Denver gives preliminary OK to $48M subsidy for 9th and Colorado redo

“The former University of Colorado Health Sciences Center received a big boost Tuesday with preliminary approval of a $47.9 million city subsidy for redeveloping the east Denver site.

A Denver City Council committee issued the tentative go-ahead, subject to approval from the full council Dec. 8.

“This is a very good milestone,” said Frank Cannon, development director of Continuum Partners, developer of the 26-acre property at East Ninth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard. “It allows us to keep the project moving.”

Continuum is proposing a sweeping, $419 million redevelopment that will include apartments and for-sale housing, office space and retail.

The project’s new-urbanism vibe is receiving mostly positive reviews from surrounding neighborhood groups who had fought previous development proposals that featured big-box retail components, including Walmart.

The property has been vacant — and deteriorating — since the medical campus moved to Fitzsimons in 2008.

Continuum is scheduled to finalize its $30 million purchase of the property by the end of January. Soon after, demolition and infrastructure work would begin.”

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Raabe, Steve. Denver Post 18 November 2014.