Area residents interviewed after the meeting seemed pleased with
the proposed changes and the new plan.
“I think the new plan is an improvement over the original plan
for the project,” Paul Hadle, who lives in Kent Village to the west
of the development site, said after the meeting.
By By: Tom Munds
Development team members apparently successfully explained the
new plan and fielded neighbor’s questions during the Oct. 12 Kent
Place public meeting.
Area residents interviewed after the meeting seemed pleased with
the proposed changes and the new plan.
“I think the new plan is an improvement over the original plan
for the project,” Paul Hadle, who lives in Kent Village to the west
of the development site, said after the meeting. “They (Continuum
Partners) are professionals and know how to properly develop a
project like this. I feel they have the best interests of the
neighborhood as they complete plans for this development. I am
particularly impressed with the traffic plan, particularly the
lengthened left-turn lane on University. I believe this project
will be good for our area and for the city of Englewood.”
Katty Stoller, who lives across University Boulevard from the
development site, said she felt Continuum Partners did a good job
presenting their planned changes and did a good job answering
questions.
“I like the fact they showed the original plan and the new plan
so you could get a good feel for the impact of the changes they
propose,” she said after the meeting. “I also like the fact they
continue to work with neighbors outside the city (Englewood) and
they affirm they will do what they can to reduce the impact of the
development on those neighbors.”
The Oct. 12 meeting was part of the process to seek city
approval for changes to the development’s planned unit
development.
Representatives of Continuum Partners’ development team met with
about 40 people from the neighborhood to discuss proposed changes
to the Kent Place development planned for the 11 acres at
University and Hampden.
The project concept is construction of a residential combination
of high-end town homes and condominiums along with one
retail/office building on the 11.4-acre site at University and
Hampden that was home to Denver Seminary until the school moved to
its new location last year.
Continuum Partners became the developer almost a year ago when
they bought the land from the original developer, John
Forstmann.
“We have studied this project for almost a year and believe we
need to make the changes to improve the development,” Kevin Foltz,
development director for Continuum Partners, told the Oct. 12
audience. “We decided the changes are needed to reduce the
residential density, improve the traffic flow and access to the
residential units and support our plans to build the project in
phases while shortening the time it takes to complete
it.”
Planned changes include:
* Eliminating the nine-story and the seven story towers
scheduled to house condominiums.
* Redesigning the layout of the ground to increase the number of
town houses planned for the project.
* Reducing the height of the retail buildings and reducing the
planned 65,000 square feet to 53,000 square feet.
* Increasing surface parking for customers of the retail stores
instead of having them park in an underground parking
garage.
* Provide basement parking for the townhouses instead of an
underground parking garage.
* Change the topography of the landscape to improve drainage
from the site.
* Take land from the site to make improvements to University
Boulevard at Hampden Avenue, including lengthening the left-turn
lane from southbound University to eastbound Hampden.
Foltz said the project will be built in phases. Phase 1a and 1b
will build the retail stores, the town houses around most of the
perimeter and the interior towers for the condominiums.
Phase 2 will build the two tallest towers. Foltz said the final
design of the buildings, a 14-story tower and a 13-story tower, has
not been finalized.
“The changes have improved the efficiency of building this
project,” he said. “It has reduced a seven-year project to a
project that we feel should be completed in five years.”
Foltz said the proposed changes to the planned unit development
must be approved by the planning and zoning commission and by city
council.
“We are starting the process to get approval for the changes,”
he said. “We hope to complete the approval process so we can start
construction in the first quarter of 2007 and we can complete the
first phase of the project by the fall of 2008.”
He said the quality of the project remains unchanged with
expected prices for units ranging from $250,000 to $2.5
million.
To contact Tom Munds, e-mail him at tmunds@ccnewspapers.com or
call him at 303-566-4108.