and Colorado Junior.” But, he views this project as activating a neighborhood that desperately needs it.
“I think we will come up with a design that will activate the Virginia Village neighborhood which is what this neighborhood lacks now,” said Balafas. “We’re local, we care about the community, and we want to build a good project. We’re listening.” Balafas has been in the community since the early ’80s and some attendees of the July 12 meeting appreciated that this project would not be in the hands of an out of town developer.
One attendee who did not wish to be identified remarked, “What is this ‘activate’ b.s. that Kentro tells us we want? Virginia Village neighborhood is a wonderful quiet residential area, but we are only a few blocks from either Colorado Boulevard or Leetsdale Drive. What do we need? More crime, more muggings, more homeless vagrants, more heroin needles strewn on sidewalks?”
Her companion noted, “Why doesn’t Kentro first ‘activate’ the Country Club area where Dimitrios Balafas lives. I am sure he and his neighbors would love it.”
The scope of the project may tip the $100 million mark and may take two to three years to complete. To put it in perspective, the 9th and Colorado project, which is not complete, has been on the clock for five years. The buildings on this parcel reach as high as 12 stories which is what Kentro Group originally proposed. They recently scaled it down to a maximum of eight stories.
Skeptics wonder if this was the plan all along. One neighbor who pr
Crippling Traffic: Colorado Blvd. is already the busiest street in the state. It is feared that the development at 9th and Colorado Blvd. and the old CDOT property will bring traffic to an unbearable crawl during certain hours of the day.
eferred not to be identified said, “This is what developers do. They initially propose something they know the residents will oppose and then scal
Lobbyist: Sean Maley of CRL Associates, Kentro Group’s lobbying firm, fielded tough questions from the audience at the July 12, 2018 meeting at Infinity Park in Glendale.
e the project back to make it seem that they have listened to our concerns. It is a complete smokescreen and we are not buying it.”
CRL and Associates is the lobbyist for Kentro Group on this proposed rezoning and development. Sean Maley, Partner & Chief Business Development Officer for CRL, was at the July 12 meeting and claims they are listening to the needs and concerns of the neighborhood. We are “working our best to work with the neighborhoods,” said Maley. “We are pleased with the level of input at these meetings.”
Maley’s appearance was not welcomed by many in the crowd. “I know that CRL and the Brownstein law firm owns the City Council, but do they have to make it so obvious,” stated one attendee.
The next step in the process is the consideration of the rezoning application submitted by Kentro Group. The Denver Planning Board is predicted to consider this at o
Redevelopment Plans: The plans for the old CDOT headquarters property include eight-story residential buildings. These are approximately the same height as the Empire Park office buildings across the street at 1325 South Colorado Blvd.
ne of their September meetings (either September 5 or 19). The meetings are held in the Parr-Widener Community Room (#389), City and County Building, 1437 Bannock St. Meetings are also broadcast live on Denver’s Channel 8 and online at www.Denver8.TV.
The communication tower on the east side of the property is not included in the acquisition and the State of Colorado will retain ownership.
The matter will then be considered by Denver City Council at what will most likely be a November 2018 meeting. For more information about how to become engaged with the neighbors who plan to oppose the project, visit their Facebook page at “Help Oppose CDOT Redevelopment.” For more information about Kentro Group and this specific project, visit www.kentrogroup. com/arkansas.