When developer East West Partners put the 49 studio units in its Coloradan condo building on the market in August, they were gobbled up in a month. At $265,000 to $370,000 apiece and spitting distance from Union Station, they were a predictably hot commodity in housing-starved Denver.
Flash forward to this week, and East West is in the midst of another avalanche of demand, this time for something even rarer in the downtown area: 33 covenant-restricted affordable condos. The units — 12 one-bedrooms and 21 two-bedrooms — are among the final 160 affordable units set to be created under the city’s now-defunct inclusionary housing ordinance, city officials said this week.
They have been priced at $230,751 for the one-bedrooms and $285,936 for the two-bedrooms, figures set by the city so that they are attainable for people making 50 to 95 percent of the area median income of $63,000 per year.
“If you start looking at single-family homes, you can’t buy anything for under $300,000 in the city. It just doesn’t exist.” East West vice president of sales and marketing Brad Arnold said. “The intent of the (city’s) program is to provide opportunities in the city center. We could have opted out. We chose not to because it’s the right thing to do.”
Arnold said 400 people had signed up for an interest list for the Coloradan’s affordable units before prices or any other details had been released. To manage the intense demand in a fair way, East West plans to award the condos via lottery. Prospective buyers must complete two steps before being entered. First, they must verify with the city they are income-qualified and meet other affordable housing ownership program criteria. Second, they must receive a letter of pre-approval from a lender.
“The deadline to receive that letter, which is your ticket in, is June 15. We will then have the lottery on June 19 and will start accepting contracts June 21,” Arnold said.
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No priority is given to people who submit early. If 100 names are submitted for the one-bedrooms units, the first 12 names drawn will be given first priority to buy, regardless of when they were submitted. Same with the two-bedrooms.
Aside from the Coloradan’s units, which are expected to be move-in ready by December, 127 affordable units established through Denver’s inclusionary housing ordinance are either under construction or planned, officials say. The City Council replaced the ordinance in 2016 with developer impact fees.
In light of the recent controversy surrounding Denver’s affordable housing stock — the city has discovered nearly a quarter of its roughly 1,300 units in the program had compliance issues — East West is holding buyer education events. One will be held Tuesday evening, and another is set for May 31. City officials will be on hand to answer questions. To RSVP, go to thecoloradan.com/affordable-homes.
Arnold said the classes are intended to ensure that “our potential buyers are completely educated on what they’re buying and what that means for the 25 years afterwards.”
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