The development site for the project formerly known as World Trade Center Denver, as seen on Monday, June 14, 2022. (BusinessDen file)
In early 2020, Denver development firm Formativ, along with partners, was preparing to break ground on a major project in RiNo.
The World Trade Center Denver complex, right by the Regional Transportation District’s 38th and Blake rail station, was going to feature two buildings: a hotel and an office building, which would be partially leased to its namesake trade association.
Sean Campbell
Then the pandemic hit. The project stalled, then died. In March 2021, the World Trade Center association announced it would instead take space in another project.
Now, years later, Formativ CEO Sean Campbell has parted ways with his onetime partners on the project. And he has a new vision for the approximately 2.1-acre site, of three buildings. Office space is out and apartments are in. A hotel is still planned, although on a different part of the site.
Campbell hopes to break ground on one building by the end of 2024. The other two structures will follow by at least a year; Formativ just submitted concept plans to the city for them last week.
“We’re very excited to be back playing a bit of offense here,” Campbell told BusinessDen Friday.
Formativ’s plans call for two apartment buildings. One will go up at 3850 Blake St., a half-acre lot where the company once planned to build the hotel with Tennessee-based Kemmons Wilson Cos.
Campbell said Formativ bought Kemmons Wilson out on that property in 2020, when hardly anyone was traveling and most people thought it would be a long time before hotel development resumed.
A rendering of the World Trade Center Denver project released by Formativ in 2019. (Courtesy Formativ)
The planned building is set to have 310 units, averaging under 600 square feet, so that Formativ can keep rents relatively low, Campbell said. He’d hoped to break ground this summer but now is expecting to do so by year-end.
Formativ owned the rest of the site — about 1.6 acres — with Chicago-based Golub & Co. That’s where the office building had been slated to go.
Formativ and Golub are partners in developing a much larger site in RiNo’s Denargo Market. But the Chicago firm, whose executives didn’t respond to requests for comment, has bowed out of 38th and Blake. Campbell said Formativ bought Golub out of the partnership earlier this year.
Campbell noted it was Formativ that originally assembled the site, then opted to bring Golub and Kemmons Wilson in on the World Trade Center project.
The plan now is to build a second apartment building and a hotel where the offices had been planned.
Plans drawn up by Shears Adkins Rockmore Architects call for the hotel at 3800 Blake St. to be 12 stories and 130,000 square feet, with about 180 rooms and 4,000 square feet of space for a restaurant. The proposed apartment building next door would be 16 stories and have 400 units, with about 10,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.
Campbell said he hopes to make the site a “hub for the neighborhood,” which he noted still isn’t the easiest to get around. Formativ will develop the apartment buildings itself. The firm won’t operate the hotel, he said, but hasn’t determined if it will have a co-developer on the project or just hire a firm to operate it.
“We have some great conversations going with some national flags for the hotel,” Campbell said.
Campbell was early to RiNo’s transformation as part of the group that developed the neighborhood’s two Industry buildings. And the World Trade Center project was discussed publicly at least as far back as 2016.
But he acknowledged it’s a different era in the neighborhood now.
“Seven years ago, I thought we were first movers,” he said. “And then here we are today.”
The development site for the project formerly known as World Trade Center Denver, as seen on Monday, June 14, 2022. (BusinessDen file)
In early 2020, Denver development firm Formativ, along with partners, was preparing to break ground on a major project in RiNo.
The World Trade Center Denver complex, right by the Regional Transportation District’s 38th and Blake rail station, was going to feature two buildings: a hotel and an office building, which would be partially leased to its namesake trade association.
Sean Campbell
Then the pandemic hit. The project stalled, then died. In March 2021, the World Trade Center association announced it would instead take space in another project.
Now, years later, Formativ CEO Sean Campbell has parted ways with his onetime partners on the project. And he has a new vision for the approximately 2.1-acre site, of three buildings. Office space is out and apartments are in. A hotel is still planned, although on a different part of the site.
Campbell hopes to break ground on one building by the end of 2024. The other two structures will follow by at least a year; Formativ just submitted concept plans to the city for them last week.
“We’re very excited to be back playing a bit of offense here,” Campbell told BusinessDen Friday.
Formativ’s plans call for two apartment buildings. One will go up at 3850 Blake St., a half-acre lot where the company once planned to build the hotel with Tennessee-based Kemmons Wilson Cos.
Campbell said Formativ bought Kemmons Wilson out on that property in 2020, when hardly anyone was traveling and most people thought it would be a long time before hotel development resumed.
A rendering of the World Trade Center Denver project released by Formativ in 2019. (Courtesy Formativ)
The planned building is set to have 310 units, averaging under 600 square feet, so that Formativ can keep rents relatively low, Campbell said. He’d hoped to break ground this summer but now is expecting to do so by year-end.
Formativ owned the rest of the site — about 1.6 acres — with Chicago-based Golub & Co. That’s where the office building had been slated to go.
Formativ and Golub are partners in developing a much larger site in RiNo’s Denargo Market. But the Chicago firm, whose executives didn’t respond to requests for comment, has bowed out of 38th and Blake. Campbell said Formativ bought Golub out of the partnership earlier this year.
Campbell noted it was Formativ that originally assembled the site, then opted to bring Golub and Kemmons Wilson in on the World Trade Center project.
The plan now is to build a second apartment building and a hotel where the offices had been planned.
Plans drawn up by Shears Adkins Rockmore Architects call for the hotel at 3800 Blake St. to be 12 stories and 130,000 square feet, with about 180 rooms and 4,000 square feet of space for a restaurant. The proposed apartment building next door would be 16 stories and have 400 units, with about 10,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.
Campbell said he hopes to make the site a “hub for the neighborhood,” which he noted still isn’t the easiest to get around. Formativ will develop the apartment buildings itself. The firm won’t operate the hotel, he said, but hasn’t determined if it will have a co-developer on the project or just hire a firm to operate it.
“We have some great conversations going with some national flags for the hotel,” Campbell said.
Campbell was early to RiNo’s transformation as part of the group that developed the neighborhood’s two Industry buildings. And the World Trade Center project was discussed publicly at least as far back as 2016.
But he acknowledged it’s a different era in the neighborhood now.
“Seven years ago, I thought we were first movers,” he said. “And then here we are today.”
