What if Neither Proposal is OK?

6 pm, Thursday, November 3
Denver Union Station Historic Building Presentations
Colorado Convention Center, Rooms 201 & 203
700 14th Street, Denver
Light Rail: D, F, H

There are two competing proposals for the redevelopment of Union Station, both of which you can see in a couple of weeks. One by the Union Station Neighborhood Company and one by the Union Station Alliance. I cannot find any recent information about what the proposals will be, but it looks like Union Station Neighborhood Company is proposing a public market and restaurant and retail space with office space on the upper floors. Apparently, the Union Station Alliance is proposing a hotel for the upper floors with lots of retail on the ground floor. They are also proposing a lot of space for security.

I think that the public market concept looks better. There is more space given over to people who are taking the train and the services in the station are ones that train passengers would use. The more trains that run into the station, the more money that this concept can make. It creates an entity that might advocate for more long-distance trains to and from Denver as these are the passengers who are most likely to buy large amounts of food. It also might bring a farmer's market back to Union Station. In fact, this is the proposal that is the most flexible.

I am concerned about the hotel concept as boutique hotels are not usually successful near train stations because of the noise. There are a few large convention type hotels that are successful on top of train stations, but these are much larger than what is being proposed. Let's take the hotel over Nagoya Station in Japan as an example of a successful hotel in a similar price range to what is being proposed for Denver. First, the trains all run underground. Second, there are several stories of mall in between the train halls and the hotel. Third, more trains run into this station than will run into Denver, and they come from further away. Fourth, four million people live in the city of Nagoya. Small hotels near train stations with ground level tracks are usually cheap. I am concerned that putting a hotel in the station would create a reason not to put more trains into Union Station.

I am hoping that we do get something that allows people to buy groceries and relatively cheap takeout in the station, so the public market option looks to best.

How do you think we should use Union Station?