Right next door to 302 luxury apartments, Alpine Investments Denver is planning to build 48 condos.
Grandview LoHi has plenty of other new apartment neighbors -- that's part of the reason that developer Churchill Bunn decided to build condos.
"You could make an argument that there's more risk in building more apartments than there is risk with condo defects," Bunn said. "Put it a better way: the market needs condos, the market doesn't need any more apartments. I'd rather be building something that I know there's a lot of demand for."
Alpine Investments Denver's decision to build condos at 17th and Central Street, a 5-minute walk from the commercial hub that includes Linger and Little Man Ice Cream, predates changes to Colorado's construction defect law.
The 48 units range in size from 620 square feet to 1,500 square feet so that pricing can begin in the $300,000s. However, prices will top out near $1 million.
The majority of the units, 20 of them, are what Bunn calls petite one-bedrooms with 620 square feet. Then there's four corner one-bedrooms with 820 square feet. The "CityView" one-bedrooms get 950 square feet and then finally, 12 two-bedroom units have 1,200 to 1,300 square feet.
"We try to keep the units at a manageable size so that we can keep our pricing at a manageable level, so that a younger buyer can still afford those units," Bunn said.
Another manageable element of the property is its amenities. There will be some community space, but no rooftop deck, pool, or other such amenity. That's partly a function of the site's size, but also reflects market research on other condo buildings.
"There's several buildings downtown that we looked at with outdoor space, and it wasn't being used. It's a good marketing tool upfront, but ultimately if your buyers aren't going to use the public space, it doesn't make sense to provide it."
Instead, Alpine Investments Denver has elected to give buyers their own individual outdoor space, with a deck in every unit. Plus, like many area developers, Bunn says the area is the real amenity.
With construction slated to begin in 2018, Bunn says marketing of the units is just beginning and so it's too early to say how potential buyers are responding to plans. Denver Business Journal reports that the units are expected to finish in 2019.
