Peter Culshaw is building out what he thinks is the future of the Denver Tech Center in his own backyard.
“We live five miles west of here. I can drive to Cherry Creek, but it’s a half an hour drive, and we don’t really want to go down there and mess with the parking. And the idea is to bring Cherry Creek sizzle to the Tech Center, available for folks living and working here,” Culshaw said.
The executive with Shea Properties leads its Colorado operations out of an office building at 8351 E. Belleview Ave. that was fashioned from a former 24 Hour Fitness.
Just west of its office, Shea broke ground this summer on a redevelopment of the 13-acre Marina Square retail site. The firm demolished the roughly 45-year-old, 94,000-square-foot shopping center and is building 481 apartments and space for 10 retailers across 32,000 square feet, public records show.
But Shea is also eyeing a major project just east of its office building, at 8401 E. Belleview Ave.
Earlier this month, the company submitted plans to Denver that proposed tearing down the existing U.S. Bank branch on 4 acres. In its place, it called for erecting a 239-unit apartment complex and two retail buildings spanning 7,000 square feet along the street.
Culshaw declined to discuss the plans for the US Bank site, which the bank owns. He also declined to discuss the future retail tenants at Marina Square, although he said he hopes they’ll be open by this time next year. The apartment component of the project will take longer to complete, he added.
US Bank, which has 56 branches in the metro, also declined to comment, but Marina Square plans show space for a new retail bank branch – likely for the Minneapolis-based bank.
“What I can tell you … what we’re doing is going to be really high image, high-end stuff,” he said, adding the Marina Square redevelopment will cost north of $200 million.
A few future Marina Square tenants have been disclosed. Salad chain Sweetgreen, which has four Colorado locations, plans to open, according to a listing brochure for the project from local brokerage David, Hicks & Lampert. Solidcore, a fitness studio with three Denver locations, has also committed.
Both have existing spots in other prominent Denver neighborhoods: LoHi, RiNo, Berkeley and of course, Cherry Creek.
Shea bought the Marina Square property for $16.8 million in 2003, according to public records.
“There was kind of a big name retailer called Montaldo’s, which was a very high-end ladies clothing store. There was Marina Landing, which was a hip restaurant,” Culshaw said.
“And then over time, the tenants went away and different things. COVID hit and all of them went out of business so we decided to demolish, and that’s kind of when we started really focusing on the brainchild for the current development.”
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