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Development ideas abound for CU site

Theater, hotel could be built on hospital property

John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 13, 2007 at midnight

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A movie theater, a hotel with as many as 200 rooms, a couple of high-rise, residential towers.

All these ideas are on the drawing board at Shea Properties as potential uses for the 32-acre University of Colorado Health Sciences Center site at East Ninth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard.

Some of the existing bigger buildings, as well as the giant parking garage, would remain as part of the massive redevelopment, said Peter Culshaw, an executive with Shea.

Last year, Shea agreed to pay about $35 million to buy the site, one of the largest redevelopment opportunities in Denver.

But don't expect Shea to turn a spade of dirt anytime soon.

Even though University of Colorado Hospital is wrapping up its move to the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora this week, Shea doesn't expect to start moving forward with the project for about 18 months.

"We will buy the first phase when all of the environmental stuff is cleaned," Culshaw explained.

Shea likely will buy about 10 acres on the northern half at the end of 2008 and buy the larger part of the site a year later, he said.

After that, the land must be rezoned, he said. Shea may seek a planned unit development or a general development plan, which will be a mixed-use development on the site.

Shea hired the Davis Partnership as its architect. Davis, among other things, designed the Frederick C. Hamilton addition on the Denver Art Museum with Daniel Libeskind.

Zoning will be key, said Mary Nell Wolff, chairwoman of the Colorado Boulevard Health Care District.

"It's been a long and slow process," she said. "Until the zoning is in place, we can't deal with the meaty issues like land planning and land use."

Eventually, the site could house as many as 1,500 residential units, a mix of for-sale condos and rental apartments, Culshaw said.

"We'd like to have a couple of towers to take advantage of the views," Culshaw said.

Brent Hladky, president of the Congress Park Neighborhood Association, said it is too early to comment on Shea's game plan. "The developer met with us a couple of times with plans," he said.

Hladky said he hopes that new development on the site "architecturally, will fit into the neighborhood as much as possible."

"They are hoping to keep a few of the older buildings, and that would help them blend in," Hladky said. "And we're hoping that the parking situation will be better for the neighborhood than it is today."

Preliminary plans

Davis Partnership, the architect hired to redevelop the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center at East Ninth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, released preliminary drawings.

Included in its proposal:

• A hotel

• Movie theater

• High-rise towers

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