Denver City Council approves Belleview rezoning near DTC, opening door to 8-story mixed-use project
The zoning change for 8401 E. Belleview Ave. allows denser housing and commercial development on a largely parking-and-office site in Hampden South, though final project plans still need later city review.
Denver City Council voted 10-0 on June 8 to rezone 8401 E. Belleview Ave. from B-8 with waivers to S-MX-8, a change that allows a denser mixed-use redevelopment of an underused office, bank and parking site near the Denver Tech Center.
The rezoning does not approve a final building plan. But the council file for bill 26-0557 shows the 3.99-acre Hampden South property is now in Denver's current zoning code under an eight-story suburban mixed-use district that can accommodate housing and commercial uses.
The applicant's rezoning materials include one concept plan for three zone lots: a residential building with 239 units on one lot and about 8,200 square feet of retail across two smaller lots, along with structured parking, bike parking and continued bank drive-through access. Because that layout appears in concept materials tied to the rezoning, it is an indication of possible project scale, not a final city-approved site plan.
In an April staff report to Planning Board, city planners said the site at the northwest corner of South DTC Boulevard and East Belleview Avenue contains 174,120 square feet of land and is currently occupied by a two-story commercial building, a parking garage and large surface parking areas. Staff said the property is a little more than a half-mile east of Belleview Station and served by RTD bus Route 73.
That location is part of the city's rationale for approving denser zoning. In the same staff report, planners said Blueprint Denver classifies the area as a regional center expected to absorb about 30% of Denver's new housing growth and 50% of new employment growth by 2040.
At the June 8 hearing, city staff told council the rezoning supports infill housing, transit-oriented development and growth in a major job center. The applicant told council the project is intended to preserve mature trees where possible, add housing and retail, and complement the nearby Marina Square redevelopment.
The applicant's narrative describes the proposal as an extension of Marina Square, the adjacent Shea Properties project already under construction on East Belleview Avenue. The filing says the goal is to create a more continuous block face and add uses that fit the corridor's mix of retail, office and newer multifamily development.
As of early April, planning staff said they had not received written comments from registered neighborhood organizations or the general public. A publicly posted support letter from former District 4 Councilmember Kendra Black argued the project would help revitalize Belleview Avenue and complement Belleview Station and Marina Square.
What happens next is a more detailed development-review process. The rezoning application says the submitted concept plan illustrates one possible configuration and that other configurations may be analyzed after rezoning. That means the developer still must obtain later approvals, including detailed site-development review and building permits, before construction could begin.
The public record reviewed for this story does not provide a firm construction timeline. But the council vote is another sign that lower-intensity commercial properties in and around the DTC are being repositioned for housing and mixed use. For nearby residents, the immediate change is legal rather than physical: the property can now be planned for a denser future, even though the final design and construction schedule remain unsettled.