Cityscape at Belmar Excavation Underway

Fences are up, and excavation is underway for the Cityscape at Belmar project.

Construction Starts on Emergency Medical Facility at 260 S. Wadsworth

Fences are up and initial construction is underway at 260 S. Wadsworth Blvd., which is the vacant lot just north of the Walgreens on the northeast corner of Wadsworth and Alameda.

The two story building will be an emergency medical center with a brick and stone facade fronting Wadsworth. The building will only take up about a third of the lot-- the rest of which will be devoted to parking and an ambulance drop-off. The plans call for quite a bit of landscaping, including trees, benches, bike racks, street lights, trashcans, and sidewalks connecting the building to the Walgreens next door.

As a whole, the development is fairly low density, which is unfortunate in my book, but I do like how the surface parking is hidden from the street. I also appreciate the requirement that the building rise to two stories on the side where it fronts Wadsworth, as both Wadsworth and Alameda require taller buildings along them in the downtown area in order to create that sense of being in a central business district.

Originally I'd heard the facility would be run by Health One, but now it looks like it will be Swedish.

I should also point out that this development has not been without controversy. It backs up to the Villas, a suburban-stye residential area, and the Villas Neighborhood Association has been concerned about noise and light pollution, particularly from the sirens of arriving ambulances. The developers assured the association that the vast majority of clients would arrive by private car and that the number of ambulances arriving with sirens running would be as low as 20 a year.

The Oven Closes After 10 Years

After a ten year run, the Oven in Belmar has closed. 

Last Lot on Saulsbury Under Construction

If you had any doubt that the housing market in Belmar has recovered, well, this should change your mind. The last free-standing home lot on Saulsbury, which has sat vacant since the crash in 2007, is under construction at long last. 

These are lovely homes, and were selling for 600-700k before the recession. There's one for sale right now at 7050 W. Custer Street for 780k.

Yep. I think we can say the housing market in Belmar is officially recovered.

Gas Station at 290 S. Pierce Street to be Rebuilt as 7 Eleven

The dilapidated gas station at the corner or S. Pierce and Wadsworth looks like it will soon be replaced, as the Dimension Group has a proposed 7 Eleven store and fueling station plan before the Lakewood planning commission.

The Dimension Group, a civil engineering firm based out of Dallas, TX, but with an office in Greenwood Village, CO, specializes in gas stations. Nothing in their portfolio suggests the final product will be anything particularly interesting architecturally, but a decent gas station in downtown Lakewood would be nice, and anything would be better than the run down structure that's there now.

Update: The new building will be a 3350 square foot convenience store fronting the corner of Pierce and Alameda. The fueling pumps will be to the east, under a canopy.

More Renderings of the Village at Belmar

The Village at Belmar, as you may recall, is an upscale retirement center planned for the north side of Alameda and Wadsworth, across from King Soopers in downtown Lakewood.

Here are some more renderings of the proposed development, which is currently working its way through the city planning process.

Qdoba Brand Central in the Belmar Plaza

The scaffolding and plywood is down in the Belmar Plaza, revealing the facade of Qdoba's new corporate headquarters.

It's mostly glass, which will help add a sense of vibrancy for passerbys. Yes, the view will be of office workers sitting in cubicles, but consider the alternative: blank walls or walls of Qdoba advertisements. People feel safer and behave better in public spaces when other people are around. Windows facilitate that feeling, so I think the Qdoba design is a good one.  

In Photos: 2014 Belmar Boo

Review: Rocko's Cantina

When Rocko's first opened in Belmar, I chimed in with my dislike of the bar's original name, Rocko's Tacos.

Well, as it's turned out, Little Pub changed the name not long after to the non-rhyming, much less annoying, Rocko's Cantina. They also chose a bull as their mascot, and not the Chihuahua I had feared (and not without reason-- among Little Pub's businesses are the Three Dog Tavern, Irish Hound, and Doghouse Tavern. Clearly, Mark Berzins, the owner, has a thing for canines.)

Rocko: Not a Chihuahua, Thank Goodness

The good news is that Rocko's Cantina has turned out to be a nice place to grab a drink, some chips and salsa, and sit outside on a beautiful fall day.

When it opened last year, service was spotty and the chips (made in house) were greasy and poorly fried. All that went away with time and practice. The place still seems understaffed in the late afternoon, just as customers start to get off work and trickle in, but the staff has become much more attentive, and I haven't had to flag down a server in a long while.

And the chips and salsa are now my favorite item on the menu. Crisp and lightly salted, they come with two kinds of salsa (a red and a green). The secret is then to add a bit of the Rocko's house garlic salsa (the kind that comes in a little bottle on each table) to each chip. I usually ask for a side of guacamole as well. It's the perfect accompaniment to a beer or two on the patio.

I can recommend the tacos as well, which avoid the Tex-Mex cliche of ground beef, iceberg lettuce, and cheddar cheese. Instead Rocko's serves up authentically Mexican options, like hongos (mushroom and scallions), barbacoa (slow cooked shredded beef), chorizo (spicy Mexican sausage), and al pastor (pork in a slightly sweet pineapple-chili sauce), all on a mixed flour/corn tortilla. There's even the uber-authentic option of chicharron (fried pork belly)!

Chip & Salsa at Rocko's: Now Crisp and Delicious

I haven't tried anything on the menu yet, but Rocko's has burritos as well (made with the same filings as the tacos, plus black beans and rice), along with nachos and even queso fundido (a Mexican style cheese dip). For details, take a look at the menu here.

It's the outdoor seating, though, that really makes Rocko's a place worth visiting. With two outdoor patios, it's easy to grab a seat outside on a warm fall afternoon and watch the progress on the David Weekley townhomes going in across the street. As the vacant lots get filled in over the next year in the northeast corner of Belmar, that sense of urban street life is only going to improve.

My advice is to take advantage of Rocko's patio and order a beer and some chips and salsa now, while the weather is still good and the trees are full of those beautiful red and yellow leaves.

Belmar's Sustainable Neighborhood Network Sign

Belmar's Sustainable Neigborhood Network sign is up! The program "gives residents the opportunity to become active partners in building vibrant and sustainable communities." Belmar is one of five officially designated sustainable neighborhoods in Lakewood, having earned the designation in 2013.

Want to learn more? Here's the link.

In Photos: Fall in Belmar

Coming Soon: Smallcakes Bakery

Smallcakes, a bakery specializing in cupcakes, has signage up in Lakewood Commons, right across from the Belmar Library, and will presumably be opening soon.

Update: A bit of googling turns up lots of info on Smallcakes. It's a national franchise, with two locations here in Colorado (one in Lonetree, and now the downtown Lakewood location). Their menu can be perused here.

Cider Days 2014

I love the city of Lakewood's annual Cider Days. Quaint and oddly anachronistic, it harkens back to the days when Lakewood was a farming community on the outskirts of Denver.

High Brow: Cider Tasting

Today, Lakewood is a city of 145,000 people, with the area around Wadsworth and Alameda as its newly designated downtown. But Lakewood grew in a patchwork fashion, as apple orchards and farms were developed into housing, one by one.

Cider Days reflects this agricultural heritage, with displays of cider presses, saw mills, and vintage tractors. This makes it sound like Cider Days is a series of historical reenactments. And it is. But it's also part county fair, with deep-fried Snicker bars, turkey drumsticks, and funnel cake. Low brow, yes. But also delicious!

Low Brow: Fried Foods Galore

Owners of vintage tractors bring them in from all over Colorado and even beyond to participate in the Cider Day's Tractor Pull competition. There's music and cowboy-themed comedy routines.

Cider Days also has a contemporary feel, with tasting booths offering small glasses of fine hard ciders (real cider, the alcoholic kind-- not apple juice), and food trucks selling sweet barbecue tortas with Kimchi garish, potstickers, and french fries with Thai peanut dipping sauce. So it's high brow, too. Really, it's hard not to have a great time.





The event even takes place at the Lakewood Heritage Center in Belmar Park, which makes it an easy walk for anyone living in downtown Lakewood. But if you didn't make it this year, here are some photos:

Cutting Beetle Killed Pine into Boards

More Vintage Saw Mill Demonstrations

Cowboy Themed Entertainment

Pony Rides! Or are they Donkey Rides?

Antique Car Show

The Every Popular Hand-Powered Apple Press

Protests Continue to Rock Jefferson County, Downtown Lakewood

Protests against the Jeffco School Board's conservative majority continued on Friday night, as an estimated 2500 protestors waved signs at intersections from 120th Ave in the north of Jefferson County to Ken Caryl Blvd. in the south. Newspapers as far away as Great Britain reported on the controversy.

Parents, students and teachers line Wadsworth

Blvd. in downtown Lakewood on Friday night 

to protest the actions of the Jeffco School 

Board.

The protests began last year when a newly elected conservative school board majority announced its plans to end the Jeffco school district's 45 year history of collaboration with its employee association and implement a series of controversial decisions, including the firing of Jeffco's award winning superintendent, Cindy Stevenson, and the unilateral imposition of an opaque and untested pay scheme for teachers.

It was the decision by board member Julie Williams to create a curriculum review committee, however,  that ignited the latest round of protests, sick-outs, and student walk-outs. The proposed committee would have had the mandate to seek out and bring to the board's attention classes and curriculum that failed to promote Ms. William's narrow view of patriotism, the free-market system, and history. The original text of the committee's mandate even hinted that courses that taught about safe sex, global warming, or evolution would soon be placed under the school board's microscope.

The Jeffco School Board dropped Ms. William's language at its Oct. 1st board meeting, but voted nevertheless to establish the curriculum review committee, despite nearly three hours of public comment that ran overwhelming against the proposal.

All year, I've been hearing rumblings about the Jeffco School Board's hidden agenda. Now it seems that agenda is out in the open.

Jeffco Schools Ruckus to Hurt Local Economy, Home Values

Will the ongoing Jeffco school board drama hurt area businesses and economic development?

That's the question posed in the headline of a recent Denver Business Journal article about the chaos Jeffco has seen in the wake of a right wing takeover of our local school system.

The article reports on a survey of Jeffco business owners by the West Chamber. The results should serve as a wake up call to anyone who doubts the potential of this Jeffco school board to damage home values.

Considering that the school board members who started this ruckus won't be up for reelection for three years, this makes for some scary reading, folks.

Jeffco School Board Makes the National News (in a Bad Way)

It's a truism in real estate that good schools support home values. This is particularly the case here in the city of Lakewood.

Much of the city's attraction to would-be residents has come from the fact that our city has the amenities of an urban downtown district but the school system of a well-funded suburb. Consider the fact that the innovative Belmar redevelopment is just a couple of miles from nationally recognized Lakewood High School.

So it might have been a surprise to many when teacher sick outs and massive student protests rocked our county this week.

Interested readers will find an excellent synopsis of the controversy in the New York Times and additional details in Newsweek.

Perhaps more relevant to this blog is that many supporters of the current, conservative Jeffco school board are also ideologically opposed to Belmar and other new urbanist redevelopments. The right-wing Independence Institute is perhaps the best example. The Independence Institute is ardently opposed to mass transit, smart growth, and has even gone out of its way to ridicule Belmar's row homes. They also fully supported the conservative slate in the last school board elections.

Although the current Jeffco school board is not up for reelection at this time, many of their supporters and ideological soul mates are vying for other offices this November. As the election season begins and ballots begin to arrive in mailboxes, I hope that supporters of downtown Lakewood and Belmar do their homework and support the candidates who in turn support the great things we have going for us here in Lakewood.

Photo: 7News Denver reports on today's student walk-outs in 

downtown Lakewood. 

Townhouses Coming to Block 15 (aka the Belmar Bocce Courts)

David Weekley Homes has filed papers with the city of Lakewood to build nine more townhouses in Belmar-- this time on Block 15 at the corner of Alaska and Saulsbury-- a space currently home to the Belmar Bocce courts.

Long time Belmar residents know that this lot was originally proposed for market-rate condos (the Alaska Flats). With the market for multi-unit condominiums crushed by the Great Recession, the temporary bocce court on Block 15 has been with us for a long, long time-- almost ten years, in fact.

Townhouses make a lot more economic sense right now, and won't compromise the quality of the urban environment (unlike the disappointing designs of the Belmar Chick-fil-A and Best Buy buildings).

The construction will at long last complete the corner's built environment, and will hide the surface parking belonging to the Gallery Apartments that is currently visible from the intersection. It will provide more for more owner occupied housing in Belmar, and brings us that much closer to seeing Belmar built out. It seems like a win to me.

2014 Festival Italiano is Happening Now!

In Photos: Big Changes at Saulsbury & Custer

Opening Soon: Dependable Cleaners

It's the little things that make an area livable.

Sure, the people who live in LoHi have over fifty of the Denver metro area's best restaurants to choose from. And anyone who live near Santa Fe Drive has a First Friday art walk at their fingertips that's a little like Spring Break on South Padre Island (if South Padre Island were a strip of art galleries, and its college kids were Denver art afficionados).

But I wouldn't want to live in either neighborhood because of the little things. In Belmar, we've got restaurants and an art walk, too, but if you live here, you can also walk to buy a gallon of milk or buy a roll of duct tape-- the kinds of things you find yourself needing to buy in real life all the time, and which require a car trip in most neighborhoods.

Soon, we'll also be able to walk to a dry cleaners. Dependable Cleaners is opening a location in the space that formerly held the Belmar Information Center, at 408 S. Teller St.

Yes, it's a little thing, but I'm looking forward to being able to drop off my dry cleaning without having to take a car trip down Wadsworth.

Opening Soon: The French Press

A new coffee shop called The French Press will be opening this fall in Belmar in the location recently vacated by Wystone's World Tea Cafe, and it looks like it will be cute, local, and low-key.

How do I know? Simple! I visited another French Press location-- there are two,  one in Aurora, one in Lakewood-- and checked things out for myself.

I went to the one in a Lakewood, which is located  at 85 S. Union Blvd., in a dilapidated strip mall that could easily double as the set for a post-apocalyptic zombie film. In fact, the barista I spoke to told me the French Press was moving to Belmar because their current digs were being torn down. "It'll be different," she told me rather wistfully. "Our current location has its charms." 

Really, I thought? Because all I saw were weeds and sun-baked asphalt. Yep, that strip mall was as charming as week old road kill. 

What did surprise me was how busy their Lakewood location was, especially for two o'clock on a Monday. But it was. The French Press, despite its post-apocalyptic location, clearly has a loyal following.

Their menu highlighted a list of inventive breakfast and lunch options. So, there's eggs benedict with your choice of crab, carnitas, or lox. There's a range of pancakes, including zucchini pistachio and raspberry oatmeal, and a number of interesting sounding variations on french toast (think chocolate bourbon pecan). I was most tempted by their chipotle cheddar biscuits with chorizo gravy, but alas, I'd already eaten.

Instead, I had come to inspect their coffee making equipment, because in my mind, that's what makes or breaks a coffee shop. 

Wystone's, for example, as much as I want to like the place, doesn't have an espresso machine that meets my expectations. I know, I know, Wystone's is a tea place, first and foremost, but they do have coffee on the menu, but they have a weird looking super automatic espresso machine that's clearly meant to run smoothly even in untrained hands. And it may in fact run smoothly. But it also doesn't have what it takes to make good espresso-- so far, every coffee I've had there has come out watery tasting, with milk foam that's way too frothy and way too hot. I've learned my lesson. At Wystone's, I stick to the tea. Update: As of late August, Wystone's has upgraded their espresso machine and the coffee situation there has completely turned around. Read about it here.

The French Press, on the other hand, has a real, commercial espresso machine, an Italian-made Wega. It's a semi-automatic, meaning the quality of the coffee depends on the skill of the barista. But in the right hands, it should be fully capable of turning out excellent coffee drinks. 

And my strip mall loving barista? How did she do?

I order a cappuccino-- always a good test-- and it came with a nice, stiff foam and a full-bodied, even shot of espresso. Perfect.

I'm looking forward to writing a full review once the new location in Belmar opens, but I'm excited already. The French Press could prove to be just the local breakfast place that I've been looking for.

Construction Underway on Holland Partners Belmar Project

If you live in the neighborhood, this won't come as a surprise, but construction is well underway on Holland Partners' 226,543 sq. foot residential project in downtown Lakewood's Belmar development.

The current work appears to be on the two-story parking garage that will be hidden inside the larger of the two properties (i.e. the development on the west side of S. Saulsbury Street).

The development on the east side of Saulsbury will feature tuck-under parking, also hidden from the street. Work looks a little less far along on this eastern parcel, but is happening there as well.

All in all, this is very exciting, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the main facades of these substantial structures add to the "city feel" of Belmar.

Car2Go Comes to Belmar

The painted lines and signs went in a few weeks ago, and the cars themselves arrived yesterday, so it's official: Car2Go has come to Belmar.

The car share service offers auto rentals by the minute, hour, or day. You have to have a membership, but once you do, renting your car is as easy as swiping a card and typing a few details into the car's touchscreen. (See http://denver.car2go.com for details).

Right now Cars2Go is offering Belmar residents a free membership with the code Belmar0030, which is cool.

Realistically, though, I don't see myself using this service. Although I try and bike or walk whenever possible, I own a car and I drive somewhere outside of downtown Lakewood nearly everyday. But I do see Car2Go as lending a bit of urban cachet to downtown Lakewood.

So how about you? Do you see yourself occasionally renting a car to zip about town?

Qdoba Moving Corporate Headquarters to Belmar Plaza

Just saw this while at the plaza for yesterday's pancake breakfast. No details yet, but it looks like Qdoba will be taking the space vacated last year by Gap and Banana Republic.

This should be good news for Belmar restaurants, as hungry office workers look to escape from their cubicles at lunch. It should also solve one of the problems Gap and Banana Republic had with this particular location, which was its lack of visibility to auto traffic-- I can personally recall being asked on several occasions for directions to Belmar's Gap, and having people express surprise that Belmar had a Banana Republic. Presumably that lack of visibility won't be a problem for a corporate headquarters that doesn't need retail traffic.

Jeffco Community Protests School Board Actions

If you were out and about yesterday afternoon during rush hour, you probably saw the hundreds of protesters at the intersection of Wadsworth and Alameda in downtown Lakewood.

In fact, they were part of a larger group of over a thousand parents, teachers, and community members who lined Wadsworth Boulevard from 104th Ave in the north all the way to Chatfield Avenue in the south.

The sight of so many people out on the street appeared to impress commuters, large numbers of whom honked their car horns in support--  indeed, the honking of car horns was so loud that it could be heard three blocks away in the Belmar plaza. It continued for hours without pause.

The protesters were there to express their unease with recent actions by the Jeffco Board of Education, which is currently split 3-2 between a majority of three hard right conservatives and two more traditionally non-partisan board members. Among the concerns voiced by protesters were the way the board majority dismissed Jeffco's longtime, award-winning superintendent Cindy Stevenson, their decision to divert $3.7 million away from neighborhood schools and into charter schools, and a feeling that the selection of Dougco's Dan McMinimee to be Jeffco's new superintendent portends an era of radical change.

For decades, Jeffco's quality public schools have been a big part of why people have made the choice to live in Lakewood. Controversy, partisan agendas, and public anger have never been part of the equation-- until now.

Yikes!

Pancakes on the Plaza

Belmar celebrated its tenth anniversary this morning with a pancake breakfast. The weather was nice, neighbors chatted, and kids played in the plaza.

Ballot Recommendations for West Metro Fire District

If you're a registered voter living in downtown Lakewood, you've probably just received your ballot for the West Metro Fire District election.

On the ballot is issue 4A, along with candidates for the West Metro Board of Directors.

After years of budget cuts and inadequate funding, it's important that we-- as a community-- reinvest in the emergency services that keep our families and property safe.

For that reason, I encourage everyone to vote yes on issue 4A, which would increase property taxes individually by just a few dollars per year in order to bring our emergency services back up to national standards.

Although elections for the West Metro Board of Directors are officially non-partisan, there are candidates running this year with extreme right wing views. Fortunately, there's also a slate of moderate, thoughtful candidates running as well.

With that in mind, my recommendations for the West Metro Board of Directors are:

District 1: Cassandra Stenstrom
District 2: Marta Murray
District 3: Tony Gonzalez
District 4: Michael Munden

The above four candidates represent moderate, responsible, non-partisan governance of our local fire department, and deserve our support.

Office Building Proposed for Surface Parking Lot at S. Teller and W. Virginia Ave. in Belmar

According to Denver Cityscape, we'll be seeing a 125,000 square foot, five story office building on the surface parking lot just south of the Belmar Century 16 move theater.

The number of vacant lots in Belmar without a development proposal is shrinking rapidly!