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.