This morning, the Land Use, Transportation and Infrastructure committee discussed the extension for about 5-ish minutes, so that owners and applicants may look for a plan for Carmen Court’s future. The extension would last for 45 days until it goes back to that committee to October 13.
Then, about 2 hours and 30 minutes later, the Denver Landmark Preservation Commission also discussed an extension to look for a plan, but for 90 days, until November 9. Happily, that is after election day.
So unless something happens – perhaps a different developer surfaces, or a better plan works out? – Carmen Court has moved out of the spotlight, which has involved owners, applicants and the developer, Hines.
Hines has been in the news for years in Denver, developing buildings such as 1144 15th Street, 1601 Wewatta Street, the Wells Fargo Center, Dominion Towers, 1999 Broadway, and more.
But last month, there was news about the passing of Gerald D. Hines, who founded the huge development company. The firm has some 4,800 employees in offices around the world. So Carmen Court is in a different, smaller league, but the plan was that Hines would develop a luxury senior housing facility on that land.
A lengthy obituary of Gerald D. Hines was printed in August 26 in The Denver Post, via legacy.com. Some kind soul had inserted paragraphs in that obituary, but the legacy.com obituary is a lengthy one that has no breaks. What was interesting that it includes a lengthy passage that lauded Hines’ work with respected architects, ranging from Frank Gehry and I.M. Pei and Harry N. Cobb, to Robert A.M. Stern and Jon Pickard and William Chilton. The link at legacy.com below includes that lengthy obituary, and a link that lists some of the many projects in Denver from the Hines’ website. And there is a link below to an obituary in The New York Times.
Then, there is a link to BusinessDen reposting a story in The Aspen Times, which involved a large project there that Hines had captivated him. The first paragraph says this: “Despite heading an international real estate firm with thousands of employees working on hundreds of endeavors in dozens of countries, Gerald Hines had a certain passion for his pet project at Aspen Highlands in the 1990s.”
Finally, there is a link to the meeting’s quick discussion this morning when the committee agreed to an extension for discussion of Carmen Court. So different.
https://www.hines.com/search?q=Denver
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=gerald-hines&pid=196698917&fhid=29310
https://denver.granicus.com/player/clip/13723?view_id=141&redirect=true
Chandler in Denver 