An old concrete plant has been acquired by the developers of the Taxi mixed-use campus in Denver’s River North, with plans to expand their trailblazing project’s mix of creative office, housing and retail to the 5.5-acre site.

Zeppelin Development closed late last week on the former Ready Mixed Concrete property, which sits due north of the recently completed, family-oriented Freight Residences along Ringsby Court, west of the South Platte River. With the $7.3 million purchase, Zeppelin’s land holdings in RiNo now span 25 acres.

“We’ve used up most of the development sites throughout the 20 acres we have,” said Kyle Zeppelin, who, along with his father, Mickey, has been working on Taxi since the early 2000s. “What the 5 acres at Ready Mixed gives us is the ability to continue to scale up and see some ideas through. The projects that are working at a high level, where we think we can make an even bigger social impact, there is some opportunity to do that on that site.”

High on that list will be more housing designed for urban families, as well as a likely deed-restricted affordable housing development, Kyle Zeppelin said. More destination retail serving Taxi and the surrounding neighborhoods is also possible.

All told, the expansion could add up to 400,000 square feet of additional development. Construction could begin on the first phases within a year, he said.

“We’re always looking for under-served areas in the market that aren’t being addressed by other developers,” Zeppelin said. “Family housing has been the newest chapter.”

The 48-unit Freight Residences, which opened this year, the first family-oriented apartment community of its kind in RiNo, is 90 percent leased, Kyle Zeppelin said.

The addition of the Ready Mixed property also means Zeppelin Development has all the land it needs to work with the city to reroute Ringsby Court away from the river, potentially freeing up the current right of way for river reclamation and green space.

Concept site plans show the realigned road veering into the Taxi property, about where the first driveway going north exists today, then working its way through the back of the property to 38th Avenue.

Kyle Zeppelin said the company has been talking with the city about rerouting Ringsby for years.

The city’s 2009 River North Greenway Master Plan, while not specifying a new route, recommended that “Ringsby Court should be moved away from the river wherever possible.” A pedestrian bridge spanning the South Platte also would connect Taxi to the proposed River North Park on the river’s east bank.

“What’s there now is a relic of the past, when cities turned their back on rivers,” Zeppelin said. “Over the last 20 years, there’s been a renewed interest in embracing these urban waterways. That’s an opportunity that you can’t build into a neighborhood — there’s only one river that runs through downtown and RiNo.”

Rerouting Ringsby Court is on the city’s radar, but for now it sits behind higher-priority projects on the east side of the river, said Todd Wenskoski, deputy director of the North Denver Cornerstone Collaborative. Among them is the reconstruction of Brighton Boulevard, building River North Park and the 35th/36th pedestrian bridge and repurposing Arkins Court into a pedestrian promenade.

“Ringsby Court is a critical connection for the foreseeable future to accommodate travel plans during the construction of these and other surrounding projects,” Wenskoski said.