Plans have taken shape for the future of a former strip club and a nearby vacant lot on East Colfax after Denver officials picked two nonprofit firms to redevelop the properties and provide housing options for disadvantaged groups.
Once the site of a murder, the former PT’s II show club at 8315 E. Colfax Ave., is now slated for 83 income-restricted apartments. The apartments will be reserved for people making up to 80 percent of the area median income, with some reserved for people making 30 percent or under. (That’s $27,850 or less for a family of four over the course of a year, according to the city.) A ground floor space will be set aside for a high-quality early childhood education provider, according to plans from developer awardee Mercy Housing Mountain Plains.
A few blocks west, a vacant lot at 7900 E. Colfax that was once home to Ms C’s lesbian dive bar will become a supportive housing project for people experiencing homelessness with room for 72 families. Some of the services on site will cater specially to people who have suffered brain injuries, according to the city. Denver-based Brothers Redevelopment was the buyer/developer selected there. It will be working with the Brain Injury Alliance of Colorado to provide programming, according to the city.
“We’re thrilled to work alongside two mission-driven nonprofit development partners to bring much-needed affordable homes and early childhood education to East Colfax,” Britta Fisher, chief housing officer with the Denver Economic Development & Opportunity office said in a news release last week.
The properties (including a parking lot at 1500 Valentia St. next to the former PT’s) were purchased by the city for a combined $1.95 million in 2017 with future affordable housing options in mind. The two properties are within a quarter mile of planned bus rapid transit stops on East Colfax. Mercy Housing Mountain Plains and Brothers Redevelopment responded for a city request for proposals for the properties. Pending City Council approval, each will pay $10 for the plots in return for keeping affordability restrictions in place for 99 years.
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“Through these land acquisitions and city-led development approach, we’re striving to ensure that hard-working residents and our most vulnerable can benefit from the public and private investments taking shape along East Colfax and make a home here,” Fisher continued in her statement.
Affordable housing and development that has focused on the higher end of the market while serving to push out lower-income residents, often people of color, has been a major bone of contention during the decade-long economic expansion Denver is experiencing. Denver leaders have been scrambling to address the issue with the City Council creating, then expanding a dedicated affordable housing fund in recent years.
As of Monday afternoon, 1,603 city-funded affordable housing units were under construction in the city with another 458 expected to be funded and break ground in the next year, according to Denver Economic Development & Opportunity office spokesman Derek Woodbury. In total, the city has 21,513 income-restricted residences, both for-sale and for-rent, within its borders.
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The city’s affordable homeownership program was rocked last year by a revelation that hundreds of homes had fallen out of compliance with restrictions governing who lives in them and how they are sold. The city is still working to address some of those cases.
“We have a compliance team within our housing division that is squarely focused on that,” Woodbury said.
The developers on the East Colfax projects are both seeking low-income housing tax credits to help fund their projects. Each is expected to open sometime in 2022.
