In a city that struggles with a shortage of affordable housing, several projects are in the works throughout the Denver area designed to address that pressing need.
On Friday morning, a crowd of more than 50 gathered to celebrate the grand opening of two apartment complexes in Central Park. The buildings will serve renters who earn between 30% to 60% of Denver’s area median income.
The new complex, with more than 200 units, has a 500-person waitlist.
Nearby, construction on Central Park Condominiums broke ground, with plans for 70 units. Although the building isn’t slated to open until early next year, 55 units are already reserved, as of Monday.
Still, the new complexes are “a great step for this neighborhood,” said project architect Ginie Kwan at the Friday event. The state of affordable housing in Denver “needs work, for sure, but I think projects like this are definitely helping our situation.”
Affordable housing has grown increasingly rare throughout the Denver area, with the average rent for an apartment in the city at $1,967. This isn’t just a Denver problem but a national one, with almost 50% of Americans calling the lack of affordable housing “a major problem” in their communities in a Pew Research Center report.
About 25% of millennials claim they’ll always rent, relinquishing the classic American dream of buying a home, according to last year’s Apartment List Millennial Homeownership Report.
But in a countermove, Denver and surrounding cities, including Aurora and Brighton, are making an effort to build affordable housing projects, such as the Central Park apartments, through public-private partnerships.
At the state level, Gov. Jared Polis is also supporting Colorado entrepreneurs that build affordable housing. Last month, he awarded grants to three companies – Key Structures, Fading West Development and Simple Homes – to construct more than 1,000 new units.
“It is no secret that Colorado is a great place to live, and we need more housing options now for every budget in every community,” Polis said on March 15.
The lack of housing is one of the biggest concerns held by businesses looking to relocate or expand within Colorado, said Adam Burg, vice president of government affairs at the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s not just about lower-income or traditional affordable housing,” he said Monday. “We have companies in metro Denver who are paying good, six-figure salaries to their employees, and those employees still can’t find a home in Colorado.”
Central Park II Apartments at Central Park Boulevard and East 35th Avenue and Central Park III Apartments at Central Park Boulevard and East Prairie Meadow Drive – were constructed in one year.
Offering studios, one-bedrooms, two-bedrooms and three-bedrooms, the rents are as low as $614 and as high as $1,755.
The Central Park Condominiums, Central Park Boulevard and 57th Avenue, also target a specific population of potential homeowners: those making between 60% and 80% of Denver’s area median income. Starting at $225,000, the condos each have two bedrooms, two bathrooms and two reserved parking spots.
The properties by Northeast Denver Housing Center – a nonprofit developer – were built on donated land by Brookfield Properties, with money provided by various government and private sector groups. Central Park II cost $31 million, while Central Park III had a price tag of $23 million.
Projects throughout Denver
The Central Park apartments aren’t the only affordable housing projects popping up throughout the city. Upon its completion, Krisana Apartments at 4343 E. Arkansas Ave. will house tenants earning up to 60% of the area median income in its 151 all-electric units, including studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms.
The project “serves as a model for what sustainable housing focused on clean energy can look like,” said Hunt Capital Partners managing director of investor relations Amy Dickerson. The four-story building will rely on electricity, instead of gas and mixed fuels.
The development, which is scheduled for completion next April, will cost $44 million. Hunt Capital Partners – a division of investment company Hunt Companies Inc. – secured funding through federal tax credits and bank loans.
• Next summer, affordable housing nonprofit Mercy Housing Inc. hopes to break ground on an affordable-housing community specifically for American Indian and Alaska Native residents, with 187 households for applicants earning 30% to 60% of the area median income.
People experiencing homelessness will get preference for half of the apartments. The project will also include a 19,000-square-foot health clinic, operated by Denver Indian Health and Family Services.
The Denver Housing Authority is putting forward a 99-year ground lease for the site at 901 Navajo St. in the La Alma-Lincoln Park neighborhood. Now, the focus is on funding the development.
Bill Ziegler (Kul Wicasa Lakota), principal housing consultant with Native American Housing Circle, called the project “an important step in the process of addressing the housing disparities that exist within metro Denver’s Native American community.”
• In the Westwood neighborhood of West Denver, almost one year has passed since the grand opening of Avenida del Sol at 5048 Morrison Rd. – an 80-unit affordable housing development, with more than a quarter of units saved for tenants earning 30% and 40% of the area median income.
Offering one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom spaces, the units are offered to renters earning between 30% to 80% of the area media income.
Developer Gorman & Company’s Colorado market president Kimball Crangle referred to the project as a way “to provide affordable, newly constructed housing for a community that desires to remain in their chosen neighborhood in the face of gentrification pressures.”
Projects across the metro area
The Adams County and the Brighton Housing Authority unveiled a development of their own last month.
The plan for Adams Point includes a minimum of 60 units of affordable housing co-developed by real estate firm MGL Partners on more than seven acres at 1931 Bridge St. The land once housed the Adams County Court, which has since moved, so the Board of County Commissioners donated it for the project.
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“Fair and affordable housing should be a basic right, and that’s why it was crucial for Adams County to donate this piece of property,” said County Commissioner Steve O’Dorisio. “It’s transactions and housing developments such as this that move us forward in the right direction.”
Most of the affordable housing units managed by the Brighton Housing Authority cropped up over the past decade – and will number at over 500 with the addition of the Adams Point project.
• Aurora also took a step toward offering more affordable housing last month.
The Housing Authority of the City of Aurora is set to start building out the final phase of Peoria Crossing II on 30th and Peoria streets – a project made up of 72 units on 2.3 acres. Future occupants’ earnings must fall between 30% and 60% of the area median income, with 14 units set aside for “very low income” families.
“We purchased this property over 10 years ago and we are excited the campus will be completed 16 months from now,” executive director Craig Maraschky said on March 15.
The $30 million project – constructed with federal, state, city and private funds – will sit near Peoria Crossing I on a campus of 154 units upon its completion.
