Rail Yard Lofts is Danielsen's latest
Development of a loft project near Coors Field is the latest family business Sonia Danielsen is managing.
Danielsen, 44, and her father, Nick Siegel, 73, started planning the project, Rail Yard Lofts, in spring 2004.
It was less than two months after Danielsen sold Eastwood Printing, a family-owned business she'd bought from her father 12 years earlier.
"I'd been retired from the shop for 10 days when Dad said, 'Let's develop this into lofts,'" Danielsen said.
The loft project, at 3031 Blake St. in Denver, involves the redevelopment of a site that had been in the family for about 25 years.
Shortly after they started working on the 29-unit project, Siegel was diagnosed with prostate cancer and started undergoing treatment.
Danielsen is overseeing the project on her own.
"He's really the idea person and I'm the executor," she said.
Danielsen had worked with her father for almost a decade at Eastwood Printing before buying the commercial print shop from him. Her grandfather bought the business in 1946 from its founder.
After spending more than 20 years in the printing industry, Danielsen said she loves her new career.
"I'm having a blast," she said. "I haven't had this much fun in years."
Sales of the lofts started in June. Even without a model home to show, 10 units have sold.
Danielsen said the market includes young singles and couples who can't afford LoDo prices.
The lofts range in size from about 900 to 1,500 square feet, with prices between $256,500 and $505,000.
Danielsen's family bought numerous buildings in the area northeast of Coors Field, also called the Ballpark Neighborhood, 25 years ago. Many of these industrial buildings were associated with the Fire Clay Co., which made bricks, she said.
In the 1990s, the family sold some buildings to Urban Ventures Inc., which is developing the Fire Clay Lofts, adjacent to the Rail Yard project.
Other new loft and retail projects are cropping up in the neighborhood as well. While the Fire Clay Loft development includes new construction, most of the neighborhood projects have been redevelopment projects, said Tammy Beyerle of Denver Realty Services Inc., who's handling sales for the Rail Yard project.
"It's tons of old commercial warehouses and lots of infill that could be renovated," Beyerle said about the neighborhood. "In Uptown, we're seeing a lot more scrapes and new condo projects."
Danielsen and her architect initially thought the old buildings on the Rail Yard site would need to be torn down.
"In most cases, you'd look at this and just tear it down and build new," architect Tim Van Meter said. "After visiting the site and walking around, I found there are four buildings there. It's like an old ship that gets barnacles. This isn't so much about creating something but more about uncovering something."
Van Meter is a partner with Van Meter Williams Pollack architecture and design office in Denver.
In redeveloping the project, Danielsen is keeping a facade that will tie the project together. The original brick and timber will be incorporated into the project.
Paint is now being removed from the old brick and demolition is under way. After construction begins, one of the first priorities is building a model unit.
"With these old buildings it's like a heart, lung and liver transplant," Van Meter said. "A new use for some very old buildings. Sonia's going to do quite well when it starts coming together."
"She's very hands on," Beyerle said about Danielsen. "She's a tough business lady. For a new developer and somebody that hasn't done a project like that before, she's jumped right in and she's getting her feet wet."
posted by Tony Cline @ 11:06 PM
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