ULI's Holiday Volunteer Opportunity: The Gathering Place

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This morning Paul, Desirae, Derek and myself (Gina) participated in the ULI Holiday Volunteer Opportunity at The Gathering Place.  The Gathering place is a drop-in center that provides services to children, women and transgender individuals experiencing poverty or homelessness.  They offer three meals a day, children's center, employment assistance, counseling and medical care among many other programs and services aimed at helping these individuals get back on their feet.  ULI's Outreach Committee organized the event where we cooked and served breakfast a hearty breakfast of pancakes, sausage and scrambled eggs.  We also prepped for the lunch meal and packed additional sack lunches that will be distributed throughout the day for anyone who needs one.  For more information on The Gathering Place or for volunteer opportunities visit their website at: http://tgpdenver.org/

New Rendering: Fairfield Inn & Suites

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We are excited to introduce one of our newest hospitality projects, Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott in Fort Collins.  The hotel developed with Spirit Hospitality, LLC will be a great addition to the 9.2-acre mixed-use, Harmony Commons development.  This is a 106 room hotel located on the southwest corner of Harmony Road and is expected to be completed in 2017.

Sugarmont Apartments: New Progress Pictures

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Photo courtesy of EarthCam and Boulder Ventures

Photo courtesy of EarthCam and Boulder Ventures

We have just gained access to a new EarthCam time lapse camera that is set up for Sugarmont Apartments, a large project with Boulder Ventures located in the Sugar House area of Salt Lake City.  This project will consist of 352 units over 2.86 acres with a pedestrian plaza and three floors of wrapped parking.  Although there isn't much to see yet, crews have been doing a lot of demolition, taking down a building that previously stood at this location and are moving around lots of earth to prepare for construction to begin.  Be sure to check back with this blog for updates as this project progresses.

Studio PBA's Movember Challenge

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Studio PBA staff took the opportunity to compete against one another to grow some facial hair in name of Movember.  We documented a few of the staff members before and after pictures throughout the month and as you can see, we grew a couple very nice mustaches.  Thanks to the men and women of PBA who took this opportunity to grow some awesome mustaches.  The winner of this office challenge is Ahmad Aryan who is pictured above in the forth row, farthest to the right.  He won the title and bragging rights of 'Best Studio PBA Mustache 2016' and following with a close second is Chris Fuller (top right).

Parkside and Riverfront Green have Cranes Up!

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Photos courtesy of DenverInfill.com/blog

Photos courtesy of DenverInfill.com/blog

We always love seeing our projects mentioned in the urban development blogs in Denver.  Once again, DenverInfill has captured some great images of two of our projects: Parkside and Riverfront Green.  These projects are close in proximity to each other and located in Central Platte Valley downtown.  Read more at DenverInfill's blog: http://denverinfill.com/blog/2016/12/two-additional-cranes-up-in-downtown.html

 

Hilton Garden Inn Groundbreaking

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Thornton HGI-new CMU-8.16.16.jpg

PBA's team was on site this week as construction began for the Hilton Garden Inn Thornton at The Grove Shopping Center.  We are designing this 122-room project for Spirit Hospitality which will be their company's second property in the Thornton area.  In addition to the hotel, this project features Johnny's Italian Steakhouse which will be the franchise's first Colorado location.  We look forward to seeing this project come together! Spirit Hospitality announced the groundbreaking earlier this week here: http://www.spirithospitality.net/insider-tips

New Aerial Images of Elevate at Inova

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We've been received some great, new aerial updates from MPC for one of our Centennial projects, Elevate at Inova.  This project is located at South Havana and East Geddes Ave.  You can see the project taking shape though the various stages of each building's construction.  Once completed, this will consist of 285 units across 10 buildings with a clubhouse and an outdoor pool.

Denver Infill's Recent Blog - PBA Project Updates

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Photo Courtesy of DenverInfill.com/blog

Photo Courtesy of DenverInfill.com/blog

Thanks to our friends at DenverInfill.com/blog who have posted two project updates this week in addition to some fantastic aerial photographs.  To read the updates and learn more about infill projects around Denver you can click the links below.

Holland Parkside Apartments Update: http://denverinfill.com/blog/2016/11/parkside-apartments-update-2.html

AMLI's Riverfront Green Update: http://denverinfill.com/blog/2016/11/amli-riverfront-green-update-3.html

PBA at the ULI's TOD Marketplace and Tour

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Studio PBA team members Kathy Parker, Derek Westby, Desirae Zamora and Edwin Mocke had a great opportunity to participate in ULI's TOD Marketplace and Tours last week.  The RTD Light Rail offered Wednesday afternoon guided tours to explore some exciting new developments in the surrounding area.  Kathy took the B Line tour, Westminster's Urban Future, that highlighted Westminster’s ambitious journey to become the next urban center on Colorado’s Front Range.  Derek rode the W Line to Lakewood, Emerging West Colfax, where the 40 West Arts is working to champion the renaissance of historic West Colfax, and Edwin rode the new A Line toward Denver International Airport's tour, Infill to Innovation.  

Thursday was ULI’s marketplace where guest speakers from various city offices including Denver, Boulder, Greenwood Village and Westminster and influential people in the real estate and development industries around Colorado shared their thoughts on Denver as a successful model city.   The marketplace also featured various building vendors and projects under construction around the Denver-metro area.  All in all, the event was beneficial in promoting and marketing the many new projects happening in the area, highlighting the improvements in transportation, and the importance of sustainability in the future of design.

For more information about the ULI tours and transit-oriented developments in Denver, click on this link from The Denver Post and see if you can spot Kathy on her tour: http://www.denverpost.com/2016/11/12/first-generation-tods-lessons-transit-oriented-projects/ 

Friday Morning Site Tours

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Studio PBA staff had a great opportunity today to visit and tour a few of our projects in construction phase thanks to our construction administration team led by Andrew Hjelmstad, Matt Baron and Brian Dunn.  

The first tour was The Wolff Company's Havana project also known as Elevate at Innova which is a garden-style apartment community consisting of 10 buildings over 8.04 acres in Centennial expected to be completed in Fall 2017.  The benefit of touring this project was the 10 different building styles, all in different phases of construction from setting up the form work for the post tensioned slab to applying interior finishes to a newly enclosed clubhouse. 

The second site toured today was AMLI Dry Creek located in the Inverness Business Park at I-25 and Dry Creek, a 257 unit multifamily project.  This development is at 50% completion and we were able to see multiple phases of construction on this wraparound apartment complex.  This building features an internal 4-story parking garage that will house 428 parking spaces.  This tour allowed us to view the finished roof air condenser units, internal roof drains and scenic mountain views.  

An additional team toured a third project, Alta Pinehurst in Lakewood.  This is a multifamily garden-style community with developer, Wood Partners consisting of 13 separate buildings and 726 units.  Construction is well underway and this project is expected to be completed next fall.

It was a great learning opportunity for the staff and a excellent way to see the progress of our projects.

PBA at ULI's Annual Fall Conference

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This past week, PBA project managers Edwin Mocke and Cris Torres flew out to Dallas, TX to attend the Urban Land Institute's Annual Fall Meeting.  Over 3,000 ULI members attended the 4 day conference to network with other leaders within the real estate and land use industry.  These events discussed innovative building techniques, industry trends, global connectivity and the changing face of real estate among other topics.  Our PMs were also able to relax a bit away from the office a bit and explore Dallas-Fort Worth's growing city infrastructure.

 
 

Construction Update: AMLI Riverfront Green

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AMLI Riverfront Green is making great construction progress.  The crane base is installed.  Waterproofing going up the exterior walls.  AMLI Riverfront Green is about to start going vertical.  The tower crane shows up in the middle of November, once the foundation work is complete.  Then you will start to see the walls getting poured as we move forward into constructing the underground parking structure.  AMLI Riverfront Green will have two floors of underground parking for residents with more parking above ground.   

Demolition has begun at future site of Sugarmont Apartments

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"After years of proposals and several different iterations, demolition is underway on the site of the future Sugarmont Apartments by Boulder Ventures, the next phase of their 2100 Sugarhouse Mixed Use Development.   The project replaces two abandoned Granite Furniture warehouses at the intersection of McClelland Street and Sugarmont Drive." to read more about this project and see images of the demolition, click on Building Salt Lake's article found here: http://www.buildingsaltlake.com/construction-starts-on-large-sugar-house-development/

PBA at the Brighton Corridor Groundbreaking

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Photos courtesy of Maaklikah Hartley

Photos courtesy of Maaklikah Hartley

Today Gina Metge on behalf of Studio PBA, attended the Brighton Corridor Groundbreaking in RiNo hosted by the North Denver Cornerstone Collaborative.  Mayor Michael Hancock and Council President Albus Brooks along with other city council members addressed a crowd of eager attendees.  The mayor praised mounting excitement for the project and its potential to revitalize and improve the safety of the corridor with the addition of much-needed protected bike lanes, improved sidewalks and landscaping.  Behind the wheel of a CAT Caterpillar, the Mayor initiated the groundbreaking to cheers from the crowd.  For more about this project the NDCC's site here: https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/north-denver-cornerstone-collaborative/brighton-boulevard-redevelopment.html

PBA Volunteering with Food for Thought

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What a great morning! Studio PBA's team along with many other volunteers worked to fill grocery bags with food and prepping bins to be delivered to  over 9,000 kids who would otherwise not have a meal this weekend. Food for Thought is a fantastic organization that we are lucky to be able to work with, ZERO overhead, run by volunteers and feeds Denver's Title 1 elementary school kids in need. It is hard to believe that just here in the Denver-metro area over 30,000 kids would go without food for a weekend due to poverty. Thanks to Food for Thought there are 9,000 less that will go hungry this weekend as a result of the Powersack packed this morning.

Food for Thought organizes this every Friday during the school year. Every single penny of every dollar donated goes towards purchasing food while all of the supplies are donated. The food gets packaged up, loaded into containers and distributed by volunteers. Bob Bell and John Thielen founded Food for Thought in 2012, originally delivering food to two Denver elementary schools and have grown their impact to currently serve 7 schools with the hope of expanding as soon as possible.  We thank Food for Thought for allowing us to volunteer and investing in Denver's elementary students.

If you are interested in learning more about Food for Thought or volunteering visit: http://foodforthoughtdenver.org/

PBA at Colorado Housing's NOW! Conference

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A few  team members, Kathy Parker and John Payne are attending the Annual Housing Colorado Now! Conference in Beaver Creek participating in workshops, networking and listening to speakers discussing job and housing growth, politics and policy and economic trends affecting Colorado. "Housing Colorado’s signature event is our Annual Housing Colorado NOW! Conference, a three-day event drawing over 660 participants throughout Colorado and across the U.S. This event, guided by the Conference Planning Committee, showcases 35+ educational sessions, and is one of the largest of its kind. In 2016, the conference will be celebrating its 28th anniversary." http://www.housingcolorado.org/ 

Alta Pinehurst's Construction Progress

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Images courtesy of ZOOM Aerial Photography, LLC & Wood Partners

Images courtesy of ZOOM Aerial Photography, LLC & Wood Partners

The construction progress on our Alta Pinehurst project with Wood Partners is literally transforming the landscape in Lakewood near Hampden and Wadsworth.  The steeply sloping site near Pinehurst Country Club has been leveled out to create building pads, and the clubhouse and several of the residential buildings are beginning  framing.    The first units are slated for move-in June 2017.  

PBA in the News: Supporting the Colfax Collaborative Petition

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Image Courtesy of 7News

Image Courtesy of 7News

Studio PBA not only designs projects to improve Denver's infrastructure, we are invested in the community around which we work and play too.  The Colfax Collaborative is petitioning the City of Denver for funds to make improvements to Colfax Avenue for pedestrian safety and infrastructure.  Being located just off Colfax on Gilpin St., Studio PBA actively supports Colfax reinvestment and promoting of pedestrian re-activation.  Our own Derek Westby was interviewed by 7News yesterday evening and addressed the importance of pedestrian safety and promoting the reinvestment of Colfax itself.  To watch the news clip and learn more about this petition, click the link below. http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/petition-asks-city-of-denver-to-invest-in-colfax-to-the-tune-of-500000