Spire: A Bellwether for Continuing Growth in Downtown Denver

There was a very positive development for the Denver Metro Region recently when it was announced that construction on Spire (http://www.spiredenver.com/), a 41-story residential condominium with ground floor retail will be resuming shortly. Work on the tower, located at 891 14th Street in Downtown Denver, was halted last year after the primary construction lender, a U.S. based subsidiary of a German financial institution, backed out of its loan commitment. I first blogged about this situation back in September 2007 (http://aviewoftherockies.blogspot.com/2007/09/global-credit-squeeze-and-metro-denver.html)

In my recent blog on 10 Metro Denver Economic Development Issues to Watch For in 2008 ( http://aviewoftherockies.blogspot.com/2007/12/10-metro-denver-economic-development.html ) I called Spire "a key signpost indicating whether the local downtown residential construction boom will continue or tail off in the face of economic and credit market headwinds." Spire is a well conceived project, targeting the ripe segment of young professionals who want to live in Downtown Denver with moderately priced units starting at around $200,000. Spire's developer Randy Nichols has a strong reputation backed by substantial experience. If Spire had withered on the vine it would have been a powerful signal that the current residential expansion in Central Denver was slowing and confidence in Metro Denver was diminishing.

Spire, and other similar projects are helping to transform Denver into a more urban city with the possibility of 24 hour life and improved amenities. This transformation will play a key role in Denver's future economic development because it will help attract, young, educated workers who can power a knowledge-based economy. The fact that Spire will be financed in spite of the global credit market turmoil and fears of a U.S. recession shows that the financial markets are still willing to invest in Denver's economic future.

The rendering of Spire in this blog entry is from the Rocky Mountain News website.