Dawe, an architect by training, says the E-470 tollway (which connects into the non-toll road called C-470 to the southwest), over the next 20 years could spur $30 to $35 billion in private investments.
Dawe was one of the keynote speakers at a recent DIA Partnership meeting called: "Follow the Yellow Brick Road: E-470 Segment IV. Real Estate's Ruby Slippers."
Dawe's number is twice the $17 billion in development along the massive corridor that the DIA Partnership has been projecting over the next five to 10 years, says Julie Bender, president of the DIA Partnership.
Dawe says that the development, which includes housing, commercial and mixed-use projects, shouldn't be sprawl. Sprawl, he notes, is unplanned growth, while communities along E-470, which connects both the southeast and the northeast parts of the city - and soon the northwest corridor - to Denver International Airport, have had years to plan for orderly, smart growth.
But Dawe has one caveat. Last year, a report by professors at Rutgers and Cornell universities ranked cities with beltways as having a great deal of sprawl, while Denver scored very well, just behind Portland, OR.
Without a strong vision for the beltway, Denver could suffer the same fate of cities such as Atlanta, which scored poorly on the sprawl meter, he says, because of increased traffic, air pollution and rising property taxes to offset infrastructure costs.
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