An apartment project is in the works for a shuttered auto repair property in Lincoln Park.
Motive Investment Partners, led by Jim Cauley, is preparing to build a five-story, 123-unit complex at 607 and 621 8th Ave.
The latter parcel has a building on it that was previously home to Perry & Terry Collision Center, which closed in early 2021. The other lot, located across the alley, is undeveloped and was used to store vehicles. The site is down the road from the Denver Health campus, and a block from West High School.
Cauley previously worked locally for big names in the multifamily sector, including Dallas-based Trammell Crow Residential and most recently Charlotte, North Carolina-based Crescent Communities. He helped Crescent secure Lakewood’s former White Fence Farm property and a site in RiNo for the company’s entrance to the Denver market.
Cauley now lives primarily in Breckenridge after he and his wife recently sold their home in Greenwood Village. Acting as West 8th Ave Partners LLC, he purchased the Lincoln Park property for $4.23 million from the family that had operated the repair shop, records show. That was about $133 a square foot for the 0.73-acre site.
“This is me at 60 doing something smaller-scale — getting out of the big-company, institutional game and doing a deal or two a year,” he said.
The property has been used for auto repair since the 1950s, Cauley said, but was a grocery store before that.
“The site at 621 … was first purchased, best we can tell, back in the 30s, by Mr. King, of King Soopers fame,” he said.
The specifics of what Cauley will build depend in part on a pending rezoning request in with the city. The rear portion of the 621 parcel is zoned residential, despite the fact that — like the rest of the parcel — it has been used for commercial purposes for decades. He’s seeking to have it rezoned C-MS-5, as the rest of the site already is.
“All we’re doing is simply seeking to go in and, in our minds, correct the zoning,” he said.
If the rezoning isn’t approved, Cauley said he could likely still build 120 or so units on the remainder of the property. But he would need to reduce the amount of parking included in the project down from the planned 116 spaces.
“What that would do is throw an enormous parking burden on the neighborhood,” he said.
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Initial plans for Cauley’s project were submitted before June 30 of last year, meaning the project isn’t required to incorporate income-restricted units. But Cauley said he’s generally aiming to keep rents affordable thanks in part to small unit sizes — 60 percent are planned to be 550 square feet or less.
The complex would consist of two buildings, separated by the alley. Architecture firm KTGY drew up the plans.
Cauley’s property is three blocks east of Santa Fe Drive, and he noted that multiple apartment complexes are in the works along that corridor.
“We hope to create another end of the barbell, so there is investment and growth from our site, up against Galapago, to Santa Fe,” he said.
This story was reported by our partner BusinessDen.
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