BRAC - The Denver Experience (cont.)

Along with the redevelopment of the 7.5-square-mile Stapleton International Airport as a huge new neighborhood, Lowry and Fitzsimons frame Northeast Denver ’s “Growth Triangle,” where $9.6 billion in investment will produce 20 percent of the region’s new jobs through 2020. Stapleton and Fitzsimons share a boundary, and Lowry is only blocks away.

The three huge projects complement each other nicely. For example, Lowry and Stapleton house many Fitzsimons doctors and nurses. Both neighborhoods plan their own medical centers or bioscience parks to catch anticipated spillover from Fitzsimons.

In a region that treasures outdoor recreation, open space plans enhance these redevelopment strategies. A third shuttered military facility, the 17,000-acre Rocky Mountain Arsenal, is becoming a National Wildlife Refuge linked to the Growth Triangle by regional trails. A small corner of the Arsenal – about 360 acres – is being devoted to Prairie Gateway, yet another public-private venture to include a Wildlife Refuge visitor center, civic center for the community of Commerce City, youth soccer fields, retail development and a 20,000-seat, single-purpose stadium for Colorado Rapids major league soccer. The $130 million complex was scheduled to break ground this spring.

Meanwhile, the Denver region continues to benefit from Aurora’s 3,200-acre Buckley Air Force Base. In 2004, Buckley contributed $1.2 billion to the regional economy, including 17,000 associated civilian jobs and $41 million in construction.

Lowry: Life after closure

Created in 1937, Lowry grew into one of five centers in the Air Training Command. Expansion continued even after flying ended at Lowry when a military plane crashed in a Denver backyard in 1965. Lowry was closed as part of the 1991 round of base closures. After it was decommissioned in 1994, the new LRA took responsibility for redeveloping the property.

“Lowry was the original poster child for base reuse planning,” says the LRA’s Markham. “Fortunately, we hit the market with the right project at the right time. Three years ahead of schedule, we are 80 percent built and probably one of the top four or five base reuse projects nationwide.”

The LRA had the advantage of a strong private-sector real estate orientation. Then headed by James E. Meadows, an Air Force veteran and experienced housing developer, the LRA soon began to tackle such challenges as environmental cleanup (which has cost $82 million to date), a perceived lack of market demand, and neighborhood opposition to base reuse, mostly over fear of increased traffic congestion. It was to be a shotgun marriage between the new Lowry and older neighborhoods around it.While neighbors decried Lowry’s potential density and congestion, the LRA was charged with reintegrating the site with the larger community.

This was worked out through an exhaustive planning process involving teams of consultants and representatives of 39 neighborhood groups. Over five years, more than 300 meetings were held involving about 6,000 citizens.

The result: an ambitious master plan for 4,500 homes, a mixed-use town center, educational facilities, 185 acres of office buildings, and 800 acres of parks. Some experts doubted that sleepy northeast Denver and working-class Aurora could attract development on this scale. But success has come sooner and with higher values than planners anticipated.

Housing is the main story at Lowry, where homes were built in many styles and price ranges.

Housing is the main story. The LRA successfully attracted production homebuilders to buy lots and build thousands of homes. This was no foregone conclusion, as homebuilders needed to be convinced of the value of customizing their standard models to meet Lowry’s design guidelines for traditional- style homes located on alleys.

A unique product resulted. Homes in many styles and price ranges in four neighborhoods have won over buyers willing to pay a premium to live in the city. In 2004, the Lowry zip code commanded the region ’s highest median home prices at over half a million dollars.

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