General Membership Meeting
February 21, 2007
MINUTES
1. Rick Wells from Cherokee Uptown described their development plans for Children's Hospital site. Children's is moving on Sept. 30th to Fitzsimmons. Cherokee specializes in brownfields and urban infill projects. They will develop the land and then sell to buyers who will build the buildings. Cherokee also did the Mercy Hospital redevelopment. The project architect showed us a proposed map of the site. No building will be over 140' tall. The existing parking structure will stay. They might put a new skin on it to improve its appearance. Tammen Hall will become a hotel. 19th Avenue will become a through street again and will offer a "main street" feel with small retail along it. There will be at least 20% open space including a Children's Plaza in the middle. There will also be an office building in the middle. 600-900 residential units will surround the space. Nothing has been finalized yet. Cherokee is still seeking input from surrounding neighborhoods.
2. Cathy Calder provided an update on Manual High School and some information about education in NE Denver. Manual will reopen on August 20th with 9th grade only. Their goal is 150 students, so they are recruiting all over Denver. They are looking for a lot of community support. A principal should be hired in the next week or two. Because there will initially be a lot of empty space in Manual, DPS administration, and some non-profit groups will have offices there. A recent study found that DPS has too many buildings. The Northeast Community Congress for Education meets every Monday night at 6:30PM, at Blair-Caldwell Library. Anyone interested is welcome to attend. Some possibilities for NE Denver include a Montessori school and a gifted and talented elementary program.
3. Barry Sharoff talked about bringing back the WNA Scholarship Fund. Barry is hoping we can partner with foundations to obtain funding for the scholarships. He has created a committee along with Jim Considine and Ted Thomas. Anyone interested in helping with this should contact Barry at marketingguy@mho.com.
4. Jim Considine has been given paint to cover graffiti on dumpsters. If you know of a dumpster that needs to be painted, let Jim know at 303-837-1164 or sherrienudge@yahoo.com.