St. Luke’s Uptown

The St. Luke’s Hospital began operations in the late 1800s, with construction of the historic hospital building in 1921. When St. Luke’s merged with Presbyterian Hospital in 1990, they moved operations further east to the Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Hospital campus. The old St. Luke’s complex consisted of 10 acres with numerous buildings — some of which had environmental contamination. The site also suffered from an abundance of surface parking lots and dilapidated buildings. The St. Luke’s complex was owned by Columbia HealthONE, LLC, who tried for five years to sell the property. But in 1996, Colombia HealthONE entered into discussion with the City of Denver on ways to restore the defunct site.

The City’s plan for the property and the surrounding neighborhood called for redevelopment of the area into a mixed-use, residentially focused neighborhood that would provide workforce housing and smaller retail opportunities. Redevelopment plans called for rental and ownership opportunities for low, middle, and high-income households. As the neighborhood had sufficient low-income housing, the redevelopment plans for St. Luke’s focused on market rate rental and for-sale units. In addition, redevelopment plans called for high-quality streetscapes and an enhanced pedestrian environment to attract residential interest in the neighborhood.

Through an RFP process, DURA and the City selected Columbus Realty Trust to develop the St. Luke’s complex into more than 1,000 apartment and for-sale residential units with structured parking. The development would also include street-level retail and office space. Prior to the execution of the Redevelopment Agreement with DURA, Columbus Realty Trust was acquired by Post Properties. Post Properties continued with the project, naming the project Post Uptown Square, and developed 696 apartment units along with 60,000 square feet of commercial space.

DURA provided Tax Increment Financing for the public improvements of the project, including enhanced streetscaping, restoring the vacated Pearl Street from 19th to 20th Avenues, and completing various utility and drainage projects. The enhanced streetscape installed around the project consists of brick sidewalks, street trees, benches and public sitting areas, trash receptacles, landscaping and decorative street lights.

Additionally, outlying parcels of land that were originally part of the St. Luke’s complex were developed by separate companies, and in later phases due to market conditions. The St. Luke’s Lofts were developed by the Fullerton Company in 2001, and consist of 41 units of for-sale loft condominiums along Washington Street between 18th and 19th Avenues. The Park Avenue Lofts between 19th, 20th, and Park Avenues and Washington Street, is a 195-unit residential apartment building developed by Martin Fein Interests, Ltd. The Park Avenue Lofts were completed in 2009.