James Roy II is calling in some reinforcements for his West Colfax income-restricted housing development.
Roy is the executive director of Atlantis Community Housing. Earlier this month, the nonprofit builder sold its vacant apartment building on 0.6 acre at 1500 Hooker St. — which it plans to replace with new housing — to the Urban Land Conservancy for $2.45 million.
“That money helped us pay some debt on the building, to clear it and be able to successfully move forward with the development,” Roy said.
The ULC, a local nonprofit developer that also buys and preserves land for income-restricted housing, received the funds from the state’s Affordable Housing Financing Fund, created by the voter-approved Proposition 123 in 2022. It leased the site, situated on a cul-de-sac steps from Colfax, back to Atlantis for 99 years.
“In a more common situation those funds are purchasing a property from a market-rate developer who is going to keep the proceeds from the sale, but Atlantis wanted to reinvest them into the site,” said Brad Dodson, chief financial officer for the ULC.
Atlantis built an income-restricted apartment complex in Baker and is developing two more in Denver. It purchased 1500 Hooker in November 2001 for $1.55 million, according to public records. The property is home to a 26,000-square-foot, 3-story building that’s been operated as income-restricted housing for decades. But the 1960s building is “beyond its useful life,” Roy said.
The apartment complex is vacant. Tenants moved out because of the expected redevelopment and will be offered a chance to return when the new building is completed, he added.
BusinessDen reported on the plans to redevelop the site in 2024. Back then, the property was under contract to sell to Medici Communities, another developer of income-restricted housing.
“That plan has changed. Right now Medici is the consultant on the project. They helped us put the deal together,” Roy said, adding that the property’s debt was a contributing factor to the change.
Atlantis will apply for Low-Income Housing Tax Credits early next year to help finance its redevelopment of the site, Roy said.
The plan is to reserve 13 units for those with intellectual disabilities and restrict the rest to those making at or below 40% of the area median income. A 5,000-square-foot community space on the first floor would provide services to residents.
Atlantis expects to demolish the existing building in the next 150 days. It will be a welcome change for neighbors, since the structure was charred by fire a year ago.
“I don’t think it sped up our demolition in the long run,” Roy said “I think the financial puzzle it created was part of the reason ULC was brought in and helped quite a bit.”
For its part, ULC said the real credit for keeping the development alive goes to the Proposition 123 program.
“This site, especially with this location, with so much market-rate housing being developed around this, with it being so close to downtown, it would have been lost in the market for sure. There wouldn’t be capacity for two local nonprofits to be able to pull this off together without Prop. 123,” said ULC’s Dodson.
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