River North: urban, artistic, gritty; Platte riverfront community emerges from industrial-warehouse district.

Like rainwater rolling down mountains, the areas surrounding Downtown Denver are flooding with redevelopment as demand for new residential space spurs growth in former industrial areas.

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Examples abound: The Platte River Valley, once a lowland, weed-choked haven for the homeless, is now an upscale neighborhood with a central park, retail services, offices and plenty of living space in walking distance to downtown. The Golden Triangle is another once-neglected but promising area blooming with new construction.

Now Brighton Boulevard, also called the River North District, a stretch of industrial and warehouse space north of Coors Field along the Platte River, is the next Golden Child for some of Denver's best known developers. "I started in LoDo before it was LoDo and the Golden Triangle before it was the Golden Triangle, and now we're doing River North," said Mickey Zeppelin, president of Zeppelin Development.

"The concept here is to keep it somewhat gritty. We don't want to turn it into a new riverfront and gentrify the place. We're developing a high-tech industrial feel and really taking advantage of the river. We see it having a series of parks and open spaces; an alternative for people who don't want to move to Lafayette or the Tech Center who want to live near the urban core."

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Zeppelin is developing Taxi, a mixed-use project on Ringsby Court that was the former home of a Yellow Cab office and a truck line. The 15-acre site will have 65,000 square feet of office space and a healthy collection of retail and service outlets serving 43 residential units and the growing surrounding neighborhood. Zeppelin has completed the first phase of offices that share an interior "courtyard" and a view of the Platte River and downtown.

Developers like Zeppelin must possess nerves of steel or great vision, or both, to undertake redevelopment in an area like Brighton Boulevard. During the day, there is heavy truck traffic, and the industrial neighbors often have fenced yards full of industrial supplies and materials that are not necessarily scenic.

"But after 5 it's quiet," said Tracy Weil, owner of Weil Works, an art gallery and Weil's home on Chestnut Place. "We like the kind of roughness. There's a lot of truck traffic, but still a lot of wildlife. Where else can you get riverfront property in Denver?"

Weil said his place was a junkyard when he bought it. Now the fenced compound is an oasis of landscaping punctuated by a contemporary building that is his gallery downstairs with living space above.

It's also the headquarters of the River North Arts District or RiNo, a collection of more than 40 artists who have flocked to this relatively unknown neighborhood to create their own scene and generate a buzz for developers who now see an opportunity. Already, Jefferson at City Gate, a 241-unit apartment complex developed in 2003 and 2004 by Dallas-based JPI, has opened and is 93 percent rented. The contemporary collection of buildings sits along the Platte River and commands rents of up to $1,240 for an 840 square-foot, two-bedroom unit.

Success stories like Jefferson at City Gate and the cultured atmosphere created by Weil and larger galleries like Ironton Studios, have grabbed the attention of other developers such as Dana Crawford and her son Jack, who helped pioneer the loft generation of LoDo, and Larry Burgess, who bought his first building in the area in 1978 and has since collected 18 more.

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The Crawfords and Burgess are each proposing their own live/work developments in the neighborhood. Another promising addition to the area will be a light rail transit station at 40th Street. Other landmarks slated for a facelift include the former Bud's Warehouse, which along with having housed recycled building materials was once an iron foundry, and the Denargo Market between 20th and Denargo Streets. Bud's may become a condominium development with the help of Developer Tim Larson, and Denargo has potential as a mixed-use development.

River North may never become another LoDo, but developers hope the eclectic style of the artsy community adds a dimension of its own to Central Denver's palate of re-emerging neighborhoods.

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1 TAXI

LOCATION: 3455 RINGSBY COURT

PROJECT TYPE: MIXED USE

DEVELOPER: ZEPPELIN DEVELOPMENT

PHONE: [phone]

WEBSITE: WWW.TAXIBYZEPPELIN.COM

ACRES: 15

HOUSING UNITS: 43

PRICE RANGE: $200,000 TO $500,000

COMMERCIAL SQUARE FEET: 65,000 OF OFFICE SPACE

GROUND BREAKING: 2003

BUILD OUT: 2011

The first phase of this project is a 550-foot-long office building with a shared interior courtyard. The next phase is under construction with seven or eight more phases to go over the next five to seven years.

2 LITTLE FLOWER

LOCATION: LARIMER STREET, FIVE BLOCKS NORTH OF COORS FIELD

PROJECT TYPE: LIVE/WORK SPACE

DEVELOPER: LARIMER MAIN STREET LLC

WEBSITE: WWW.MYCITYHOUSE.US

ACRES: N/A

HOUSING UNITS: 6

PRICE RANGE: N/A

COMMERCIAL SQUARE FEET: 2,500

GROUND BREAKING: FALL 2006

BUILD OUT: 2007

3 JEFFERSON AT CITYGATE

LOCATION: 2890 BRIGHTON BLVD.

PROJECT TYPE: APARTMENTS

DEVELOPER: JPI

PHONE: [phone]

WEB SITE: WWW.JEFFERSONATCITYGATE.COM

ACRES: N/A

HOUSING UNITS: 241

PRICE RANGE: $785 TO $1,240 PER MONTH RENT

COMMERCIAL SQUARE FEET: N/A

GROUND BREAKING: 2003

BUILD OUT: 2004

This project is 93 percent occupied.

4 IRONTON STUDIOS

IRONTON STUDIOS

LOCATION: 3636 CHESTNUT PLACE

PROJECT TYPE: ART STUDIOS AND GALLERY

DEVELOPERS: RUSS BEARDSLEY, MIKE MANCARELLA AND DAVID WALTER

PHONE: [phone]

WEB SITE: WWW.IRONTONSTUDIOS.COM

ACRES: ONE HALF

HOUSING UNITS: NONE

PRICE RANGE: N/A

COMMERCIAL SQUARE FEET: 2,000

Ironton Studios is one of the earliest art studios in the River North Arts District.

PHOTOGRAHY BY SHARON WITHERS