The Post Editorial River Mile could transform Denver

Many a Coloradan will shed tears the day Elitch Gardens closes its gates to make way for development, but if the visions of Denver city planners and developer Rhys Duggan come to fruition, no one will be crying for long.

Duggan, with the backing of investors like Stan Kroenke, is proposing to build a dense-urban city center on 62 acres that is now home to the amusement park Elitch’s.

The River Mile development would transform a neglected portion of the South Platte River into a park-buffered river walk. It would finally connect downtown Denver to several cultural facilities and tourist destinations located on the west banks of the Platte. People living and visiting downtown would feel empowered to walk to the Children’s Museum or the Denver Aquarium. The walk from Lodo to Mile High Stadium, while still long, would suddenly be enjoyable. And the Pepsi Center would gain an anchor instead of being adrift in a sea of parking lots, perhaps explaining why Kroenke, who owns the Pepsi Center, is investing.

If Denver is to thrive as thousands of residents flock to our city, it must add density downtown in smart ways.

Our roads cannot accommodate more commuters, nor can our ozone-pollutionprone skies. Quality of life suffers too as residents spend more than an hour in their cars each day.

The first phase of River Mile is something we need more of — replacing 17 acres of surface parking lots with a parking garage and mixed-use housing development. It’s highly unlikely this development will contribute significantly to Denver’s affordable housing stock — approximately 15 percent of the units constructed will be “affordable” to average wage earners in Denver.

But adding 8,000 housing units to downtown Denver over the next 25 or 30 years will take pressure off other housing prices. Older condos in downtown Denver will hopefully see their prices decline as the newer units hit the market.

All of this, however, is assuming that Denver continues to boom. There are indications that will be the case, such as VF Corporation (The North Face’s parent company) locating its campus in Lodo. Time will tell.

Duggan told Denver Post reporter Andrew Kenney that he is keeping an eye on market conditions. “I’m cautious right now,” Duggan said.

We’re glad to see that caution because Duggan is not only investing private capital on this venture, he also plans to use roughly $600 million in bonds that will be paid back by residents who live in the area through property taxes. We don’t have to look hard to find residents on the Front Range left with unsustainably high property taxes because a development plan fell apart while using the promise of future taxpayer dollars to fund the infrastructure.

If done right, River Mile has the potential to transform an underutilized area.

City officials have their work cut out for them, but we are glad to see them demanding some additional open space and affordable housing in the plans. City Councilwoman Debbie Ortega is leading the charge to make sure this development is done right, asking questions during meetings of the developer and pushing for a comprehensive plan for the entire area, not just the 62 acres planned for River Mile.

We think that push is perfectly appropriate given the level of public investment being made.