Southwest Downtown Urban Renewal

[Front_Range_Guy]

Colorado Springs City Council has passed a plan for a portion of the Southwest Downtown Urban Renewal area, which has struggled to move forward since being declared blighted long ago.

Up to this point, the city built America the Beautiful Park has been the only new development in the area. The park has proven succesful, but the vision for the park to be surrounded by dense commercial and residential development hasn't be realized.

http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1327118&secid=1

www.americathebeautifulpark.com

Renderings tomorrow!

[timbucktuna]

that's really exciting! can't wait to see some pics!

[Front_Range_Guy]

This IS really exciting...

http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1327133

Here's a direct link to the rendering.

Rendering

[timbucktuna]

looks great. they should find space for some retail. the time frame the paper gave is impressive. hopefully they can stick to it. i walked down there today. this project will really brighten the area up. it looks really industrial with the train tracks and the smoke pouring out of whatever that place is just south of the park.

[Front_Range_Guy]

The place south of the park is The Martin Drake Coal Power Plant.

The area is largely industrial. I think the eventual plan for southwest downtown is much larger, and will include retail... this is simply a much welcome first step.

I'm hoping to go take some pictures of the area and post them this weekend.

It's very feasible at this point that in 2008 we may have cranes up on the buildings in this area, as well as a new loft project on Bijou and Cooper Tower!

[Front_Range_Guy]

I had fully intended to create a thread for UP, but I'm too exhausted...

I went out and took these pictures Friday Morning. It's a good thing I didn't wait until Saturday because I slipped on the ice and broke my ankle Friday night. Anyway... enjoy.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread...939#post2485939

[RestedTraveler]

I had fully intended to create a thread for UP, but I'm too exhausted...

I went out and took these pictures Friday Morning. It's a good thing I didn't wait until Saturday because I slipped on the ice and broke my ankle Friday night. Anyway... enjoy.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread...939#post2485939

[Front_Range_Guy]

Yeah... it's too bad the pedestrian bridge is the least likely part of this project to actually happen. I'm guessing the pedestrian bridge will be dependent on the eventual build out of Palmer Village on the other side of the tracks.

Even so... I'm almost giddy about the potential building boom that is headed for downtown... FINALLY. Colorado Springs may have something that resembles A real skyline in 10 years!

[MJLO]

I Share your sentiments F_R_G. Lots of good things going on there. As the city leadership and community voices go, so goes the skyline. It's a rather conservativ place in Colorado Springs right? That much im fairly sure of although not positive. Generally conservative populations tend to be strong voices in opposition of taller structures for whatever reason. However with growth comes investment, and CO Springs is growing quickly so thats a strong point in favor of it.

I really want to get up there and explore. CO Springs is one of my pet cities. I won't list my other ones lol.

[Front_Range_Guy]

Colorado Springs as a whole is conservative, but downtown generally isn't. I don't anticipate nimbys being a huge problem for these projects, though no doubt they will make their voices heard and in fact already have. Right now the drive to get these projects off the ground is too strong for any nimbys to have much of a say. There is a lot of momentum behind downtown growth.

[colin]

Strangely enough, right after I looked at this thread, I found an for the CO Springs Fine Arts Center, indicating "The new era begins this August"

It probably came up because it got my Southwest IP, but I think it's interesting that they're advertising.

I'm looking forward to getting up there in a couple of weeks.

[Front_Range_Guy]

There's a bit of news about Southwest Downtown Urban Renewal in today's paper. I guess it's mostly good news, though I was dissapointed to read that Hammons doesn't plan to break ground on Embassy Suites until Spring, 2008. There's also news Hammons has began site work on his new 10-Story Renaissance Hotel in Colorado Springs northern nether-reaches.

The story

[RestedTraveler]

There's also news Hammons has began site work on his new 10-Story Renaissance Hotel in Colorado Springs northern nether-reaches.

The story

[Front_Range_Guy]

More progress toward ground breaking.

The building occupied by The Cottonwood Art School will be razed during this project. I really hope they are able to find suitable new space downtown. Near The Fine Arts Center & Cornerstone Arts Center would be ideal, I think.