Sunnyside Hole on Zuni and 44th; What’s Up With That?

Sunnyside is widely regarded as one of North Denver’s most beautiful neighborhoods, but it’s currently home to one of the biggest eyesores in all of the Mile High City. A massive 18,000-square foot hole sits on the southwest corner of West 44th Avenue and Zuni Street, where an old Phillips Automotive service and gas station once stood. 

The Sunnyside hole, which has been sitting stagnant since it was dug in late June 2024, is just as much of a nightmare for its developer as it is for the neighboring houses and businesses.

“The giant hole is obviously a problem,” said former Sunnyside United Neighbors President and current Land Use Committee Co-Chair Trupti Suthar. “It’s an eyesore as a resident, but I also know the challenges that they ran into and what they’re trying to do.” 

First-time developer Anthony Caselli purchased the lot for around $900,000 in 2021 to turn the space into a 6,000-square-foot development with a gym and office space. The Phillips Automotive building on the site was repurposed into a modern gym named Fit Sol, but the redevelopment plans have shuttered the business for the time being.

Since then, those redevelopment plans have hit a major, unexpected snag. When Caselli began to dig the foundation for the site, the hole suddenly flooded with around a foot of water.

“We just got a bad geotechnical report about groundwater so we had to stop and pause and figure it all out,” Caselli told BusinessDen in October. The inaccurate report, which was designed to survey the subsurface condition of the site, resulted in the construction team accidentally digging too deep and hitting an underground aquifer. 

The impromptu and unwanted pond at the corner of one of Sunnyside’s busiest corridors has led to concerns about health and safety issues from Suthar and other members of Sunnyside’s Registered Neighborhood Organization (RNO). Instead of worrying about residents falling into the 10-foot-deep hole, Suthar has been more worried about the health risks of the still water sitting on Zuni and 44th.

“[Sunnyside’s RNO] was more concerned about the water and whether it’s a health issue,” Suthar said. “Whether it’s a breeding ground for mosquitoes, right? That was a major issue. And we were obviously also concerned about the adjoining properties and any sort of [ground] movement and shift.”

Even with the nearly six-month delay on the project, the community members in Sunnyside seemingly haven’t been too bothered by the massive Sunnyside hole, according to Suthar.

“Unless the community talks to us and tells us [complaints] directly, but we haven’t had that at all,” Suthar said. “Excuse the pun, but we have not heard a ‘hole’ lot from the community, or complaints and questions about [the hole].”

Despite the eyesore in her neighborhood, Suthar feels sympathetic for Caselli, who has reportedly lost “hundreds of thousands” of dollars on the endeavor. 

“I think the people here would like this fixed, including the property owner,” Suthar said. “I’m sure this was a very big headache for him to run into these types of complications and have to redo plans, resubmit those plans and work with the city to get those new plans approved.”

The new plans mentioned by Suthar no longer include a gym in the basement of the development. As a result of the underground aquifer, the site is only zoned for eight-foot ceilings in the basement, so Caselli has decided to change the plans from a gym and office spaces to a new restaurant that will sit where the pit currently is.

Bucket List attempted to contact Caselli to include his perspective, but he did not respond. Publically, Caselli has shared that he plans to repurpose the former Phillips Automotive buildings on the site as restaurant and retail space to save time and money. As an added bonus, it also helps preserve some of the neighborhood history on Zuni and 44th.

“I have done everything required to ensure the safety of the site and have tried my best to expeditiously get back to building,” Caselli told BusinessDen. “I chose to do an adaptive reuse of the old buildings because I care about them and they are part of the history of this community. I am paying a lot of money to keep them and had to fight the city to let me keep them.”

As Caselli works to finally fill in the hole and build his newly adapted development, members of the Sunnyside community stand beside him, excited to see what a reimagined 44th and Zuni will have to offer them in the future.

“Nobody wants to see endless construction, but I think [44th and Zuni] is an important corridor for our neighborhood,” Suthar said. “The project itself, frankly, is going to be something very cool and exciting. For all those reasons, I’d just love to see it done so it adds something to the community and neighborhood.”