DENVER — The NAIOP 16th Annual Rocky Mountain Real Estate Challenge presented by Land Title, was held on Thursday, May 3., at the Hilton Denver City Center. Students of Colorado University and Denver University, commercial real estate industry professionals from almost 300 companies and special guests, gathered to find out which school would take home the prestigious NAIOP Cup.
The Challenge is designed to serve as a learning tool for students of the University of Colorado and University of Denver’s graduate real estate programs and for the local business community to interface, while assisting the project sponsor with development options for the specific property. A property is selected in the region that serves as the competition site, under the control of the project sponsor.
“The impact the Challenge has on our industry and those involved is profound. Not only does the Challenge help elevate the students careers but it also affects the Commercial Real Estate industry as a whole, ” said Rocky Mountain Real Estate Challenge Chair Luke Davidson.
2018 marks the 6th year of Land Title Guarantee Company’s 10-year pledge to support the Real Estate Challenge. Other sponsors for the event included scholarship sponsor The Opus Foundation and after-party sponsor Brue Baukol Capital Partners.
The “Site”
Rick and Jon Kinning, project sponsors, presented the RK Headquarters Site (the “Site”) for this year’s Rocky Mountain Real Estate Challenge. Located less than half a mile from the Central Park Station of RTD’s A-Line to DIA, the Site presented an exceptional opportunity for challenge participants to envision and design a successful transit-oriented development in the award-winning Stapleton neighborhood.
The student teams were tasked with presenting a feasible, creative, integrated development plan that promotes the best and most sustainable use of the 15.5-acre site, while embracing the overall master development plan of Stapleton and the surrounding community. The Site was formerly part of the old Stapleton Airport that was operational in Denver until 1995 when it was replaced by Denver International Airport.
Students plans for the site had to maximize the value of the real estate, maximize profit for the developer, integrate into the Stapleton Master plan, integrate into the surrounding neighborhood, and integrate elements of sustainability.
And the winner is …
This year’s winning team is Odyssey Development Group from the University of Denver. In addition to receiving the prestigious NAOIP Cup, the winning team also received a check in the amount of $7,500 and CU, the runner up, took home $2,500.
The DU Odyssey Development Group team members are: Adam Graham, Casey Fanganello, Tim Flynn, Ari Steinberg, Demetra Kapuranis, Ross Hardin and Chase Siegel. OZ Architecture served as mentors to the winning team.
DU’s Proposed Redevelopment
Strömmen, Stapleton’s newest neighborhood, a multi-generational, mixed-use community, is situated around a welcoming public plaza carefully designed to maximize the site’s TOD designation while harmonizing with the existing community and nearby natural and public amenities.
Strömmen, which loosely translates to “by the stream” in Swedish, embraces Scandinavian architecture, urban design principles and the idea that beautiful and functional homes should be available to everybody. Strömmen is designed to maximize the 1:1 FAR in the form of a diverse residential community featuring a variety of housing options including townhomes, condos, market-rate apartments and a Senior Living Campus, where residents can age-in-place as their level of care needs change. The site also includes 8,000 square feet of neighborhood retail space.
Photos courtesy of NAIOP/SE Photography
