A land of Splinters and rust no more.

• Author: TITUS, STEPHEN
• Position: Central Platte Valley - Statistical Data Included

CENTRAL PLATTE VALLEY'S REVIVAL EVOKES COLORFUL PAST

ONCE UPON A TIME, THE LITTLE VALLEY NORTH OF DENVER WAS called The Bottoms. It was a riverfront, mud flats traversed by railroad tracks and a shanty town for homeless people. Today, legendary Denver developer Dana Crawford can say with confidence: "When history is written about his place, people will say 'This is dazzling.'"

Whatever you call it -- Lower Downtown, LoDo West, or even The Bottoms -- the Central Platte Valley is becoming the downtown business district's bedroom community, with new and renovated housing changing the river bottom into a sleek 21st century neighborhood. It is surrounded by Denver' three major sports venues, the region's largest amusement park, dozens of restaurants and nightclubs, and it is adjacent to downtown itself. Residents of an expected 3,000 or more new homes in the area -- condos, lofts and apartments -- might soon call the valley Fun City

Crawford was the first developer to take a chance on Lower Downtown in the late 1960s when she built Edbrooke Lofts at 1450 Wynkoop St. Her latest project has been remodeling and adding to the Sugar Factory, in the shadow of Interstate 25, and she is planning a community of lofts along the South Platte River.

Standing atop one of the new buildings in the valley, it's hard to understand what took developers so long to invest in the area. As Crawford points out, it offered a clean slate for builders, with almost none of the displacement issues common to neighborhood revitalization. But the slate wasn't being ignored.

Five years ago, real estate speculators saw its potential and were quietly snapping up land and derelict warehouses for a few hundred thousand dollars each, properties now selling for millions.

Mark Sidell, president of Gart Properties, said the Garts paid about $4 million for one acre of land and a four story brick warehouse at 20th and Chestnut streets that was purchased pre-Common's Park for less than $400,000. The Gart's project -- Watertower Lofts -- will have 94 units selling for $220,000 to $700,000. Sidell said the project will be complete in December, just nine months after construction began.

So what turned the tide on the Platte Valley's fortunes?

Most developers agree it was not just Coors Field, or the other entertainment venues, though those played a role, but also Mayor Wellington Webb's commitment to cleaning out the historically blighted Bottoms, and his investment in redeveloping Commons Park along the banks of the river.

"That was the catalyst," said developer Ray Suppa. "It's one thing to master-plan something, it's another to put in the roads and parks.'

Suppa is building the 161-unit Waterside project on the bank of Cherry Creek at Wewatta Street. He plans to sell his very upscale flats for $260,000 to $1.2 million each.

The biggest and boldest player in the district is East West Partners. With 25 acres and plans for 2,000 new units, the master-planned community known as Riverfront Park will be the heart of the Central Platte Valley David Thomson, COO...