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Pedestrian bridge over I-25 from Highland opens today

John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 16, 2006 at midnight

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Mayor John Hickenlooper officially will dedicate the Highland Bridge, a long-awaited pedestrian crossway over Interstate 25, at 10:30 a.m. today.

The white steel-and-concrete bridge is expected to help spur at least $50 million in residential construction in the Highland neighborhood, a trendy area in northwest Denver where land prices have tripled in the past three years.

"The bridge is really going to put Highland on the map," said Liz Richards, a broker with Kentwood City Properties, adding that residents will be able to walk across the bridge to downtown.

Richards sold a 2,005-square- foot, three-story townhome in Highland for $600,000 in July, a 60 percent increase from its original sale price of $375,000 in 2003, according to public records.

The Highland Bridge, the third of three bridges that extend the 16th Street Mall, has been in discussion for almost a decade.

The $5.2 million, 325-foot-long bridge will connect Highland to far more expensive neighborhoods in the Central Platte Valley and lower downtown. The other pedestrian bridges cross the South Platte River and the Consolidated Main Line railroad tracks behind Union Station.

Officials were discussing the three bridges in earnest in early 1997, but funding delayed the construction. Denver, the U.S. and Colorado departments of transportation, the Denver Regional Council of Governments and the Regional Transportation District, all helped finance the Highland Bridge.

"I remember when we did our first development in Highland, everyone said the I-25 bridge was imminent, and that was in 2000," developer Susan Powers said. Powers, principal of Urban Ventures, will break ground today on the first phase of her Highland Bridge Lofts between Boulder and Central streets, next to the new bridge.

Her condos, which will have unobstructed views of the Denver skyline, are selling for about $300 per square foot - half of what some units are commanding near the Millennium Bridge across the railroad tracks in East West Partners' Riverfront Park development.

Ken Schroeppel, an urban planner with Matrix Design Group and author of the Denverinfill.com blog, plans to buy one of the units. He said the trio of bridges can serve as a road map for other urban neighborhoods.

"These three Central Platte Valley bridges have forged a strong pedestrian and visual connection between Highland and downtown," Schroeppel said in his blog. "My hope is that we can quickly move to create similar links between downtown and adjacent districts like Curtis Park, Auraria, Uptown and the Golden Triangle that are comprised of vibrant public spaces and engaging urban design elements."

The Highland neighborhood was prospering even before the bridge, said Paul Tamburello, a longtime developer and broker in Highland.

"I think what is going on in Highland is the perfect storm," said Tamburello, a broker with Distinctive Properties and co-owner of the former Olinger mortuary, a Highland landmark.

Tamburello and Stephanie Garcia formed Resurrection Properties to own and redevelop Olinger, which is 100 percent leased and anchored by the Lola and Vita restaurants.

Highland has benefited from the high-end development at Riverfront and the mass of restaurants and retailers centered at Lowell Boulevard and West 32nd Avenue in West Highlands.

"The bridge really will serve as the artery from Highland to downtown, which will just give the area more life," Tamburello said.

He noted small homes are being scraped in Highland, and almost every piece of vacant land is earmarked for a project.

Land costs have risen to $60 per square foot from $20 per square foot three years ago, he said. There are at least $50 million in spec - or unsold - homes planned to open in Highland over the next 18 months, he said.

Tamburello is listing a home for $2 million, a neighborhood record. Developer Mary Dean owns the 4,400-square-foot home and 1,000-square-foot carriage house.

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