Welton Place, located one block from the transit station at 25th and Welton streets, is expected to earn a certification from the National Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.
Kitchen & Bath
Ticket to Ride
Urban villages tied to light-rail train stations are coming to Denver and the Front Range, bringing new housing and lifestyle options and attracting national attention
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Cyndia Zwahlen


Vallagio at Inverness


Union Station
Denver and its ambitious plans for a string of vibrant new light-rail communities along the Front Range has put the region in the spotlight of the burgeoning national movement for smart, sustainable growth.

Within the next 10 years, new light-rail and commuter train lines are proposed to stretch from Denver International Airport on the eastern plains to Boulder and from Longmont south to near Castle Rock as part of the $4.7 billion FasTracks project.

Plans call for 50 to 60 stations, each an opportunity to create a unique, pedestrian-friendly community centered on a transit stop that is connected to the eight-county system.

“In the last 100 years no city has done this,” says Marilee Utter, chair of the Urban Land Institute’s Colorado district council and president of Citiventure Associates, a real-estate consulting firm in LoDo that has worked on a number of FasTracks projects.

Current examples of local light-rail communities—or transit-oriented developments (TODs), as they are known in real estate circles—are the City Center Englewood and the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver. Both will be incorporated into the new system, which will include renovation of Denver’s historic Union Station.

TODs are typically mixed-use, medium- to high-density communities. They may include housing, businesses and government buildings. Planners say a light-rail development can span up to 10 square blocks, which translates into a five- to 10-minute walk from the perimeter to a transit station, the distance people have shown they are willing to travel on foot to use rapid transportation.

“Whether you are 15 or 85, TODs are going to become more and more a part of life, for the sake of accessibility, speed and time,” says Peter Kudla, president and chief executive officer of Metropolitan Homes, the Denver-based builder and developer of Vallagio at Inverness, one of the first new light-rail communities to be built.

Potential buyers as well as urban planners are also attracted to the positive environmental impact a well-designed light-rail community can have. “Benefits to the environment are smarter land use—it is the opposite of urban sprawl—less use of energy, less use of your car and smarter growth,” says Jerry Jaramillo, vice president for business development and a TOD development specialist at Kiewit Building Group, the Denver-based builder that just completed the T-Rex light-rail project in southeast Denver. T-Rex, which stands for Transportation Expansion, was a five-year, $1.7 billion public project that was completed last fall. It added 19 miles of light rail along Interstates 25 and 225 as well as highway improvements.

The planned FasTracks system still faces a number of hurdles before the first leg from downtown Denver to Lakewood and Golden is built. Environmental studies are running months and, in some cases, several years behind for some segments. Costs are, and will continue to be, a formidable challenge as planners try to keep the project on budget. Plus, planning for a light-rail community is more complex than for a non-transit-related development. Many are partnerships between public and private entities, which makes for a complicated mix of political and private agendas.

Also, not every station will be a part of a new development. Some communities may not have room for the large park-and-ride model (nor want it). The Louisiana Station near the University of Denver, for example, accommodates passenger drop-offs but has little room for parking, though there are new housing developments nearby.

Still, billions of public and private money has been earmarked for creating dozens of new communities. The thousands of new condominiums and apartments will provide high-quality options for livable urban lifestyle-alternatives to Denver’s traditional housing market.

“This is going to reshape the landscape of the real estate market and the city,” said John Skrabec, a residential real estate broker and co-owner of the Live Urban Real Estate, liveurbandenver.com, in Denver. “It is the beginning of an important trend in real estate in the city—instead of going out, we are going up.”

Here is a closer look at some of the projects proposed or underway along the Denver corridor of the FasTracks rail system.

Vallagio at Inverness

Vallagio at Inverness Kudla expects to finish a large portion of the 469 residences planned for his 30-acre, multi-use site on the east side of I-25 near Park Meadows Mall this spring. Prices at the European-style community will range from the mid $200,000s to the upper $700,000s. Commercial and retail is also planned on a small scale. Vallagio will be joined to the Dry Creek Station on the west side of I-25 by a pedestrian bridge.

Gates Rubber Factory

The site of the former manufacturing plant, which is being cleaned up by Cherokee Denver LLC, is adjacent to the Broadway Station where the southeast and southwest light-rail lines converge. Cherokee was drawn to the site’s visibility on Santa Fe Drive and proximity to downtown Denver. The transit stop is a bonus.

“The transit component will not in and of itself give you great real estate,” says Ferdinand Belz III, president of Cherokee Denver. His company’s master plan calls for pedestrian-friendly amenities such as wide sidewalks, pocket parks for greenery and step backs in the buildings to maximize natural light. Pedestrian bridges will be built over the railroad tracks that run through the site to connect both halves of the roughly 50-acre site. About 3,000 residential units are planned, as well as two-million square feet of retail and office space. The project will likely take a decade to build, although a sizeable portion could be completed along Santa Fe Drive within two years.

Joseph Freed and Associates LLC will create a retail core on the west side, says Steve Jacobsen, senior vice president of development at the company, with residential to be phased in.

Welton Place

Nearly a full city block, this mixed-used development is approximately four blocks from central Denver. Its planned 170 residential units are one block from the transit station at 25th and Welton streets. Developer Brent Snyder, president and owner of Century Development in Denver, says the project, which he expects to earn a certification from the national Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, will be an affordable, contemporary alternative for buyers “willing to pioneer just a little bit.” The nearby transit stop will eventually connect to the DIA leg of FasTracks. The condominiums will start at $270,000 and the townhomes will start in the $500,000s.

Union Station

Union Station This station is the center of a 19-acre development planned by Union Station Neighborhood Co., a joint venture of residential developer East West Partners and commercial developer Continuum Partners. Together the companies will weave Amtrak, Ski Train and light-rail facilities with expanded RTD bus service, centered on a three-block long pedestrian mall with underground train lines behind Union Station. Plans are to integrate the redesigned regional transit hub with residential, retail and commercial space, which will be adjacent to the core of the central business district.

“That is a very rare confluence of pieces that make it an incredibly exciting opportunity,” says Mike Reininger, a partner at East West Partners. The project will help to create a world-class transit community.

“The willingness of the population to produce the funds necessary for things like the FasTracks program is a model for commitment to the benefits that mass transit can provide for a growing population like we have here,” Reininger says.