Billion-dollar redevelopment to transform Cherry Creek’s west side over next few years

Now that a new billion-dollar project has governmental approval, a long-awaited face-lift of the west side of the tony Cherry Creek shopping district will move forward.

Cherry Creek West is a 13-acre mixed-use redevelopment that will offer about 825 residences, 600,000 square feet of office space, 100,000 square feet of retail, a reservoir of underground parking with over 2,000 spaces and 4 acres of open space.

It will be the latest development for an area the city’s Blueprint Denver land use plan predicted would become a “regional center” by 2040. The neighborhood is well on its way with planned residential and commercial growth, with projects carrying names like The Oasis and Cherry Lane.

Since the pandemic altered how people work and shop, Cherry Creek has been an outlier compared to other commercial areas, such as downtown Denver, with office vacancy rates at 10.2%, according to a CBRE 2024 second-quarter report on office figures.

In contrast, downtown Denver has an office vacancy rate of 33.9%, which is significantly higher than the national average of 19.6%. CBRE forecasts that the overall office vacancy rate in the United States will peak at 19.8% by the end of the year.

Tenants in the area’s office space, once predominantly in the financial sector, have broadened to include businesses in energy, insurance, health care, technology and, fittingly, real estate.

Cherry Creek West, to be built on land owned by the Buell Foundation, will likely add to the area’s allure.

Amy Cara, managing partner at East West Partners, the company overseeing the project, said they recognized that the location, filled with vacant big-box stores and a sea of parking, was not being utilized to its best ability.

“I’ve lived in Denver for over 30 years and so it’s always been a little surprising to me that as you drive into Cherry Creek, this great neighborhood with so much energy and so much happening as it’s redeveloped and more residences and hotels — that this particular site was just sort of sitting there,” she said.

“The Buell Foundation owns the old underlining land and they knew it wasn’t best utilized. So we just said, ‘Well, let’s try and imagine some things together and see what we can do.’ ”

Steve ErkenBrack, president and CEO of the Buell Foundation, said the project will strengthen his organization’s “mission to make a difference for young children in Denver and throughout Colorado.”

“Our goal in reimagining the west end of the Cherry Creek Shopping Center was to find someone aligned with our history of enhancing the neighborhood while creating a sustainable cash flow for the beneficiaries of the foundation – the children of Colorado,” ErkenBrack said in a news release about the project in late September.

Tracy Hadden Loh, a fellow at Brookings Metro whose research has covered topics such as commercial real estate, infrastructure, racial justice and governance, said the pandemic changed where people spend their time now and emphasized the importance of providing people with diverse options to support communities and reduce vacancy rates.

“We hyper optimize places to serve incredibly niche demographics and what we actually need to do and what people actually like, are vibrant places that appeal to multiple different kinds of people,” she said.

“People are inherently mixed-use — we switch back and forth between different aspects of our lifestyles and identities throughout the day, and so that means that we need the things that cater to those different parts of ourselves to be closer together.”

Cherry Creek West is bordered by University Boulevard, First Avenue, the Cherry Creek Shopping Center and Cherry Creek North Drive. Notable elements of the plan include adding affordable housing, protected bike lanes on First Avenue and Clayton Lane and several improvements to pedestrian crossings at First Avenue and the Cherry Creek trail.

East West Partners’ plan calls for seven total buildings, four of which can reach the maximum height of 13 stories and three of which would be eight stories.

The project is expected to cost over $1 billion, according to Cara. Some internal road and utility work will begin at the Cherry Creek West site at the end of this year with demolition of existing buildings expected to begin in spring 2025. Groundbreaking is anticipated in summer 2026.

Phase 1 is planned to be finished in 2029 and the entire project, which includes a second phase, will take nearly a decade to complete.

Zone Athletic Clubs is the only active business on the lot, but according to Cara, they are on a temporary lease and will have to vacate the area before the demolition begins.

“They’re a great business. They have a ton of customers. I know they’ve been working on getting into their new home, but we will need to relocate them out of our site so we can get started working on the cleanup that needs to happen,” she said.

“Those buildings are of an age that they have asbestos, and so we need to clean them up and then demolish them to make way for the new development.”

Zone Athletic Clubs did not respond to requests for comment from The Denver Post.

“A sense of community”

On Sept. 23, the Denver City Council unanimously approved a rezoning application and development agreement for Cherry Creek West, giving the project the green light to move forward.

“This underutilized space, transforming it to a vibrant, walkable neighborhood, not only maximizes our city’s potential, but offers a sense of community,” said Anna DeWitt, a special education teacher and member at YIMBY Denver, a nonprofit that advocates for more housing and better transportation, during the meeting in support of the project.

However, as Denver residents praised the project, some expressed concerns about increased traffic and making sure the planned housing stays affordable.

DeWitt said many families and individuals struggle to find suitable homes and that the inclusion of affordable housing units in this project is crucial as living costs rise.

Cara said within Cherry Creek West, 12% of the total units, or approximately 100 units, will be “affordable” for those earning 60% of the area median income.

“It’s targeted to people who are working in retail and restaurants around there. Ideally, they could now live in the neighborhood where they work, which would be great,” she said.

District 5 City Councilmember Amanda Sawyer, who represents Cherry Creek, said East West Partners has gone “above and beyond” with this project by working with the community.

“I do want to say that I think it’s incredibly important that your financing is in place such that you are not passing along costs to future tenants that are unnecessary and will make this unaffordable in the end, even if it looks affordable now,” she said at the meeting.

Cherry Creek North Business Improvement District and the Cherry Creek Alliance President and CEO Nick LeMasters also recognized the importance of affordability.

“Certainly one of the most compelling aspects of this entire proposal is the commitment to affordable housing. As you all know, Cherry Creek is becoming a thriving economic hub, but due to rising costs, it’s been made increasingly challenging for many of our workers to live close to their jobs,” he said at the council meeting.

“By incorporating 100 affordable housing units to the project, we’re taking a vital step for ensuring that Cherry Creek remains a diverse and inclusive community, providing opportunities for people of all income levels to live and work in our neighborhood.”

Loh said if cities want a neighborhood to have diverse retail offerings, then they should also want that neighborhood to have diverse housing options.

“That’s needed, not just to support the retail from the consumption perspective. But also, you know, retailers need workers,” she said.

Key developments to watch for

Nearly 4 miles from downtown Denver, Cherry Creek consists of 1,770 businesses and draws over 14 million visitors annually, according to a 2023-2024 State of Cherry Creek Report by the Cherry Creek Alliance.

Clothing stores such as Reformation and abercrombie kids (which spells its name all lowercase), along with Swiss-brand watches and jewelry store Swatch, are one of the many businesses that have moved in this year at the Cherry Creek Shopping Center.

But Cherry Creek West isn’t the only development in the works. Several projects in the area that are nearing completion are from BMC Investments, a Denver-based real estate investment company.

Office and retail building 255 Fillmore is completed and 100% leased, according to a BMC Investments spokesperson. All tenants are already working in the building with the exception of the ground-floor restaurant, Le Colonial. Le Colonial will open in mid-November of this year. The completion of 242 Milwaukee is expected in the second half of 2026.

Additionally, 299 Milwaukee, also known as “The Oasis,” will feature an eight-story building with 156 luxury residential units and 30,000 square feet of high-end ground floor retail, and is also projected to be completed by the second half of 2026.