Northwest passage: Beltway link to homes and open space.

• Author: Titus, Stephen
• Position: Who Owns Colorado

ANOTHER LINK IN THE BELTWAY AROUND Denver is nearly complete, but unlike its counterparts to the south and east, Northwest Parkway may not become a development bonanza.

Linking Interstate 25 in the north with U.S. 36 at Flatiron Crossing and Storage Tek, the 11-mile-long toll road passes mostly through the City of Broomfield. While that town will host the single largest project scheduled to break ground around the parkway, 2,650-acre Preble Creek, city officials say they have made a point of buying up land around the highway and designating it open space. "One of the commitments we made when we agreed to do the parkway was to not have a lot of development along the road," said Teri Malies, a planner with the City and County of Broomfield.

Preble Creek, developed by Pulte Home Corp., is the exception to that rule, with plans for about 4,000 homes and county approval of 15 million square feet of commercial and office space. Dave Bracht, project president for Pulte Home, said the development has been a long time coming and should be an area landmark. "It's kind of funny, we've been looking at it on paper for so long it just looked like colors on a map," Bracht said. "You finally stand out there and you say, 'holy cow.'"

Bracht expects the first residential phase of 490 homes to break ground next spring, with retail and other commercial development to quickly follow the rooftops. He said commercial construction will focus on the intersection of I-25 and Northwest Parkway "with two retail hubs surrounding a large corporate center similar to Interlocken."

Northwest Parkway's part in this project is crucial, Bracht said, providing five-minute access to Interlocken and 15-minute access to DIA, but he had hoped for more from the highway's developer. "We're a little disappointed that the first phase of the Parkway didn't include an exit ramp at Lowell Boulevard," he said. "We've opened discussions with the Parkway for Pulte to front-end money for that." Exit ramps are planned for that area, but not until 2008, which is a long wait for what Bracht expects to be a rapidly growing community that extends from I-25 to the Boulder County line.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

While Preble Creek tops the charts in the east, Boulder County has its own share of important projects with a shunt to Northwest Parkway. Forest City, the power behind the old Stapleton Airport redevelopment, has partnered with an as-yet unnamed Denver-based developer and purchased a 70-acre...