The old Market Street Station in Lower Downtown will gain new life as a $150 million mixed-use development featuring retail, office and “micro” apartments along the 16th Street Mall.

Denver-based Continuum Partners on Monday said it had purchased the former RTD bus terminal from the city of Denver for $14.5 million, a sale expected since the station closed in 2014. The 2-acre parcel — a rare downtown urban infill opportunity — is bounded by 16th, 17th, Market and Blake streets and includes everything but the Regional Transportation District headquarters at 1600 Blake St.

“We are thrilled to be moving forward with the development of the Market Station property,” Continuum development director Roger Pecsok said. “To have nearly a full city block for development in the heart of Lower Downtown is a unique opportunity.”

Current plans call for 370,000 square feet of new development, including 90,000 square feet of nontraditional, creative office space, 85,000 square feet of retail and 225 rental apartments. The project also includes two levels of underground parking, with 350 spaces for tenant and public use.

The residential component will offer both the luxury apartments people have come to expect downtown and “micro” units as small as 400 square feet, Pecsok said in an interview.

“We like the idea of providing a significant number of micro units to help achieve a more affordable overall price point,” he said. “Everything’s driven by rent per square foot. With the traditionally larger sizes, those monthly rents are getting pretty unaffordable for many people.”

As co-master developer of Denver Union Station, Continuum had the option to purchase the site from the city by the end of this year. Continuum bought out the interest of its colleague in Union Station, East West Partners, and will be developing the Market Street project solo.

The former bus station closed in May 2014, rendered obsolete by the new, 22-bay underground terminal at the revitalized Union Station.

The city is using the sale proceeds to help fund the long-awaited Central Denver Recreation Center under construction at East Colfax Avenue and Josephine Street. The city bought the property from RTD for $11.4 million in 2008 as part of a mechanism to finance the Union Station project.

Given the site’s prime location, retail will be a major part of the redevelopment, Pecsok said.

“A lot of people build a big office or apartment building with some retail,” Pecsok said. “I look at this as a retail project with office and residential above.”

The project’s street level will be dedicated to retail, with some larger, two-story stores envisioned along 16th Street. An open-air courtyard accessible from Market and Blake will house smaller boutique retail and cafes.

“As great as downtown Denver has become, we still don’t have a proper ‘High Street retail area,’ and we believe a site of this scale, at this location, presents us with the opportunity to get something pretty extraordinary started from a retail standpoint,” Continuum CEO Mark Falcone said in a statement.

Across the street, Market Center, a collection of historic buildings home to 121,000 square feet of retail and office space, recently sold for $29 million to a group led by the team responsible for the tenant lineup at Union Station and Larimer Square.

Construction on the Continuum project is set to begin in fall 2016, wrapping up by late 2018. El Dorado of Kansas City and Dallas-based BOKA Powell are the architects on the project, which is currently going through the city design review process.

At its highest point along 16th Street, the redevelopment will be 10 stories, although as with many new builds downtown, the tallest portions of the structure will be stepped back from the street.

“Continuum, they truly get it,” Downtown Denver Partnership CEO Tami Door said. “They not only understand what it takes to do great urban infill in general, but they really understand what it means to do great urban infill right here in the center city of Denver. They have a really good understanding of what’s already here, what developments are coming down the pipeline and where the gaps are.

“It bodes very well for downtown,” she said.

Emilie Rusch: 303-954-2457, erusch@denverpost.com or @emilie rusch