Paying Union Station's tab

John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 9, 2006 at midnight

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Show me the money.

With apologies to the famous line in the film Jerry Maguire, now that the public has seen pretty pictures of two vastly different proposals for the $1 billion redevelopment of Denver Union Station and surrounding area, the next step is for the teams to detail exactly how they plan to pay for improvements in the gigantic public-private development, experts said Friday.

The two teams, Continuum and East West Partners, and Union Station Partners - headed by Cherokee Investments Partners and the development arm of Hensel Phelps - on Thursday night unveiled plans at a public meeting that drew close to 1,000 people.

A winner is expected to be chosen next month by transportation and design experts.

There is almost $214 million available from FastTracks for transit improvements. The Continuum-East West team estimates the cost at about $300 million. Union Station Partners expects the first phase to cost about $500 million. Its plan is more expensive because it would bury the light-rail line, while Continuum-East West would keep it above ground.

Both teams expect to use private investments, tax-increment financing, metropolitan districts and other financial mechanisms to close the gap. Both teams also guarantee they will absorb any costs overruns.

"Now we really need to know actually how you come up with the dollars," said Byron Koste, director of the University of Colorado Real Estate Center. "I hope the decision makers interview the two teams very thoroughly on that. They need to know how they are going to do this and where the first tranche of money is going to come from. We need to know how this is really going to play out."

Longtime Denver developer Jerry Glick agreed.

"They're very different plans, but the piece we don't know is what are the financial consequences of each are, both for the short term and the long term," Glick said.

He said a "very detailed financial analysis" of the two plans will be done as part of the review process and will be crucial in choosing a winner.

Glick said he is "still thinking about" which proposal he likes best.

He said he is bothered that Continuum-East West teams would not bury the light rail, causing people to travel farther from the Consolidated Main Line railroad tracks to Union Station. On the other hand, the other team's proposal will cost "hundreds of millions more," he noted.

And both teams must consider what should be done to draw more people to Union Station as a destination and not just as a nexus for travel, he said.

Koste said that he has not reviewed either plan thoroughly.

"I give both plans very high marks," he said. "Certainly, there are some startling differences. Both are well-reasoned but totally different visions."

One of the most obvious differences between the two teams is that Union Station Partners is proposing a 46-story hotel and condo building behind the historic station that would tower over other buildings in lower downtown and the Central Platte Valley.

The tower would be twice as tall as the building proposed by Continuum-East West, and has drawn criticism for being out of character with the neighborhood.

But Koste said tall buildings have "served as a punctuation mark" at transportation hubs for hundreds of years in Europe and more recently in Los Angeles.

Said Glick: "I like the idea of a really tall signature building that has great architecture serving as an icon. All the great cities have them. Now, whether there is a market for a building like that anytime soon is another question."

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