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Quick update. The commuter rail cars are starting to arrive. Source: RTD In 2016 Denver will add almost 70 miles or new rail and BRT with the following lines: East Rail line is a 22.8-mile commuter rail transit corridor that will operate between Union Station and Denver International Airport; Gold Line 11.2-mile electric commuter rail line will connect Union Station to Wheat Ridge, passing through northwest Denver, Adams County and Arvada; I-225 light rail with 10.5-mile through Aurora; 6.2-mile segment of the Northwest Rail Line (guide rail) from Union Station to south Westminster; 18 mile US 36 BRT line from Denver Union Station to Boulder.

Denver Union Station Transit Center had its grand opening on Friday. Below is a few pics from the opening event. It is an amazing project that is transforming Denver in a big way. The historic train station opens in July and will have a new hotel, several restaurants, shops and an outdoor interactive fountain/plazas. (Sorry for the quality of the photos - I just had my phone with me.) And here is a link to video of the grand opening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku03epypAxA

Grand opening for the underground bus transit center will be May 9th with the historic Union Station redevelopment opening in July. All four commuter rail lines are now under construction along with the I-225 light rail line. 3 of the commuter lines and the I-225 will open in 2016 with the North Metro Line opening in 2018. Denver Union Station area draws $1 billion in private development "With construction of the new bus terminal at Denver Union Station nearly complete, the transformation of the historic depot has already drawn nearly $1 billion in private money in the form of new buildings underway or planned on the surrounding 19.5 acres." "In addition to the bus station, the transit hub includes stops for light rail trains, Amtrak and the 16th Street Mall shuttle. Commuter rail lines currently under construction will connect Union Station to Denver International Airport, Arvada and Westminster in early 2016." http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/earth_to_power/2014/04/denver-union-station-areadraws-1-billion-in.html?page=2

If this is true, then the big banks have been caught manipulating/corrupting just about everything. Libor, cartel money, housing stock, etc. Metals, Currency Rigging Is Worse Than Libor, Bafin Says "Germany’s top financial regulator said possible manipulation of currency rates and prices for precious metals is worse than the Libor-rigging scandal, which has already led to fines of about $6 billion. The allegations about the currency and precious metals markets are “particularly serious because such reference values are based -- unlike Libor and Euribor -- typically on transactions in liquid markets and not on estimates of the banks,” Elke Koenig, the president of Bonn-based Bafin, said in a speech in Frankfurt yesterday. Koenig is the first global finance regulator to comment publicly on the investigations as probes into the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, expand into other benchmarks." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-16/metals-currency-rigging-worse-than-libor-bafin-s-koenig-says.html

I stand by my main idea, the recovery is based on, MASSIVE amounts of debt, that can't be sustained. When that bunch bowl is removed the real state of the economy will show its face once again. But, I realized there is limited value in discussing the issue while the FEDs print 1 Trillion dollars a year to make things look better than they really are. This 1 Trillion a year debt binge should tell everyone they are desperate and things are not normal.

I am not sure they can do this in a meaningful way without some very unpleasant side effects. Reality dawns for artificial world created by Fed activism “QE got rid of the headache, but we are hooked on the painkiller now,” says Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank. “It’s time the Fed moved away from having created an artificial world and allowed the economy to stand on its own.” High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a2f5d320-6740-11e3-a5f9-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2ny06hdeb

Another office building going up at Union Station. Construction is expected to begin in January. Source: http://denverinfill.com/blog/

Downtown Denver (and the region) is just hot right now. There are about 25 major construction projects under way right now in the downtown area. That doesn't include uptown, the golden triangle, highlands, capitol hill, etc. It is pretty impressive and the mass transit effort is at the core of this transformation. To give a quick feel on what the transit means to the region, recently a new fortune 500 company moved from California to Denver and would only locate their new headquarters near a transit hub. They just finished their new office tower across the street from Union Station. But Union Station and all the transit is just part of a much bigger picture. Denver now has over 80 b-cycle stations, and adding another free bus system for downtown along with the current 19 block 16th free shuttle system. These systems will cover almost 40 blocks in the downtown area with free transit and connect the area to Union Station. Construction starts on Free MetroRide "RTD has named and branded another free bus service. The new service will debut next spring, traveling from Union Station to Civic Center Station along 18th and 19th streets. The service is being implemented as part of RTD's FasTracks transit expansion program." http://www.rtd-fastracks.com/ddc_3

I hate these sort of photos that show a mountain range behind a city when said mountain range is at least 10 miles away. I lived in Knoxville, TN for four years, which is about 25 miles from the Smokey Mountains. They would go out of their way to have that mountain range show up in every promotional photograph. However, the average local visited the mountains no more often than people from Ohio. People like saying they live near mountains or near a beach. They like "having" them. It kind of hard to avoid the mountains (14,000+ feet) in Denver views unless your photo is looking eastward only. South views pick up Pikes Peak and Devils Head and northern photos usually get Long's Peak and Rocky Mountain National Park. The Denver metro core does go into the the 'foothills', canyons and valley areas of the Rocky Mountains (Evergreen, Golden, Castle Rock, Morrison, etc.). You don't have to go out of your way to get city and mountain views together in Denver.

Also just announced and now under city review is the The Confluence. This new tower will be 1.5 blocks from Union Station. Anticipated ground breaking is in the first half of 2014. Source:http://denverinfill.com/blog/page/2

Recent pic of the Union Station area. All the current cranes are for private sector projects now underway. Source: http://denverinfill.com/blog/

Do to the altitude, dry air and sunshine that snow usually melts/evaporates very quickly. It can easily snow a half a foot at night and the streets and sidewalks are dry by noon. I think the design is more than just about weather, its that Denver has a culture that embraces the outdoors and the sunshine it gets. Also, everything above ground is connected underground.

Actually Denver is not as cold as many think on average and is one of the sunnier major US cities. "Metro Denver has nearly 300 sunny days a year—more annual days of sunshine than either San Diego or Miami Beach." http://www.metrodenver.org/living-here/climate

That is a very good point. RTD leadership in Denver has taken a very progressive approach to their place in development. They don't just see themselves as a transit builder and provider, they are actively engaged in creating TODs and infill. This is a very unique approach for most transit agencies. But one that I think will catch on over time.

Union Station Transit Hub nearing completion. Source: DenverInfill - http://denverinfill.com/blog/

It is a process that takes time. It is changing the urban and suburban landscape more and more each year. I can tell you there are station area plans throughout the new west line, and many private sector developers are already working to develop new TODs along that line that will add significant density. The F and E lines going south are and have seen a tone of TOD. Wait 10 years and see what those lines look like and the development patterns that will be around them. I think the real point is that they now have the transit infrastructure to change the future. Some of that change has already happen, and much more is coming. This type of massive infrastructure isn't as much about what is, but what will be and that is a great position to be in.

I can tell you that the density is rapidly growing in the core of the city and along the rail lines. This is significantly changing the region and many of its development patterns. Downtown Denver and surrounding neighborhoods (1.5 mile radius) have completed or have under construction over 5,000 multi family residential units (since 2012), with about another 2,000 planned. Denver and its metro will be a much more dense urban place in the future and a lot of it has to do with the rail investment taking place. I think another big positive is how this is and will change how many of the Denver region's residents get around (not just a car).

The this is the last main line that needed to be funded. Now all that is left is the potential commuter line to Longmont (which alternatives are being discussed). Denver will have almost their entire system up and running by 2018. Pretty impressive for a metro of less than 3 million. It is changing the region and its development patterns in a big way. RTD board approves North Rail Line "A $343 million contract to build the North Metro Rail Line from Denver Union Station to 124th Avenue was approved Tuesday night by the Regional Transportation District board of directors." "Contractors have committed to finish the line to 124th by January 2018." "The construction to 124th will be built with the funding that RTD currently has available, which will serve the majority of the projected ridership for the corridor, say RTD officials." Read more: RTD board approves North Rail Line - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_24608054/rtd-board-approves-north-rail-line#ixzz2ls5PbGX2 Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse Follow us: @Denverpost on Twitter | Denverpost on Facebook

HUD Said to Fail in Bid to Sell $450 Million of FHA Mortgages "The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the first time failed to sell some of the soured mortgages it’s auctioning off in the wake of the housing crisis, according to four people with knowledge of the results." "The sales are an attempt by HUD to simultaneously stem losses at the financially troubled FHA and pursue its public mission of averting foreclosures on the underlying properties. The refusal to accept bids on some of the pools may reflect that the FHA reached its limit on the losses it was willing to realize to keep some borrowers in homes or stabilize markets." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-13/hud-said-to-fail-in-bid-to-sell-450-million-of-bad-mortgages.html

Maybe Von Maur?

Andrew Huszar: Confessions of a Quantitative Easer "We went on a bond-buying spree that was supposed to help Main Street. Instead, it was a feast for Wall Street." "I can only say: I'm sorry, America. As a former Federal Reserve official, I was responsible for executing the centerpiece program of the Fed's first plunge into the bond-buying experiment known as quantitative easing. The central bank continues to spin QE as a tool for helping Main Street. But I've come to recognize the program for what it really is: the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time." "In its almost 100-year history, the Fed had never bought one mortgage bond. Now my program was buying so many each day through active, unscripted trading that we constantly risked driving bond prices too high and crashing global confidence in key financial markets. We were working feverishly to preserve the impression that the Fed knew what it was doing." http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303763804579183680751473884 Warren: End 'too big to fail' Author: By CNN's Bryan Koenig "Five years after the financial crisis, there remain banks that are "too big to fail," Warren warned. She called for sharper regulation of banking institutions and, more specifically, a revised version of the Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-era law which restricted the role of certain financial institutions. "The last thing we should do is wait for more crises" before doing something to prevent them, the senator said in her prepared remarks." http://www.kxly.com/news/politics/Warren-End-too-big-to-fail/-/116124/22935698/-/op06ptz/-/index.html

Brent Crude Traders Claim Proof BFOE Boys Rigged Market "Some of the world’s biggest oil companies including BP Plc (BP/), Statoil ASA (STL), and Royal Dutch Shell Plc conspired with Morgan Stanley and energy traders including Vitol Group to manipulate the closely watched spot prices for Brent crude oil for more than a decade, they allege. The North Sea benchmark is used to price more than half the world’s crude and helps determine where costs are headed for fuels including gasoline and heating oil." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-06/brent-crude-traders-claim-proof-bfoe-boys-rigged-market.html

Speaking of how the big investors have been driving the housing 'recovery'. Blackstone Funding Largest U.S. Single-Family Rentals "Blackstone has led hedge funds, private-equity firms and real estate investment trusts raising about $20 billion to purchase as many as 200,000 homes to rent after prices plunged 35 percent from the 2006 peak. The largest investors, seeking to profit from rebounding prices and rising demand for rentals among millions of Americans who went through foreclosure or can’t qualify for a mortgage, are looking to the bond market for capital to buy more properties and increase returns with borrowed money." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-23/blackstone-creating-rental-home-bonds-after-buying-spree.html

Some updated photos from the Denver Union Station area. The transit center will open in 2014.

Shiller's Lesson: Housing Was Never a Great Investment "You have probably heard it a million times: Buying housing is better than renting because renters forgo the opportunity to accumulate equity in real estate. There was even a time when people thought that it was worth promoting homeownership because it reduced crime, although more recent research has found that areas with high rates of homeownership have less flexible labor markets and lower rates of entrepreneurship. Yet the biggest problem with the conventional wisdom is that home equity just isn’t a great place to put your money -- especially if the tax code ever gets fixed. This doesn’t mean that buying is inherently inferior to renting, but it does mean that many prospective buyers might be better off renting and accumulating wealth in other ways." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-16/shiller-s-lesson-housing-was-never-a-great-investment.html