On the northwest side of Larimer Street, between 26th and 27th streets, the corridor is buzzing with shops, bars and the Denver Central Market.

The other side of the street in the River North neighborhood is noticeably emptier.

One building has boarded up windows and garage doors that match the exterior walls with no signage. It does have one business, a liquor store, and the street corner at 27th is home to the Volunteers of America. Yet, the sidewalk is more crowded with parked electric scooters than people during the lunch hour compared to the other street side. 

It’s been nearly three years since the city designated the block between Larimer and Lawrence Street as “blighted” — claiming it was underutilized and impeding the street’s economic growth — and approved a redevelopment plan to revive the area.

But the project that promised to bring 390 rental units, about 40 of which would have been designated as affordable, and more retail to the area has struggled to get off the ground.

Now, the developer and the Denver Urban Renewal Authority (DURA) are asking the city for permission to significantly scale back the project.

At least temporarily.

“The project that was originally defined in the plan has just not been feasible,” Tracy Huggins, DURA’s executive director, told a committee of City Council members. 

“It’s been a number of years and nothing has happened,” Huggins added. “The area does continue to deteriorate.”

Edens, the developer of the block, proposed an amended plan that now no longer includes any housing after the developer said it struggled to find a partner to finance the project amid high interest rates.

The changes passed through the city’s finance and business committee on Tuesday and will need to get final approval from the City Council next, which is set for a public hearing on Sept. 8.

“When the project started, required returns for residential development increased over 150 basis points,” Thomas Picarsic, managing director of Edens, told committee members.

Add in higher construction costs and a “glut” of new housing supply in the River North neighborhood, Picarsic said, getting revenue returns on the project became unfeasible in current market conditions.

The average rent across the Denver metro area has dropped $71 since spring of 2024 due to a recent surge of new construction wrapping up and hitting the market.

But the pipeline of new apartments has considerably slowed, according to the Apartment Association of Metro Denver.

Metro Denver apartment rents fell 3% in the last year — and it could keep dropping

Edens is also the developer of the more successful block that is home to Denver Central Market, which has attracted both local and national brands, such as Patagonia and Arc’teryx on Walnut Street. With its changed plans, the developer hopes to recreate a similar success on the other block on Larimer — but by using what it already has.

And quickly.

The community said it wants the developers to prioritize getting rid of the blight immediately, Picarsic said.

“Our goal is to bring that as quickly as possible to the neighborhood,” he said.

So what else is different about the new development plan?

The original redevelopment plan proposed developing several multi-story buildings that included housing and retail, an outdoor plaza and underground parking.

The new plan proposes adaptively reusing the buildings on Larimer Street that are already there for retail, as well as leaving potential for new buildings. It also proposes to cut the underground parking and replace it with a surface parking lot, which could be used for a future development project once economic conditions improve.

But the new plan adds a grocery store building on the block, according to the amended proposal.

And in keeping with the 2022 plan, the project aims at attracting small businesses run by owners who are Black, Indigenous and people of color.

Proposed redevelopment at 27th and Larimer sparks conversations

The new plan brings down the amount of retail development from 101,000 square feet to 61,000 square feet.

The block is a designated Urban Redevelopment Area that allows the project to be partially financed through tax-increment financing to clean up contamination at the site through the Denver Urban Renewal Authority.

The amount of money for the project that can be reimbursed through tax increments dropped by more than half to match the way the project has been scaled back.

The 2022 plan reimbursement fell from $19.5 million to $9.25 million, according to DURA, staying at about 12% of the total project’s budget.

“Just as in the original project, the revised project use of tax increment will be used to reimburse those costs that are directly addressing the blighting conditions found on the site, as well as to support the development vision,” Huggins said.

Housing isn’t completely out of the picture

The newly-revised project would be an “interim phase,” Picarsic said.

While bringing in new residents wouldn’t be included in it, Huggins and Picarsic said the developers still plan to build apartments when the market allows it.

The surface parking lot could leave room for a potential housing project in the future.

“Depending on the exact timing, it could be exactly the same project that we originally intended — just depending on when the market comes back,” Picarsic said.

The focus on retail is aimed at removing the blight, so that the housing can come to fruition in the future, he said, adding that it could take about 15 to 20 years, depending on the economy.

“That commitment there continues,” Picarsic said.