Two local income-restricted housing developers are sewing the final stitch into the former Johnson & Wales University dorms in South Park Hill.
Archway Communities is turning two former residence halls just off the corner of Quebec Street and 17th Avenue on the campus into 58 apartments. The four other dorms on campus already have been converted.
Development costs are estimated at $45 million. Archway submitted its development proposal to the city last month.
“There are major renovations that are needed to modernize these buildings that were built in the 1930s to bring them to current code requirements and current needs, but also to ensure that we’re aligning the appropriate layout for one, two and three bedrooms,” Archway CEO Laura Brudzynski told BusinessDen.
The redevelopment is the latest effort to refashion the 25-acre campus, which was purchased for $62 million in 2021 by local nonprofit Urban Land Conservancy after Johnson & Wales closed it. ULC, which purchases and preserves land for income-restricted development, immediately sold some of the land to Denver Housing Authority and Denver Public Schools.
The groups have renamed the site Mosaic Community Campus. Its grounds are now home to a nonprofit commissary kitchen, the Denver School of the Arts, a coffee shop and a church.
Centennial Hall, one of 13 buildings on campus, dates to 1886 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. (BusinessDen file)
The 3.3-acre portion where the two dorms sit is owned by the DHA, which purchased it for $9.5 million in 2021. Archway is pursuing Low Income Housing Tax Credits through the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority to help finance the project.
DHA Development Manager Sean Garvey said the housing authority will lease the ground to the nonprofit builder for a “nominal” fee for 99 years and give the buildings to Archway for free.
Archway has already converted four other dorms on the property into 154 income-restricted apartments for those making 30% to 60% of the area median income. The buildings, which opened last year, include a services coordinator that helps to assist residents.
The latest phase of the project will reserve over half the units for those making 30% or less of the AMI, and incorporate more services.
When completed, about 470 dorm rooms across the campus will have been converted into 212 apartments.
“It’s just such a great example of partnership and how we can really have so many important services co-located at the same campus,” Archway CEO Brudzynski said. “We can address our affordable housing need in Denver. We can also address our workforce development opportunities, our educational needs.”
DHA chose Archway for its familiarity with the campus. The project is part of a DHA program to build 1,200 new units in the city in connection with a 2019 agreement, with half specifically allocated for service-heavy “permanent supportive housing,” whose occupants often recently have been homeless.
“Our role is to find these sites, acquire them, and then partner with a developer to build, operate and own permanent supportive housing. And Archway has a really great experience with that,” DHA’s Garvey said.
The campus has a long history. Before Johnson & Wales, which welcomed its first Denver class in 2000, the campus was home to the Colorado Women’s College and the University of Denver Law School.
The campus has 13 buildings, including Centennial Hall, which was built in 1886 and currently houses the St. Elizabeth’s School. But the private Episcopal school will close after this school year, citing financial reasons.
“The level of activation, the level of joy that the students have brought to that place will be hard to replace. That said, Urban Land Conservancy has already begun its work to find, ideally, another school or educational user that could occupy Centennial Hall and continue in the footsteps of St. Elizabeth’s,” ULC spokeswoman Andrea Burns said.
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