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Spencer Levy
With a billion-dollar airport expansion, new office towers and revitalized neighborhoods all over town, Denver is bringing together the past and the future – a mix of preservation and development that's on the frontier of adaptive reuse, sustainability and more. On this episode, we’re Rocky Mountain high, coming to you from Denver's downtown district of LoDo with some of the best real estate minds in the est for a conversational tour of Colorado and its capital city, Denver.
Katie Kruger
I like to think of Denver as having this overarching atmosphere that's this unique, pro-business, sort of environmentally focused place that sort of makes you feel like you're combining Texas and California.
Spencer Levy
That's Katie Kruger, a CBRE Managing Director who heads our five offices in Colorado. A former CEO of the Denver Metro Commercial Association of Realtors, Katie now leads CBRE’s Advisory Business across all lines of business in the state.
Rodney Milton
It's the gateway to the West. It is a regional city in a sense that it has the economic engine that powers the region. It's a fantastic city in the sense of the quality of life.
Spencer Levy
And that's Rodney Milton, the Executive Director of the Urban Land Institute, or ULI Colorado, an organization with the stated mission to shape the future of the built environment. ULI-Colorado's membership includes roughly 1,400 professionals from across the real estate industry, architects, developers, planners and more. Coming up, real estate in a mile-high market. I'm Spencer Levy and that's right now on The Weekly Take.
Spencer Levy
Welcome to The Weekly Take, and today I am here in one of the fastest growing places because of its live-work-play characteristics, great business environment, sports teams and it ain't too far from the mountains either. And so to help us describe why Denver has been such a success story, we have Rodney Milton. Rodney, thanks for coming on the show.
Rodney Milton
Absolutely. Thank you, Spencer, for having me.
Spencer Levy
Delighted to have you. And then we have Katie Kruger. Katie, thank you for joining the show.
Katie Kruger
Thanks for having me, Spencer.
Spencer Levy
So let's just get right down to it, Rodney. Tell us why Denver is a great place to be.
Rodney Milton
It's the gateway to the West. It is a regional city in a sense that it has the economic engine that powers the region. It's a fantastic city in the sense of the quality of life, right. So when you talk to folks, as a matter of fact, I just recently relocated. I grew up here, but I moved away and I brought my wife here, I don't know, ten, eleven years ago. She came here. The lifestyle, the outdoors, the beauty, drew her so much that she said every year from that moment, we have to figure out a way to get to Denver. So we relocated in 2020. And I think that draw to quality of life, particularly if there was something about the pandemic that was positive, it was the recognition for folks to be able to move and be where they wanted to be so that they could be in places that were outdoors, places that were thoughtful and intentional about quality of life. And the greenspace here is fantastic. When we moved, we didn't have a dog. We had to get a dog because this is heaven for dog owners. And so I think that high quality of life, that high element of economic opportunity, is a factor for folks. And that's what you see, that draw and that attractiveness, to Denver.
Spencer Levy
So I know I'm going to get the text from my producer or from my listeners. What kind of dog did you get?
Rodney Milton
So I'm going to get the text from my wife. She listens because she knows I love this dog. It's a Basenji. This is either the oldest breed of dog or one of the oldest. She's African. She doesn't bark. She's fantastic. I'll post some pictures of her I love.
Spencer Levy
Awesome. Well, we're going to get some Basenji lovers on this podcast for sure.
Rodney Milton
We’re few and far between, but yes.
Spencer Levy
Terrific. So, Katie, maybe it is a gateway city to the west, as Rodney put it, but why Denver?
Katie Kruger
Right. I so appreciate Rodney's story about his wife's emotional response to the city. And I like to think that she might have been drawn here because we are smart, young and beautiful. Smart in the sense that we have 39,000 students that attend our three universities downtown. And that stands us up as 10th in the tech industry for tech talent. We're the second best place for college grads to move to, and that feeds into our young category. Our median age downtown is just 35, makes it really fun to go out after work and hang out. And we are beautiful. Historically, those folks who settled Colorado back in the 1860s would paint postcards and send them back east to brag about their pioneering spirit. We made it here, and by the way, it was really great when we got here. We're one of the sunniest cities. We have mountain views even beyond our stadiums, and we are a must-be place for outdoor adventurers. And that's my pitch.
Spencer Levy
That's a good pitch. So let's now talk about why Denver, in the last say, is it 20 years, would you say that it's really about ten years. What was the turning point? What caused it to turn? Was it the new airport? Is it the train line to the new airport? Is it the tech? If you put your finger on any one thing, Rodney, what might it be?
Rodney Milton
Well, I think you hit a couple of them, right. Major decisions that change the dynamics of a city are those such things, right. So the airport, I believe the stats on the airport, it’s the third busiest. And I think that put Denver on the map as a city and destination in a way that competes with other cities in that bracket. The investment in transportation, in transit is another factor. Oftentimes, cities reach a tipping point where they're either going to be those mid-tier cities or they're going to step into the next level. And those are decisions that need to be made. So, one, that transit decision, the airport. I'd also say being intentional about the vibrancy of downtown. So the redevelopment of Union Station. Spencer, I remember when I was a kid, I went there, we had a family friend who was a conductor for Amtrak and he gave me a tour of the facility as a young kid that left an impression. I've gone back and I don't know if you've gone back. It's a completely different environment. It's vibrant, it is a destination in and of itself, and it's a gem for the city. And it's right downtown, right. And so that level of intentionality is a huge, pivotal factor in terms of elevating Denver into that next tier of cities where it's being mentioned in the Austins, in the Atlantas, in that bracket.
Katie Kruger
I would layer on to what Rodney started and it happened over the last decade and but really has roots in our origins. If I go back to the development of Colorado as a territory and Denver as the leader of that area, we watched the first stagecoach come across the valley to Denver when it was this itty bitty place that the pioneers were setting up. And there was this great billowing dust behind this four wheeled stagecoach. And the settlers were so excited to have outsiders here that they climbed trees and stood on their roofs and watched these visitors come in. And it was this same spirit that brought the airport into fruition. And I think we do 70 million visitors per year. And it really is the way that we have continued to make our landlocked state a port city, or make Denver into a port city.
Spencer Levy
Let's shift now to a little bit more nitty gritty real estate. I don't think it's any mystery to anybody out there right now that the capital markets are not in our favor right now. There are significant headwinds with interest rates rising, concerns about inflation, deal volume gets impacted by that. But what's going on right now in Denver in terms of business activity in real estate?
Katie Kruger
Thankfully, we are very diversified here in Denver, so we have a good upside to the story. We're still the fifth most preferred market for real estate investment, and I brought a great kind of layered statistic to show this. In 2021, 33% of our new sector projects were residential, mixed-use was 33% and office was 17%. Our pipeline going forward includes 13 private sector projects with 46% residential, 38% mixed-use, and 8% office. And so the investment is still here. They're shifting. We're seeing that at CBRE-Colorado, and we're working with our clients on shifting their investments, so.
Spencer Levy
Rodney, what are your members saying?
Rodney Milton
Yeah, I think it's the same thing. Multifamily is on fire and industrial spaces are really key. But I also think that what you're finding is there is this increased activity, but it's changed. The dynamics have changed. So the core of the workweek – Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday – is pretty vibrant. And I think you can note that I think there is vibrancy in activity. But I think what you're seeing is there's still tourism, right. Folks are visiting downtown and visiting Denver. And that level of vibrancy in terms of our bookings for restaurants, in terms of the events space and activities, is still vibrant. But my members are saying multifamily is really huge, residential is really huge and that push towards mixed use that pipeline of projects is still up, so.
Spencer Levy
If I haven't given enough love to Denver, let me give you one more little piece of love here, because about three years ago, I wrote a piece, or I was involved with writing a piece called CBRE’s Green Building Adoption Index, and the number one city for office for greenest buildings in terms of LEED and Energy Star and stuff was Chicago and Washington, D.C. But the number one city for multifamily was Denver, but it was still a relatively small percentage of about 7%, which is shockingly small when you see offices like 70%, including the building that we're sitting in right now. I saw it right there on the front of the building. So let's talk about that element about Denver transforming that. Obviously, you got sunshine, you got clean air, mountain air. You've got the mountains right there. But how big is green as part of the Denver growth story?
Katie Kruger
Spencer I'll take that question. I like to think of Denver as having this overarching atmosphere that's this unique, pro-business, environmentally focused place that sort of makes you feel like you're combining Texas and California. And I think that this is a great way to articulate how we kind of come together. In 2017, the business community and the environmentalists worked together for 18 months to develop Denver's Green Building Ordinance. And what it put in place is all buildings over 25,000 square feet have a number of choices to advance their green initiatives. And what has come out of it is a lot of cool roofs or white roofs, and...
Spencer Levy
You can call them cool. Cool is a world we use here a lot on the show, not just for temperature, but cool counts, too.
Katie Kruger
Cool all the way around. And it has encouraged a lot of offsite solar. We have a lot of sun, but as you can imagine, in a burgeoning city, not every building is perfectly situated to capture the rays, so.
Rodney Milton
I'm actually fortunate. I'll take this and make it a little bit more personal. So, my home was built in 2017. It's fully solar powered. I've got two EVs. I made that transition, and that's part of designers and homebuilders embracing the reality of sustainability in the built environment. And so my entire neighborhood is relatively solar powered and energy efficient. When you see both the private sector and the public sector coming together through policy initiatives, like you mentioned before, the net zero ordinance and the net zero imperatives that are pushing the envelope in terms of what the city is looking for, my members are saying, okay, let's make sure we can make that work. What does that mean? What are the capital markets looking at? How do we make sure that there's tenant demand for these types of buildings? Again, you mentioned before, we're in a sustainable building. It's fantastic, we office here. But that trend of retrofitting and adaptive reuse. The city and county of Denver has hired an adaptive reuse professional, right. Just dedicated on helping folks usher in because we realize, you know, I think the sentiment is the greenest building is the existing building. And so our members are working diligently with the city and county of Denver, who is forward thinking in that space.
Spencer Levy
Well, let me also reuse the word that Katie opened the door to. It looks cooler to have a mix of adaptive reuse buildings. By the way, in this neighborhood that we're in, are we in LoDo right now?
Rodney Milton
We are.
Spencer Levy
LoDo has this unique look and feel and you know, it doesn't just look cool. It's actually greener not to tear this place down and start anew, even though there's reasons why, economically, people might consider that. But Katie, what's your point of view on sustainable, how important it is around here?
Katie Kruger
Yeah, here are a couple of points that really show Colorado is a leader. Colorado ranks in the top 20 for the percentage of electricity generated from renewable resources. In 2019, Colorado generated 25% of its electricity from renewables. And we like to think of it also in terms of jobs. It has spurred on jobs here in manufacturing turbines, installing wind and solar facilities. And so the trickle down is great.
Rodney Milton
Yeah. And I think that's excellent in terms of the culture, right, and real projects. You know, ULI does tours of particular sites and really highlights best practices in this space. Denver Water just rebuilt their entire facilities net zero, generating their own energy. There are some innovations there that are just incredible in terms of the way they're using and reusing water. So that's one project that represents this imperative and realizing it. Pancratia Lofts is another. It was actually a Catholic monastery that they converted again, adaptive reuse, completely electric and affordable housing, which is incredible combination. So there are real projects that we've seen that embody ESG in a real way. ULI is actually going to be hosting a symposium to really say, let's make the case. If the capital markets are seeing this as a reality, how do you make these types of deals work? And so that's our position in terms of education and enabling these things to happen and highlighting best practices and real projects that are on the ground.
Spencer Levy
Let's talk about one of the limiting factors now, and this is a limiting factor globally, which is labor availability. What does it cost? Where do you get it? Rodney, what are your members saying about labor and how they're dealing with it?
Rodney Milton
Everyone's feeling the pinch. So it's across the board. ULI has local product councils that are our C-suite folks getting together and trying to solve problems and they're seeing it across the board. The thing about labor that's interesting, though, is its connection to housing affordability. We just had a new member coffee this morning and I've got members coming from, you know, Denver is still attracting talent and the main issue that they're facing is lack of affordable housing. And so that's a key piece to retaining labor and encouraging folks. We are adjacent to Auraria Campus, that's three colleges and universities. I think the numbers are 40,000, 39,000, right. And these are often first generation and these are often a diverse labor pool. If we can't keep them here through places and having places and homes for them to afford, then we lose that element of it as well. And then diversifying our labor pool is huge, right. And being focused on those trades to make sure that we are intentional about how we educate our labor in that respect. ULI does do programming around that. We've got a real estate diversity initiative that we manage. There’s a curriculum designed to introduce women and folks of color into the development space, construction oriented and the like. So we're doing our best. But again, I think that's across the board, everyone's sort of feeling that pinch because a lot of folks have a lot of choices in terms of where they want to go. And retention of that talent is really key towards housing affordability. There's a nexus there.
Spencer Levy
So one of the reasons why Atlanta often scores high is because of it's, it’s one of the most diverse places in America. And certainly Denver is trying to increase that diversity as well. But this is the segment of the show that gets me thrown out because I love Denver for all reasons except one.
Katie Kruger
Yeah.
Spencer Levy
And that one reason is I don't like it is I don't like height restrictions. I just don't. And the reason I don't like height restrictions is because there's nothing more efficient than to go vertical. And so everybody wants a view of the mountains. I get it. But it does restrict the amount of housing stock. Any point of view on this?
Rodney Milton
I'll be honest with you. I'm an urban planner. And density, whether discreet or otherwise, is a key factor in building cities in terms of equity, in terms of accessibility for folks. And so I think the fear associated with what vertical looks like when people close their eyes, they automatically think New York City, they think there's other ways to develop. There's other ways to manage a greater growth rate that is accommodating, that doesn't restrain housing supply, which is what you have now. If you're not tackling the fact that your land uses are limited to single family or height restrictions, these things that exacerbate the housing market and restrict the supply and therefore the increased housing costs, you're not going to have a vibrant city, right. Those things are connected to each other. And so you'll just have folks moving further and further out. The challenge, unlike other cities, is that Denver is constrained by water as well. So you can't go far enough out to solve your problems in terms of sprawl because water restricts exactly what you can do. And so when I say cities are a solution, I mean that in the best sense, in terms of density, in terms of the sustainable ways that we grow. Otherwise, we'll meet the fate of other cities that are completely unaffordable and facing these challenges with two arms behind their back.
Spencer Levy
So in terms of moving forward for Denver, one of the things we talked about here was adaptive reuse. And I was–the reason why I was flipping the slide deck in front of you as I was looking for my statistic, which showed that downtown Denver was the third fastest growing rent growth city actually among the cities in America that we like, the tech city. So congratulations on that. But the thing that we both know is true is that there's some office out there that is having difficulty, that is troubled. But guess what? It's taller. And so is that an opportunity for adaptive reuse to create some multifamily out of that? Is that part of the conversation, Katie?
Katie Kruger
It is. The mayor has these different think tanks and task force groups. And we have met with some folks from Texas who have a tax incentive program in place that help to solve for some of the plumbing issues and the door to window span.
Rodney Milton
Floor plate issue. Yeah.
Katie Kruger
Yeah. And they've solved for a lot of it in other states and I think that it's coming for Denver.
Rodney Milton
Agreed. And I think I might have seen it in the Denver Post as to a couple of different projects, they're looking at converting office spaces into residential. I think it makes sense because you're reimagining what activities dominate your downtown. It used to be office is the predominant measure of the central business district. It may be in the future that it is people. It is residential, it's commercial, it's retail. It's a mix of uses that take advantage of those types of activities and bringing more people downtown. I know on Auraria campus, they just built a resident hall for bringing more people downtown. I think that's going to be what you're going to see going forward.
Spencer Levy
Okay. I just found my chart. This is our Tech 30 Report. And Denver ranks fifth among all of the downtown areas in the country in terms of its rent growth in the tech areas. You should be proud of that, right. And it speaks to notwithstanding the broader office market's challenges, Denver is performing extremely well. Let's talk about some of the other asset types just very briefly. Industrial has been probably, maybe with the possible exception of multifamily, the number one performing asset type for the last several years. How's the industrial market here, Katie?
Katie Kruger
The industrial market is fantastic. And it comes with so many more people having their groceries delivered. It used to be that when that van came around the corner, I knew it was coming for my porch and now it makes six stops before it hits my house. And so we're seeing a lot of refrigerated, industrial, industrial in new places, multistory, industrial with robotics. And it is on fire. And a lot of it comes from this change to having everything delivered.
Rodney Milton
I can anecdotally tell you that my membership is really bullish on our industrial. From an asset class type, it is performing as well as you would imagine here in Denver.
Spencer Levy
Yeah. And the logistics patterns really help here. And I'll give you one logistic pattern. It helps here. I-70, which I think is within almost a stone's throw of where we are right now, goes all the way to my house in Baltimore. I mean, literally all the way within like three miles. So it's a tremendous crossroads, as you put it earlier, Rodney, to be sort of a gateway to the West. Now, this is a difficult question and we all want to be the best. And this is not a knock on Denver. But if you think about the city that you are today, what city do you think you're most like, and what city do you want to be like maybe in the future? Katie, any point of view on that?
Katie Kruger
Yeah, I think that we are a lot like Austin and that comes from the tech industries there, the youth, the education, and they even have their own way of doing the outdoor scene. We both face affordable housing issues, as our one – and safety and security and affordable housing issues – as big deals in our cities. I would say a little bit different in Denver is we have some of the lowest residential property tax rates out there. And so maybe we edge them out a little bit on your mortgage, but comparable and not a bad city to be paired with and grow up together.
Rodney Milton
It's interesting because I'm an urban planner and I study cities and I and I look at the trajectory of cities, depending on the decisions that they're making. And so I completely agree with you, Kate. I think from a peer perspective, Austin is right there. But I would hope that because a lot of these other cities are challenged in the same way that Denver is, but Denver's at this critical, pivotal moment where it can make some different decisions and embrace the pioneering spirit of going a different direction. So when we talk about Seattle, Seattle's really struggling with affordability. I mean, huge. Their median house, I'm not even going to quote the numbers there. That's the direction most cities go. They get more affluent, they get less diverse, they get less accessible and they become islands. Denver can change that trajectory. It can do some different things. It can mix that attractiveness of the West Coast with the funkiness of the South and the East and chart its own path, which is what we've done forever, right. We are pioneers. And so I would love to see a different style of a city. One that is very thoughtful about the way it uses land. One that is very visionary in terms of solving for places, solving for that sustainability, taking advantage of our natural resources. The fact that we have sun 300 plus days. The fact that we have an attractive talent pool. The fact that we are generating innovation in the tech space and we've got these major assets. We can go a different direction than the trajectory of most U.S. cities, right. And that's going to take bold leadership. I can tell you the trajectory of most cities. They don't become inclusive, vibrant and sustaining. They typically become unaffordable. And then you get push out, right. And so your satellite cities become where some of the vibrancy is, right. There's an opportunity for Denver to change that trajectory, and I'd love to see it happen.
Spencer Levy
Let's talk about those satellite cities for just a moment. There are two types of satellite cities. There are the bigger cities that are in the “mountain region” right. And that might include Salt Lake City. You might include Las Vegas. It might include Omaha, Nebraska, if you want to go east. Okay. But then you have Colorado Springs, then you have Fort Collins, then you've got Boulder. So, Katie, when you look at satellite cities, how do you define it?
Katie Kruger
I like Colorado Springs. I'm betting on the growth out there. It's beautiful and has a wonderful, welcoming environment. There are some economists here in Colorado who believe when our state moves from 5 million-ish to 8 million-ish, that Colorado Springs is our bigger city and that downtown Denver is this kind of cultural hub and capital place that a lot more business is happening down there.
Spencer Levy
What is the public transportation to get from here to Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Boulder today? And where might it be going?
Katie Kruger
There is hope that our regional transportation district connects all of those places and they aren't yet connected today.
Rodney Milton
Yeah, and I think that, again, goes to those big decisions, the trajectory changing decisions. ULI is ULI-Colorado. We've got a regional committee and council in Colorado Springs. There's tremendous activity going on in Colorado Springs. It's hot. Fort Collins as well. We've got a regional committee there and we've got a regional committee in Boulder. The reason’s why the front range itself should be thought of from that regional perspective. And so, again, that is another opportunity that the city of Denver has, is it can look at itself and its collective decisions in a regional format that can solve some of those problems that we're talking about. Often, you know, I'm coming from City of Atlanta. Most recently, Atlanta's a unique place because the city itself is at the core. It's only half a million people. The region, the MSA or the Metropolitan Statistical Area is larger than the city itself, which means that you have competing interests when it comes to attraction of talent, housing policies, all of those sort of things. Denver's reversed in that way. It is the largest and it has the opportunity to lead the region in a responsible manner and incorporating the regional decisions that need to happen.
Spencer Levy
And it's not always crystal cut that trains are the way to go. So you take a look at Texas as an example. When I'm down in Austin, I say, well, why don't you have a train to San Antonio? Why don’t you have a train to Dallas? Big driving culture. I don't think it's ever going to happen there. But they did just do a train between Seattle and Bellevue, which– and Bellevue is a place that, when I started going there 20 years ago, was not what it is today. Today, it has, actually, newer buildings than Seattle. They also built a train to Portland, Oregon. So do you have any point of view on that? Is trains the necessary future, or are there other ways to make this one big region?
Katie Kruger
Yeah. Well, I'm taking a minute here, Spencer, to think about the people of Colorado and they love the ski trains and things like that. And many of our young at the office do not have a car. So my hunch is, yes. Also, we have this interesting statistic. Beyond our mountain biking culture here, we're seeing an 8% gain year over year in cyclists within the city getting around and an enormous uptake in the use of this 66-mile Highline Canal Trail. And it connects all of the neighborhoods in Denver and then beyond, you can really get out of town and rejuvenate. So my hunch is, yes, our people here will adopt to that.
Rodney Milton
Yeah. And I think...
Katie Kruger
That they will come.
Rodney Milton
No, I agree. And I think that is the opportunity to face a contradiction. So we've been talking a lot about what Denver is and the folks, a lot of times there are contradictions sitting within what we are. The idea that we love open spaces and views, but going vertical is what you'd need to do to sustain that. Getting up into the mountains is so, that is culturally. I remember moving to Florida and I stopped going outside as much as I did when I lived here because of the humidity. But culturally, that's what you did on the weekends. You were hiking, you were biking, you were exploring the trails. The traffic associated with getting to that lifestyle that you want and the impact of that traffic is going to force people to make some serious decisions about the lifestyle that they want to maintain and preserve and that they want to sustain and live. And those choices are going to be either enabling more people to get up there through transit or the status quo, which is individual routes and cars – even if they're EVs for the record, right. So there's other opportunities, but those are major transitional choices that need to be made.
Spencer Levy
Well, I think the train is something, and there’s already a ski train, isn't that correct?
Katie Kruger
That's right. And a bus system.
Rodney Milton
Yeah.
Spencer Levy
Okay.
Katie Kruger
And it sells out.
Spencer Levy
There you go. In terms of foreign visitors to the city and to its surrounding areas, how do you see that as a driver of the Denver economy?
Katie Kruger
Yeah, it's interesting. I don't have the statistic on foreign visitors alone, but we are hitting very close to pre-pandemic levels at this point. I think we're at 31.9 or something, million visitors. And what I was going towards, Spencer, is I am a professor at the University of Colorado-Denver, teaching an Introduction to Commercial Real Estate Class. And it is an incredibly diverse group – 80% first in family group of young people getting into the business and they hail from all over the world – and I've had to use our global network. I have committed to getting 25 of the students their first job, and I've had to use our global network, including places in the United Arab States and beyond, to help serve them in returning home and maintaining a relationship with our Colorado CBRE office. So the young are growing up and making the world feel very small.
Rodney Milton
Yeah. And therein lies at the airport, right? That's the hub. That's the way that you get to that world class status. And we have it.
Spencer Levy
Well, world class, not only your existing airport, but I visited the swing line facility, which is old Stapleton Airport, and it's Exhibit A of, you had this older facility. What are you going to do with it? You turn it into this beautiful, single family, residential, but you also have this beautiful food court slash shopping area right there in the middle of it. A mini version of Union Station, I guess, is a good way to put it. Is that a fair statement?
Rodney Milton
Fair statement. I mean, again, it goes back to that adaptive reuse. So the reuse of Stapleton Airport. I live in Lowry, which is an Air Force base. I'm right in the last piece of that Air Force base. Just a great opportunity to really densify in a way that's responsible. And that's Denver. We do it right.
Spencer Levy
So, this has been a great conversation because I think we're all on the same, team Denver, so to speak, in terms of we're all bullish on its present and its future, But let's look out ten years from now, maybe we'll start with you, Katie. How do you see the city evolving over the next decade?
Katie Kruger
Yeah, I like to think about our iconic projects. And I was discussing this with the students the other day and saying, you know, one of the iconic projects of me growing up here in Denver was watching Union Station come into fruition. And I predict that another transformative public private partnership is coming for the city that will define it. And it will be this leader in developing a land bridge between our three big downtown universities and the city. It will bring young talent. It will service lifelong learners, and it will bring a whole new sense of place for retail in the urban core.
Rodney Milton
Yeah. I'm going to have to co-sign on that because ULI just did an advisory services panel on Speer Boulevard, on the Cherry Creek Trail, on the fact that the panel that convenes that, does it make sense to have a highway going through the middle of downtown? If you look at a map of Auraria campus and downtown, the central business, there's Speer Boulevard going right through it, which is multiple lanes. The projects that are being done at Ball Arena, River Mile, these are transformative. These are once in a generation type of transformative opportunities to reinvigorate the core of downtown and to make sure that that sort of transformative project. In ten years, I would hope that the city and county of Denver recognize its place as a regional leader, connects that region together and help solve some of these sticky issues like homelessness – which is a problem a lot of folks are facing, but it's a problem that is the housing spectrum. It's the whole spectrum of housing. And if it addresses those issues, if it looks at sustainability in the built environment in a way that makes financial sense and therefore is sustainable, to use your terms, then I think it will be a leader. It'll show the world how you can utilize the beauty of our landscapes, the beauty of our natural resources, and invigorate people and continue to attract people to make this the best city in the world.
Spencer Levy
Well, on behalf of The Weekly Take, what a great conversation about Denver. So thank you very much. First, Rodney Milton, the Executive Director of the Urban Land Institute, Colorado. Rodney, thanks to you for joining the show.
Rodney Milton
Thank you so much, Spencer. Pleasure to be here.
Spencer Levy
You bet. And then Katie Kruger, Managing Director, CBRE, Colorado. Katie, thank you for joining the show.
Katie Kruger
Thanks for having me, Spencer.
Spencer Levy
For more on Colorado, on our show and the research we discussed on the air, please visit our website, CBRE.com/TheWeeklyTake. We'll be back next week for a show I'm really excited about. So tune in for that. And don't forget to share the show as well as subscribe, rate and review us wherever you listen. Thanks again for joining us. I'm Spencer Levy. Be smart. Be safe. Be well.
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