A long-awaited transit-oriented development in the heart of Denver’s Stapleton neighborhood is finally moving forward.

Included in the 35-acre development’s first phase is a 120-unit condominium project, something that has been all but nonexistent in recent years due in large part, developers have said, to the state’s construction-defects laws.

“There is a tremendous need for it,” said David Friedman, president of D.H. Friedman Properties, the condo project’s developer.

The five-story condo building will join a 190,000-square-foot Class A office building, a 300-unit apartment building and 60,000 square feet of retail around a large public plaza south of the Regional Transportation District’s Central Park commuter-rail station.

Master developer Forest City Stapleton and real estate firm Newmark Knight Frank announced the development’s first phase Tuesday.

“We’re kicking it off with office, multifamily and retail — we think it’s very important to have all those going at the same time so we can really start to create a sense of place and help people understand the context of the ultimate buildout, versus having just one building,” Forest City senior vice president Jim Chrisman said. “This will be a very urban, mixed-use, transit-oriented development.”

The buildings are expected to break ground starting in late first quarter next year or early second quarter, with delivery in the summer of 2019, Chrisman said. A hotel, too, is the works.

At completion, Central Park Station could be home to 1 million square feet of office space, 1,000 apartments, 400 condos, 120 hotel rooms and 100,000 square feet of retail.

The condo project, anticipated as the first of three phases, will include units that range in size from 550 to 1,200 square feet, Friedman said. Prices will start in the mid-$200,000s and go up to the mid-$500,000s.

“Our price points are going to be dramatically lower than downtown — with all the amenities of Stapleton,” Friedman said. “The condos you’ve seen have been in Cherry Creek. You’re seeing some in Union Station. We are a different market. Our land costs are less.”

Friedman said a recent change to Colorado’s construction-defects laws, requiring a majority of a complex’s condo owners to sign off on legal action against a developer for shoddy construction, hasn’t really impacted the way he’ll approach the project.

His Greenwood Village-based company has built condos in the past, including Villa Rosso, a seven-story, 65-unit complex in the Denver Tech Center near Belleview Station.

“I do think they made big progress yesterday with that case,” he said, referring to a related Colorado Supreme Court decision Monday that ruled a condo association could not change bylaws requiring binding arbitration without the consent of the builder. “I think that will help, but there’s still a lot to do.”

Forest City is developing the office building, apartments and public plaza in the first phase. Located a block from the train platform at East 37th Place and Uinta Street, the office building, Central Park Station One, will be six stories tall with each office floor offering outdoor terraces and balconies. Ground-floor retail will open onto the public plaza via roll-up doors.

“Office is the last piece of the puzzle for Stapleton,” Chrisman said. “If you go down the checklist of what an office user is looking for, we believe we can check everything on that list.”

Zoning generally allows for buildings up to 16 stories high near the train station, but Chrisman said while they may get there eventually, they thought it would be “a little aggressive” to go that tall right out of the gate.

“We have virtually unlimited expansion capability,” he said.

And while many office tenants set their sights on downtown Denver, Central Park Station and Stapleton are just a 15-minute train ride from Denver Union Station — and they have lower rents and more affordable parking, Chrisman said.

The public plaza next to the office building will be home to unique shade structures meant to emulate clouds floating over the prairie, he said.

“We’re trying to do something that will be memorable, that will be iconic, when you say Central Park Station, ‘Oh, that’s where that really cool public space is,'” he said. “We’re looking at those elements that can act like the blue bear at the convention center or the milk jug at Little Man.”