Greenwood Village approves residential project on long-empty 13 acres

Todd Baker is doing the unthinkable: building houses on the empty lot at 5555 Greenwood Plaza Blvd.

The Greenwood Village City Council voted 8-0 last month to approve the developer’s plans to construct 90 single-family homes on 13 acres just south of the Landmark development, which has a movie theater, shops and two condominium towers.

“It was unanimous. Absolutely unanimous. Which I’m not so sure anybody ever expected in the history of this parcel,” said Baker, an executive with homebuilding giant Century Communities.

Groundbreaking is set for next year on the project that will create a new gated community just west of Interstate 25. Baker expects to start sales in 2027.

Homes will be three or four stories and range from 2,500 to 4,500 square feet, with rooftop decks and garages, Baker said. They’ll list for $1.75 million to $3.5 million.

“Anybody could be a buyer, but we believe the right buyers are empty nesters, retirees, executive professionals,” he added.

Twenty years ago, before Baker was with Century and when Mike Shanahan was still coaching the Denver Broncos, the site was envisioned as a dense, 240-unit development dubbed the European Village. It was proposed by Zack Davidson, the builder of the Landmark retail center and its accompanying condo towers.

The New York Times, profiling Davidson in 2008, detailed the project’s planned manor-style homes, modeled after those in Florence, Italy, and spread out among English gardens and courtyards, cobblestone streets and tree-lined promenades. A 2007 party promoting the project featured chateaubriand, veal scallopini and lobster salad piled high in martini glasses, The Denver Post reported.

But the plan never materialized. Davidson’s European Village went bankrupt in 2009, and the developer filed for personal bankruptcy a year after. In late 2012, an Arapahoe County grand jury indicted Davidson on 20 counts of theft, forgery and embezzlement of public property. He allegedly stole $3.1 million from a metro district he created to fund the project.

A few weeks later, he committed suicide. The site has languished since.

“This piece of dirt has been there for 20-plus years, and I view it as a blight on the city, and we’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting to see what could be done with this piece of this property,” Councilman Paul Wiesner said at last month’s vote.

Century purchased the property from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for $11 million in 2016, public records show.

The publicly traded homebuilder, which is headquartered on the other side of I-25 in Greenwood Village, proposed a similarly high-density project at the site in both 2016 and 2017. But both plans were withdrawn before being voted on.

“What we found is there was a compromise that needed to be taken place between the folks that lived at the towers at Landmark,” Baker said.

At last month’s meeting, that newfound compromise was on full display, with several Landmark residents speaking in support of the project. No one spoke against it.

“I spent the last nine-and-a-half years looking out over that nice piece of brown property. Anything we do would be an improvement. I do believe they are the best alternative,” said Landmark Towers resident Roger Squire.

Baker said 90 units was the minimum number that would ensure profitability.