SUN VALLEY RISING: South Platte River's urban corridor targeted for transformation.

AuthorJackson, Margaret
PositionREAL ESTATE

One of Denver's poorest neighborhoods is on the verge of being transformed into a vibrant cultural and entertainment hub.

The Sun Valley neighborhood, bounded by Interstate 25 on the east, Federal Boulevard on the west, 6th Avenue on the south and 20th Avenue on the north, already is home to attractions like the Children's Museum of Denver and the Downtown Aquarium. Now, plans are on the drawing board to build new museums, redevelop public housing and add affordable and market-rate housing, as well as offices and other amenities, over the next decade.

In January, Santa Fe-based Meow Wolf announced it will open a $50 million immersive art exhibit expected to attract 1.5 million visitors annually. The new five-story building, designed by Shears Adkins Rockmore Architects, will be wedged into a tangle of viaducts at I-25, Colfax Avenue and Auraria Parkway.

Meow Wolf co-founder and Chief Executive Vince Kadlubek says the art collective was looking for a location where visitors to the museum would not disrupt the neighborhood. There currently are no homes in the immediate vicinity of the Meow Wolf site; the closest residences, at Sun Valley Homes, are about a mile southwest across the South Platte River.

"When we did our search, neighborhood impact was one of the biggest pieces of criteria--especially in Denver, where it's such an issue anywhere you go," he says. "We felt tike our location was pretty well already contained within what we would call a family attraction zone that has existed for a while."

Just down the street from the Meow Wolf site is Steam on the Platte, an old industrial building dating back to the 1880s. Steam, on Zuni Street between 14th and Lower Colfax avenues, was among the first redevelopment projects in the neighborhood. Urban Ventures and White Construction Group acquired the property in 2014 from the estate of the late Arvin Weiss, who in 2008 was sentenced to seven years in federal prison after being convicted of fraud and witness tampering in a scheme to cheat mortgage companies that funded federally insured home loans. After being diagnosed with cancer, Weiss was released from prison in 2013; he died soon after.

The property had been home to a variety of industrial users dating back nearly 140 years, including the Johnson and Bremer Soap Factory and a rag-baling facility. When Urban Ventures and White Construction bought it, two illegal marijuana grows were operating there, and the Evil Souls motorcycle club had...

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