Developer’s bid to acquire public land for cheap denied

The Denver City Council took a rare step Monday by denying a hotel developer’s controversial attempt to acquire a valuable piece of public property downtown nearly for free.

At stake was a roughly 5,000-square-foot bit of concrete public right of way near the King Soopers by Coors Field, at 29th Avenue and Chestnut Place. The Chestnut Place LLC owns the adjacent land and is planning a 192-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel there. The LLC sought to develop on a small portion of the right of way as well.

It’s a tricky slice of property: It currently features some trees and a bike-share rack, and because it’s been designated for transportation and utility purposes, the Denver City Council can’t just do with the land whatever it wants to. No public plaza or park could go there, for instance, under current rules. In order to amend the designation, the city must vacate the land — an action that would automatically award the land to the adjacent owner, Chestnut Place LLC.

This award would have seen Chestnut Place LLC acquire the land essentially for nothing. The proposed $1,600 price tag is less than 0.1% as valuable as the attached land slated for a

Marriott.

The land falls in District 9, which is represented by Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca. She strongly opposed the vacation and said that more than three-quarters of constituents she’s spoken to opposed it, too.

“It’s not appropriate in this case, as this developer is not asking for a corner or an alley,” CdeBaca said. “This is very clearly a developer windfall.”

CdeBaca noted that the right-of-way vacation would increase the developer’s land in this area by 50%. That’s a particularly bad deal “in one of the most expensive commercial and residential neighborhoods in our city,” she said.

She and other council members were concerned that the right of way would not be used for publicly beneficial transportation purposes under Chestnut Place LLC’s guidance.

“I am concluding that it is feasible for future transportation purposes, and that is important,” said Robin Kniech, at-large councilwoman. “So what am I weighing that against? The community need for additional hotel rooms, basically.”

Her concern for hotel rooms lost out. In dissent, she joined CdeBaca and council members Chris Hinds, Jamie Torres, Amanda Sandoval, Paul Kashmann, Amanda Sawyer, Debbie Ortega, Jolon Clark, Stacie Gilmore and Kevin Flynn.

Members Chris Herndon and Kendra Black voted in support of the vacation.

“This is a really tough one,” Black said. “In my almost 4.5 years on the council, we have never voted against a vacation.”

Before Monday’s council meeting, Chestnut Place LLC spent time taking input from neighbors and reached an agreement with the neighborhood organization there — Union Station Neighborhood North, a newly registered group — which included commitments for public space, benches and new sidewalks.

That group’s standing in the area was called into question Monday because it only recently officially registered. Torres wasn’t convinced that the group can suppose to speak for the neighborhood, which sits in the corner of rapidly gentrifying Five Points.

Council members also did not appreciate that the developers emailed the neighbor agreement less than an hour before the council meeting started.

“I”m frustrated,” Hinds said. “I can’t read a legal document in 40 minutes.”

“Don’t bring me last-minute stuff,” Kashmann said.