Bernard Hurley’s got California cowboy style — tall and mustachioed in a brown suede jacket, roughly embroidered jeans and a well-weathered Lexus, not to mention full-body tattooing that stops at his cuffs.
The 60-year-old’s name has stayed out of the headlines here in Denver, but he’s deeply embedded in the development crew behind the billion-dollar-plus redevelopment of River North. For decades, his firm has worked largely on the environmental damage that plagues other developers’ acreage in this industrial area.
Slowly and surely, though, Hurley has been assembling the money and land for an ambitious and unusual project that could finally deliver the kind of dense, interconnected and green space that has eluded RiNo’s redevelopment. His plan for “Hurley Place,” the developer says, is the best-kept secret on the South Platte.
“We’re trying to create a sense of place for Denver,” he said. “Although there’s some really nice places to go in Denver, there’s no real destination points, and especially nothing that involves the river.”
And he’s ready to talk now because he has the backing of Lynd, a San Antonio real-estate conglomerate with a portfolio that spans 50 metros. With a powerful partner in line, Hurley Place could start construction as early as 2018, with a budget reaching $250 million if it fully builds out.
“We’ve got the development experience and expertise to execute on the development,” said Sam Kasparek, a principal and founding partner for Lynd. Bernard Hurley, he added, is “not a developer, but he’s a great businessman and an incredible visionary. I think it’s something where vision can meet execution and together get a project done.”
An aerial conceptual rendering of Hurley Place along the South Platte River. (Courtesy Bernard Hurley)
The plan:
For now, Chestnut Place is a collection of fenced-off lots, warehouses and a couple small residences, including one owned by RiNo artist-organizer Tracy Weil.
If all goes according to plan, Hurley Place would fill this strip with new towers up to 12 stories tall. The project could bring an estimated 200 residential units, 200,000 square feet of office space, a 200-room hotel, 60,000 square feet of retail and restaurants and three music venues, including an amphitheater with capacity for 1,400 people, all along a couple blocks of riverside Chestnut Place.
Just down the street, a distillery company is working to secure space on another owner’s property for an “outdoor oasis” that also makes liquor, while still another developer plans to rehab a large warehouse on Chestnut. Hurley’s most recent major project, the new Blue Moon Brewery, stands on the eastern corner of the block. He would like to buy the Welcome Inn too, but hasn’t struck a deal yet.
Put together, Hurley imagines a “festival street” where people can easily walk between music venues and eateries — a kind of connectivity that’s lacking in a neighborhood that barely has sidewalks. He hopes one day that his area will be so widely packed that it could host a multi-venue music festival in the style of Austin’s South by Southwest.
“We want to create this large playground, more or less, where everybody can enjoy it — not just the people in RiNo but everybody in the Denver metro area,” he said.
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Author: Andrew Kenney
Andrew Kenney writes about public spaces, Denver phenomena and whatever else. He previously worked for six years as a reporter at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. His most prized possession is his collection of bizarre voicemail. Leave him one at 303-502-2803, or email akenney@denverite.com.
https://www.denverite.com/250-million-plan-finally-make-rino-riverfront-29537/