A major $175 million entertainment and retail venue planned by the city of Glendale will be paid for by both public and private financing, in roughly equal parts.
The city will pay for the horizontal development of the Glendale 180 project, to be located south of Virginia Avenue between Colorado Boulevard and Cherry Street. That covers public areas such as plazas and streets, general infrastructure and the construction of 2,270 spaces in a variety of parking structures, including surface-level, underground and an above-ground parking garage.
Private developers will be responsible for paying for vertical development. The split between the two funding sources is about 50-50, said Mike Gross, project representative for the city of Glendale.
The development is slated to break ground on the 42-acre site in the fall and is expected to open in fall 2017.
Glendale 180 will include 303,225 square feet of leasable space, with 109,000 square feet dedicated to entertainment uses and the remaining 194,000 used for retail.
The project is expected to create 1,242 construction jobs and another 1,016 permanent jobs upon completion, according to the city of Glendale.
Glendale formerly was a premier entertainment destination in the area, said Glendale Mayor Mike Dunafon in a letter accompanying the project’s announcement.
“Now, building on Glendale’s entertainment heritage and utilizing one of the most desirable development sites in the U.S., Glendale 180 will return the city to its place as the entertainment hub of the Denver metroplex,” Dunafon’s letter stated.
Glendale 180 will help boost the city’s economic development efforts by capturing some of the 140,000 employees who work within three miles of the site, the city said.
Glendale has seen a partial economic renaissance with the construction of Infinity Park, an $8 million project completed in 2007 to serve as the home to the Glendale Raptors, a rugby team. Glendale 180 is expected to help continue that trend.
Glendale 180 has been in the works for several years, formerly under the name Riverwalk.
Glendale had applied for Regional Tourism Act money to get the Riverwalk project going, but then Aurora’s behemoth Gaylord hotel and conference center was proposed, taking a huge chunk of the state’s RTA funding.
Bonds for Glendale 180 will be issued just before construction begins in the fall, Gross said.
Houston-based Wulfe & Co. will develop the project, which is being designed by Gensler. Turner Construction will serve as the general contractor.
