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Wine store owner plans West Highland development

Published September 18, 2006 at midnight

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A couple of years ago, Duey Kratzer was walking home from his popular Mondo Vino Store wine store in the Highland Square area of northwest Denver, and noticed that the parking lot across from the Three Dog Tavern at West 32nd Avenue and Julian Street was on the market.

On Monday, he announced his plans to construct a mixed-use development on the site a few blocks east of his wine store on 32nd and Lowell, which he hopes will bring a long awaited neighborhood grocery store or upscale deli, such as Marczyk Fine Foods in the Uptown neighborhood.

The approximate $8 million development, tentatively called MAW, would also have about 14 condo units, priced from about $290 to $350 per square foot.

"It also will have 36 underground parking spaces, which is unheard of in this neighborhood," he said.

When he first envisioned the development, which is being designed and built by Sprocket Design Build of Denver, he planned above grade parking, which would have made the building taller.

That did not go over well with some people in the neighborhood.

"It’s only going to be 38-feet tall," he said about the building, which is expected to open in 2008, with construction starting in January.

"Units on the third floor will have pretty good views of the mountains and downtown," he added.

Bill Moore, of Sprocket, said units likely will range in size from about 850 square feet to 1,400 square feet.

Although details such as the exact pricing are being worked out, he said he expects to lose money on the development, because of the cost of the underground parking and because he and his partner hope to buy the ground floor retail and lease it to an operator.

"When I first looked at this deal, it made sense financially," Kratzer said. "If you’ve heard anything about the process, I made sure all of my neighbors were happy? I basically gave them everything they wanted."

Why do it?

"I love this neighborhood and want to help it to grow, and this will be good for the neighborhood," said Kratzer, who also owns a coffee shop, Café Mondo, at 33rd Avenue and Tejon Street with his wife, Ellen. "I don’t ever plan on leaving."

Troy Townsend, a broker with RE/MAX City Horizons, said MAW is probably the single largest new development currently moving forward in West Highland, although there are larger ones in the area.

"River Clay, in Jefferson Park (near Invesco Field) for example, has 53 units," he said.

Towsend, who also is a founder of a company called Fresh Denver Digs, which matches home buyer with newly constructed homes in older northwest Denver neighborhoods, said that he thinks there is enough demand for a small grocer or high-end deli, even though a Vitamin College is under way on 15th Street in the Highland neighborhood east of Federal Boulevard, and a Sunflower Market is being built at West 38th Avenue and Wolff Street in Highlands Garden Village, the site of the old Elitch’s.

"I think the people in the West Highland neighborhood would like a little neighborhood grocery store they could walk to," Townsend.

He also didn’t think it would be a negative to be across from the Three Dog Tavern.

"Because this is new construction, it will be soundproof," he said. "It’s not like the old homes where you hear all of the noise."

Kratzer said he hopes some of the larger two-bedroom units help keep young families in the neighborhood.

"It seems whenever someone gets pregnant in this neighborhood, they move to Lowry," to get a bigger house, he said.