The state wants Adam Berger to put his boxes on top of a Cap Hill parking lot across from the Governor’s Mansion.
Colorado’s Public-Private Partnership Collaboration Unit said last month that it has chosen Berger’s eponymous development firm to build at 799 Logan St. in Denver.
Adam Berger Development is a modular builder. It ships prefabricated residential units to a job site, hoists them atop a foundation and connects them to utilities. Berger recently completed a 77-unit project in Denver’s Sun Valley neighborhood.
“Our mission is to deliver housing that people can afford, and I think the state shares in that effort, and I think that the Governor’s Mansion parking lot represents a great opportunity to accomplish that on that particular site,” Berger said.
Gov. Jared Polis doesn’t live in the mansion. But he tasked what is known as the P3 office with finding someone to build on the state-owned lot. The state issued a request for proposals over the summer.
“His experience building projects either at cost or below cost that he thought he would, that he had promised to do, is really a reason that we thought it would be good to go forward with him,” P3 director Tom Kurek said of Berger.
Kurek is the second director to run the office, which launched in 2022. It has yet to facilitate a development from start to finish but is working with builders on housing projects from Lakewood to Durango.
He said the parking lot garnered “moderate interest” from developers.
“It took a lot of creativity to get to where we are. It’s going to take a lot of creativity to get it built. So I think that’s why it wasn’t a huge amount of interest,” Kurek said.
Berger plans to build a 6-story apartment complex with approximately 70 units.
The state still has to hash out timelines, financing and formal building plans with Berger before it formalizes a 99-year ground lease with him. Payments will go toward maintenance and upgrades to the mansion.
Kurek hopes a groundbreaking can happen next year. His unit could help pay for some design costs, but financing is ultimately up to Berger.
Berger expects to patch together a combination of private funding and public financing. Some of the public monies may be oriented toward middle-income housing, which could deed-restrict some of the units at a particular income level.
Berger said he keeps costs down with in-house architecture and construction arms and spent $220,000 a unit at his Sun Valley modular project. A conventional building might cost 20% more, he said.
“You really need to throw everything at these projects in terms of efficiencies and cost effectiveness to make them work,” Berger said.
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