Littleton, CO

Number Thirty Eight, which opened in Denver in 2020, has announced that it’s expanding to Littleton as it works to resolve a years-long struggle with its RiNo neighbors over noise.

The Numbers Holding Co., Number Thirty Eight’s parent company, has closed on a plot of land at the corner of East Dry Creek Road and Broadway, about ten minutes from Littleton's downtown area. Unlike the Denver location, at 3560 Chestnut Place, the plot doesn’t abut any existing neighbor’s balconies.

When Number Thirty Eight applied to renew its cabaret license in 2021, neighbors lodged a complaint alleging that noise from the venue was ruining their quality of life. Paul Riedesel, the City of Denver's noise and acoustic expert, found that at least one concert in June 2021 violated Denver’s noise ordinance.

In May 2022, Molly Duplechian — executive director of the Denver Department of Excise & Licenses — decided that Number Thirty Eight could keep its license, with restrictions to help the neighbors.

In October that year, Number Thirty Eight requested another modification to the cabaret license, asking that it specify that garage doors can be open when bands are playing indoors and don’t have a drum set, or when recorded entertainment like TVs and background music is played through its sound system. The venue also requested that live entertainment without drums be allowed outdoors, should performers use its sound system, which is designed to comply with Denver’s noise ordinance under a sound plan that Number Thirty Eight developed as part of the application for modification.

On Wednesday, April 19, Macon Cowles — the city hearing officer who considered Number Thirty Eight's cabaret license revision case on April 11 — issued a recommended decision that five conditions be placed on the venue's license.

Should Cowles's recommendation be accepted by Duplechian and the Department of Excise & Licenses, which has the final decision, Number Thirty Eight would be barred from removing or modifying its sound barrier wall and volume-limiting sound system without applying for an official permit modification.

Cowles's suggested permit conditions would end amplified sound outdoors at 10 p.m. and prompt the closing of the venue's garage doors at that time, requiring Number Thirty Eight to make every effort to ensure that the doors customers use to enter and exit are closed unless someone is immediately using them. All entertainment at the venue must abide by the Denver noise ordinance, and the venue must continue to follow its sound plan, the recommendation says.

“So long as Number Thirty Eight complies with these conditions, I find that the adult residents of the designated area need and desire the modification to Number 38's dance cabaret license,” Cowles wrote in his decision. “Further I find that if Number Thirty Eight complies with the conditions in [the recommendation], the Director can have confidence that the facility can be operated lawfully, and will not adversely impact the health, welfare and morals of the designated area.”

While the decision is a notch on the belt for neighbors, the recommendation also gives Number Thirty Eight the flexibility it had requested to have its garage doors open during live entertainment — and even have such events outdoors as long as they end by 10 p.m., when Denver’s noise ordinance lowers the limit for noise from 55 to 50 decibels.

The new Littleton concept comprises a mass-timber building with 8,500 square feet of space and extensive views of the mountains. According to Haleigh Watts, national marketing director for Numbers Holding Co., location was a huge factor when the company began examining a second Colorado venue, in part because of the issues it’s faced with sound complaints at its location in Denver.

“In addition, Number Thirty Eight Littleton has been designed as a primarily indoor facility, with its only stage residing indoors,” Watts says.

Fresh off winning the award for Best Free Entertainment in Westword's 2023 Best of Denver issue, Number Thirty Eight plans to continue that approach in Littleton, offering free live music along with local spirits, products and chefs at the new location while connecting with the surrounding community.

“It has been an honor to curate unique and exciting experiences for the community,” Numbers Holding Co. says in a statement. “We look forward to bringing those experiences to Number 38 Littleton.”

The Littleton noise code has terms similar to Denver’s, with a decibel limit of 55 during the day and 50 at night in residential areas — although the 50-decibel limit begins at 7 p.m. in Littleton rather than 10 p.m.

However, the limit is higher in business districts, with 60 decibels allowed from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., and 55 decibels allowed at night.

The planned Number Thirty Eight Littleton is currently in a "corridor mixed-use" location with a planned overlay district. In layman's terms, it’s not purely residential, and the city has plans to eventually change its requirements for the area as it develops and grows.

“This Subsection is intended to facilitate development within existing Planned Developments or Planned Development Overlays of parcels approved for development but dormant or otherwise undeveloped, by expanding options with respect to the development standards and regulations that may apply to such development,” the Littleton noise control code reads.

Littleton redid its zoning code in 2021, and in areas zoned as "corridor mixed-use" — like the new Number Thirty Eight — bars, brewpubs and taverns are allowed to exist as long as they comply with the specifications of the city’s downtown building standards.

Number 38 Littleton is expected to open in summer 2024, so the company has plenty of time to make sure it’s on the right track. In the meantime, any objection to Cowles's recommendation can be filed within ten business days, after which Duplechain will issue her official decision on the terms of the license.

LITTLETON, COLO. — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of the 24-unit Woodlawn Apartments in Littleton. A limited liability company bought the asset from another LLC for $3.8 million.

The community is located at 1085 West Lilley Ave. All units are one-bedroom apartments with high-speed internet access, updated windows and floors, air conditioning, heating, refrigerators and ovens. The 1950s-built property also offers 24 surface parking spaces.

Greg Price and Spencer Shaffer of Marcus & Millichap’s Denver office represented the seller, while the firm’s Boomer Beatty represented the buyer.

CORONA DEL MAR, CALIF. — Hanley Investment Group Real Estate Advisors has brokered the sales of three single-tenant properties totaling $22.6 million. Each of the properties is leased to Walgreens.

Kevin Fryman and Ed Hanley of Hanley, in association with ParaSell Inc., arranged the sale of the first property, located in Minneapolis, on behalf of the seller, a California-based private investor. A New York-based private investor purchased the 14,535-square-foot building for $6.6 million.

Located in Sugar Grove, Illinois, the second property comprises 14,739 square feet. Bill Asher, Jeff Lefko and Jeremy McChesney of Hanley, in association with ParaSell Inc., arranged the $6.6 million transaction on behalf of the seller, a private investor based in California. Isaiah Harf of Northmarq represented the Chicago-based 1031-exchange buyer.

Brad Dessy and Matt Burnett of Hanley, in association with ParaSell Inc., represented the buyer, a California-based private investor, in the third transaction. The 17,325-square-foot property, located in metro Miami, sold for $9.4 million.

DOUGLASVILLE, GA. — GREA (Global Real Estate Advisors) has arranged the $6.5 million sale of Douglasville Proper, a 100-unit affordable housing community located at 8424 Chicago Ave. in Douglasville, a suburb of Atlanta. Cory Caroline Sams and Taylor Brown of GREA represented the seller, Signature Management, in the transaction. The buyer, S & S Capital Partners, plans to preserve the affordability of the LIHTC property during its ownership. Built in 1995, Douglasville Proper features one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans.

LOS ANGELES — An affiliate of The Relevant Group has received a $33.3 million refinancing for The Dream Hollywood, a 178-key hotel in Los Angeles’ famed Hollywood neighborhood.

The 10-story property is the West Coast flagship of Dream. The hotel includes Tao Restaurant, Beauty & Essex and the Highlight Room, as well as an 11,000-square-foot rooftop with pool deck and 3,000 square feet of meeting and event space. It is situated at the corner of Selma Avenue and N. Cahuenga Boulevard, one block off Hollywood Boulevard.

A joint venture between the LCP Group and Safanad provided the capital.

CARROLLTON, KY. — MAG Capital Partners LLC has acquired a 75,469-square-foot industrial facility located at 3356 U.S. Highway 42 E in Carrollton. The Dallas-based investment firm purchased the asset in a sale-leaseback with the tenant, DRC Industries, a regional converter and distributor of paper products and other packaging materials. Forest Bender of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller in the transaction, the sales price of which was not disclosed. Built in 1992 along the Ohio River, the warehouse has three drive-in doors, nine docks and 20-foot clear heights. The property is proximate to DRC’s production facility located where the Ohio and Kentucky rivers meet.

DevelopmentFloridaHospitalitySoutheast

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, FLA. — Key International and Shaner Hotels have opened the 156-room SpringHill Suites by Marriott Jacksonville Beach Oceanfront hotel. Shaner will operate the oceanfront hotel, which is owned by Key International. Located at 465 N. First St. in Jacksonville Beach, the hotel houses Sandbar Jax Bch, an oceanfront restaurant and bar, as well as a 24/7 lobby market for snacks and necessities and a fitness center that offers unobstructed views of the oceanfront pool. The hotel represents the first partnership between Key and Shaner and Shaner’s fifth hotel in the metro Jacksonville market.

Following a marathon night of legislative negotiating, the Littleton City Council voted unanimously Nov. 1 to approve a new policy that both mandates and incentivizes affordable housing for new developments.

The Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, or IHO, represents a major policy breakthrough for a council that has spent years studying and debating remedies to the soaring cost of housing. According to a 2017 housing study, the city is estimated to need more than 1,000 more units at rents below $635 per month to keep up with demand and has an overall deficit of 6,5000 homes.

Though Littleton joins a list of five other metro area cities with similar laws, for Littleton’s neighbors in the south metro region — including Englewood and Centennial — it is a first.

“We’re making history in Littleton,” said District 4 Councilmember Kelly Milliman. “Hopefully, we’re setting the stage for other communities to follow our footsteps.”

Under the IHO, set to go into effect next week, all new residential developments in the city with five or more units will be required to make at least 5% of those units affordable based on area median income (AMI) data. For rental units, that is set at 60% AMI while for-sale units are 80%.

For an individual, 60% AMI represents a yearly income of about $42,000, while for a family of four it represents $70,000, according to Kathleen Osher, the city’s director of community development. An AMI of 80% for an individual represents an income of $62,000 and $89,000 for a family of four, Osher said.

If developers do not include affordable units, the IHO will levy hundreds of thousands of fees against them to be paid to the city that can then be used on other affordable housing-related projects. The fees are based on the total cost of development and can reach as high as 75% of that cost, though some fees were dramatically reduced for certain developments already in the city’s review pipeline through a late amendment to the policy.

Another key prong of the law is pushing developers to go beyond the 5% mandate to build even more affordable units in exchange for a host of incentives. Depending on the size of the project and amount that is affordable, developers could see a 25% to 35% reduction in parking requirements, 50% reduction in open space requirements on the site, 15% increase in units that can be built per acre, reduction of neighborhood meetings from two to one and an expedited review process from about 12 weeks to 10.

Despite these offers, some developers and home builders voiced concern over the timing of the policy, suggesting to council members they were not aware of the law’s specifics and how soon it would be in effect.

“This dramatic change to the requirement for residential developments is being implemented extremely quickly with little time for the market to adapt or respond,” said Tarah Bailey, who represents developers Evergreen and Toll Brothers. She added the city needs an abundance of all types of housing “not just affordable housing.”

Tyler Carlson, a manager for Evergreen, said the IHO would force renters to pay higher costs to “subsidize their neighbors” who live in more affordable units and urged council members to put a pause on the policy debate.

Morgan Cullen, director of government affairs for the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver, said the IHO could stymy new developments with its rules and regulations, adding that any “additional affordable units required by this ordinance will not be built if developers and builders decide that Littleton is not a suitable place to invest in the future.”

Littleton resident Lynn Christensen also opposed the IHO but for different reasons. “In theory I support an inclusionary housing ordinance that would provide affordable and attainable housing options,” she said, “but what I don’t agree with is the way that it would be done.”

Christensen, a frequent critic of large-scale housing developments in the city who has made several attempts to undo the housing plan approved for the Aspen Grove shopping center, said the myriad of incentives under the IHO threaten the environment, traffic and community character of the city.

District 1 Councilmember Patrick Driscoll echoed developers’ concerns, and said, “when these builders are spending thousands upon thousands, maybe upwards of millions of dollars, to get these projects off the ground and we throw something like this at them it really affects their bottom line.”

Still, several Littleton residents endorsed the IHO and urged council to move forward on the policy. Ken Ayars, who also served with the League of Women Voters for Arapahoe and Douglas counties, said “creating more affordable housing is a critical need” in the city.

Eric Veith, a development associate at Gables Residential who also sits on the city’s housing task force, said the IHO is meant to “strike a balance between serving the needs of our community’s lower-income residents and the needs of our city as a whole to continue to support housing production.” He urged council’s support for a policy that, even imperfect, would spur needed development for both affordable and market-rate homes.

Corey Reitz, executive director for Littleton’s housing authority — South Metro Housing Options, said, “while there is a need for all types of housing, the need for affordable housing is especially high.”

The comments led to more than an hour of debate between council members who grappled with what some described as a “tough” vote.

At certain points, it appeared some council members were on the verge of pulling their support, with District 2 Councilmember Jerry Valdes saying “there’s just too many holes” in the IHO as originally written and At-Large Councilmember Pam Grove voicing concern with the swath of incentives for developers.

Driscoll attempted to halt the vote by postponing further debate until February, citing a need to give developers more time to digest the policy, but a majority of council members succeeded in continuing conversations. A key concern for Driscoll is the impacts the IHO would have on developers whose plans were already approved or submitted to the city for review.

Multiple efforts to amend the policy, some of which were defeated and some which succeeded with a council majority, led to a grandfathering of several projects currently in or preparing for city review — including Aspen Grove and Riverpark in southwest Littleton and Columbine Square in northwest Littleton.

Taken together, more than 2,500 proposed housing units will now be subject to the IHO, presenting the potential to secure at least 125 affordable units under the law.

But amendments also allow for a 75% reduction in the fees developers of those projects would pay should they refuse to build any affordable housing, a compromise struck between council members who sought to maximize the IHO’s potential while easing the burden on developers already eyeing the city.

Mayor Pro Tem Gretchen Rydin said she understood other council members' umbridge with the extent of some of the incentives, but added: “These are people and families that are in those structures, and that for me is worth a sacrifice.”

District 3 Councilmember Steve Barr said he is “not under any impression that the IHO is going to solve housing affordability in Littleton or south metro Denver,” but that it provides a critical tool for addressing the crisis.

Littleton's council prior to the IHO approved $1 million in federal COVID-relief funds for housing and officials said the city has applied to receive up to $3 million for affordable projects under a state grant created last year. That is in addition to the potential creation of an annual $300 million state fund for affordable housing should voters approve it this election. Littleton council members last month unanimously endorsed the proposal, known as Proposition 123.

“This is going to be a long and slow and painstaking process,” Barr said. “This is a good starting point, but I think the work of us as a council is not going to be done.”

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Littleton voters are broadly supporting all six ballot issues according to election results as of 2:10 p.m. Wednesday.

Perhaps the most contentious question for voters was ballot question 301, which asked voters to reject city council's rezoning of the Aspen Grove mall last year that paved the way for up to 2,000 housing units to be built at the site.

That rezoning was done under a land use code no longer in effect — with Aspen Grove's owners now pursuing a slimmer plan of about 500 units under a new code — making the question a moot point. A majority of voters, more than 60%, are supporting the measure, results show, which could send a strong signal about residents' lack of appetite for high-density housing.

A small slice of city residents and downtown entities eligible to vote in the creation of a downtown development authority (DDA) are supporting the measure. As of Wednesday afternoon, 170 votes have been tallied on the three DDA questions.

The first question, known as 3F, would allow for a DDA governing body and is passing with more than 65% of the vote. Question 3C would approve funding the DDA through a self-sustaining mechanism known as tax increment financing and is passing with more than 61%. Question 3D would raise downtown area property taxes by about 3% to further fund certain projects, such as snow removal and landscaping as well as marketing campaigns for downtown events. It is passing with 56% of the vote.

Question 3B, passing with more than 64% of the vote, would impose a 5% lodging tax on anyone staying in one of the city's five hotels and two motels as well as short-term rentals, such as Airbnb rentals.

The city hopes to use that tax revenue to bolster the city's arts, culture and tourism programs, estimating an annual fund of about $1 million from the tax. This election marks the second time the city has asked voters to approve such a lodging tax with the first being in 2013 when voters rejected a 3% tax by a near 2-to-1 margin.

And question 3E, which would amend the city's charter by moving a provision that dictates procurement — how and what the city can buy for capital projects — to the city code, is also passing with more than 73% of the vote.

Election results will be updated on election night, Nov. 8, and, as necessary, on Nov. 9 or later. Check back for the latest results.

Keywords

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Satiated by fresh-off-the-grill burgers and zesty beermosas, dozens of Littleton community members gathered Dec. 1 for a groundbreaking ceremony for The Cherry Cricket's third restaurant location.

"Littleton has such a community feel and that's really where we do best," said Calley McCue, president of the Cricket's parent company, Breckenridge-Wynkoop LLC. "We hope people come here after the Christmas tree lighting downtown, we hope people come here after the football wins in high school."

The iconic Denver establishment, which serves beers, burgers, shakes and more, first opened in 1945 as Mary Zimmerman’s Bar in the city's Cherry Creek neighborhood before establishing a second location in 2018 near Coors Field. Its latest setting in Littleton marks a growing expansion by the restaurant's owners throughout the metro area and Front Range.

"We hope to be (in Littleton) for 70-plus years, just as we have been in Cherry Creek," McCue said.

The Littleton location, expected to open in May, will be the smallest of the three at nearly 6,400 square feet which will house about 400 seats, 100 of which will be outdoors. The Cricket will take over the building formerly home to the Crestwood Restaurant at 819 Littleton Boulevard, roughly a mile east of the city's downtown area.

"A lot of people from here had a lot of fond memories of the Crestwood," said Alex Bunn, vice president for brand strategy and growth for Breckenridge-Wynkoop LLC. "And that has a lot of parallels to the Cherry Cricket. So it felt really fitting for us to look at this location and try to bring it back to life and make it a place where future generations can make some memories."

Rather than scrape the decades-old building that housed the Crestwood for more than 40 years, Bunn said the Cricket will incorporate many of the building's stone and wood elements as it renovates the new restaurant as a way to continue the site's long legacy.

"We didn't want to erase it," Bunn said. "While also making it feel 100% like a Cricket, authentic to Cricket."

Pat Dunahay, co-president of the Littleton Business Chamber, said he is excited about the Cricket's Littleton location and hopes it plays a role in revitalizing the Littleton Boulevard area.

"We just think the development opportunity on Littleton Boulevard is huge," Dunahay said, adding that The Cricket brings an iconic brand name that will be instantly recognizable to residents. "I think it's going to be easy to love this place."

Keywords

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