Old Aurora City Hall Getting New Residents

Location and amenities seen as draw for retirement community to be built on Havana Street

The retirement community being built in the old Aurora City Hall at 1470 S. Havana St. doesn’t have a name, the management company behind the project isn’t sure how much rent will be when it opens next year, or even a firm date for the opening.

But retirees hoping to call the community home are already interested.

Moraine Byrne, president of Ontrac Management, which will manage the property, said she is getting plenty of phone calls from people who want the low-down on the project — and want to be first in line to rent a unit there.

“We are taking names right now,” she said.

The bulk of the callers are Aurora residents who like the building’s location, she said, particularly its proximity to the bustling Gardens on Havana development.

“The location is wonderful, there are so many convenient areas around there,” she said. “It’s just a great location.”

Byrne said she hopes to have rental rates and other details available next month, but for now she is taking down names and numbers.

The project calls for 86 units and involves gutting the old city hall building at 1470 S. Havana St. and turning it into apartment-style units for seniors. Omni Development in Denver is leading the redevelopment.

When it’s complete, Byrne said the 98,00-square-foot community will include in-home health care providers, community rooms and several other amenities for seniors.

The rental prices will be based on the market rates, Byrne said, and the facility won’t have subsidies for low-income renters.

Final artist renderings of what the building will look like when it’s complete are not yet available, she said.

Jeff Carlson, the project manager at Omni, said crews have been working on the project for a few months and hope to be done in the spring, possibly May or June.

Omni officials have said that when work is complete, a second-phase of the project could include more units aimed at an older crowd, units with more strategic-care services.

The location is ideal, Carlson said, in part because there is a huge market for retirement homes. Also, the proximity to the Gardens on Havana.

“The demographics, first of all, are great. And the access to the all the new shops, the plaza there,” he said.

Gayle Jetchick, president of the Havana Business Improvement District, said she isn’t surprised to hear the project is already drumming up interest.

“There are great views from that building and it’s going to be a really neat project,” she said.

Jetchick said that beyond the construction already underway, city council is scheduled to consider a plan Monday to extend East Ironton Street near the building, making it easier to access.

Since the Gardens opened in 2007 on the site of the Buckingham Square Mall, disappointment about the lack of new residential property there has lingered even as officials praised the project for revitalizing a once-vibrant stretch of Havana.

Last year, Post Investment Group announced plans to build apartments east of the project, a move many in the area heralded.

That project will include 227 units, 10 of them town-house style, two-story units with garages, officials said. The town houses will be rental properties along with the other apartments.

By BRANDON JOHANSSON, Staff Writer

Denver architect Koernig launches new firm, Studio K2

Denver architect Kevin Koernig has taken Greek philosopher Plato’s belief that “necessity is the mother of invention” to heart, forming his own firm after the local office of his former company shut down.

Koernig’s new firm, Studio K2 Architecture, has opened with an office in downtown Denver’s Union Station.

Koernig was formerly a principal at the Denver office of the St. Louis-based Lawrence Group before it closed late last year after 10 years of operation. Recent projects the architect has worked on include the Villa at Mission San Luis Rey senior living project in Oceanside, Calif.

Other principals at Studio K2, or SK2 for short, are Jack Brinkley, a specialist in healthcare projects, and John St. Martin, whose specialties include restaurants and corporate architecture. St. Martin was part of the design team for the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas.

SK2’s specialties reflect the expertise of its principals, and include senior living facilities, restaurants, retail space and historic renovation.

Among the new firm’s first projects is converting the old Saddlery Building Co. building at 15th and Wynkoop streets in downtown Denver to a mixed-use project with retail, office and residential space. SK2 hopes to generate $500,000 in revenue this year, according to the company.

Denver Business Journal by Paula Moore
Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 2:33pm MST

Century-old warehouse in LoDo getting a redo

One of the last of the grand old warehouse buildings in Denver’s Lower Downtown is being renovated for office, retail and living space.

Cable-television entrepreneur Bob Fanch is spending $6.5 million to restore the former Colorado Saddlery building, which has remained largely unchanged since it was built in 1900.

Plans for the building at 15th and Wynkoop streets include constructing two 3,600-square-foot copper-clad penthouses on the roof.

“We’re building a building on top of the building,” said Kevin Koernig, principal of Studio K2 Architecture, who is designing the project.

The project is being reviewed by the city.

Because heavy-wood construction was used to build the original structure, its height is limited to five stories under the International Building Code. The sixth story will be concrete and steel and exceed the fire resistance of the original building.

The design also incorporates parking spaces in the basement of the existing structure. The renovated building will have 8,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space on the first floor and nearly 30,000 square feet of office space on floors two through five.

The last business to occupy the building was the Colorado Saddlery Co., which relocated to Arvada about four years ago.

Colorado Saddlery was founded in 1945 by four young saddlemakers in Denver, according to the company’s website. They had been working for the world-famous, Denver-based HH Heiser Saddle, where they learned the craft.

The last of the original partners, P.R. Van Scoyk, purchased the building in the early 1960s. He retired in 2003 and passed the saddlery on to his son Jeff.

Jim Donahue of American West LoDo LLC purchased the building in 2005. He has since sold the building to Fanch, who also owns the 3,400-acre Devil’s Thumb Ranch in Tabernash. Donahue is now handling operations at Devil’s Thumb.

Fanch made his fortune when he sold cable company Fanch Communications to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for $2 billion in 1999.

Margaret Jackson: 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com

Saddlery Building Renovation Update

Last fall I mentioned that the Saddlery Building at 15th and Wynkoop was finally getting its long-overdue makeover, and how amazing the exterior is looking after a good scrubbing. Today I’m happy to provide additional details about the historic structure’s rehabilitation, thanks to Kevin and Nancy from Studio K2 Architecture.

Work continues on the brick facade restoration, with only the 15th Street side remaining to be cleaned. Also of note has been the work on the windows. Many of the windows, particularly the large ones at street level, had been bricked in years ago. Now, the brick has been removed and, while the new windows are not yet in place, it is exciting to see the building’s steady transformation.

The completed project will include retail/restaurant space on the ground floor, office space on Floors 2 through 5, and the addition of two copper-clad residential penthouses at the top. The images below are courtesy of Studio K2 Architecture:

Here’s a perspective of the entire building as viewed from the roof of the Steelbridge Lofts across the intersection:

and the Wynkoop side from ground level:

and the project site plan:

You’ll notice in both images that a new wide sidewalk will be installed in front of the building along Wynkoop Street. Since the building’s construction in 1900, there’s never been a sidewalk along the Wynkoop side of the building given the loading dock’s location there. Speaking of the loading dock, the existing dock will be removed and a new, wider dock will be added that will not only allow for ADA access to the building, but will provide sufficient room for other uses, such as a restaurant patio. While the diagonal parking and narrow sidewalk located in front of the surface parking lot to the north along Wynkoop will continue to inhibit pedestrian movement, the new wide sidewalk in front of the Saddlery will be a huge improvement to the Lower Downtown streetscape.

The Saddlery Building project will be complete later this year.

Posted by Ken Schroeppel on February 18, 2010