It takes a patchwork of funding to get affordable housing like Sheridan Station Apartments off the ground

A groundbreaking was held Monday along RTD’S W Line for a project of 133 rental units earmarked for households earning between 30 and 60 percent of AMI.
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Construction under way Monday, April 22, 2019 at 5330 W. 11th Avenue in Denver, site of Sheridan Station Apartments apartments earmarked for people earning no more than 60 percent AMI. The RTD parking garage at the Sheridan rail station is in the background. (Donna Bryson/Denverite)

State and federal tax credits. A land trust and a low-interest loan from the city.

Oh, and RTD is kicking in some parking.

A groundbreaking was held Monday for the $40.5 million Sheridan Station Apartments, a transit-oriented project that "is an excellent example of the many variables that must fall into place to make affordable development happen," Erin Clark, vice president of master site development for the Urban Land Conservancy, said in a statement.

Completion is expected next fall on the 133 rental units earmarked for households earning up to 60 percent of the area median income. The project is at Sheridan Station on the Regional Transportation District's W Line -- the ride to Union Station took 12 minutes Monday afternoon.

In 2014, Clark's real estate nonprofit completed a deal with RTD for the plot near an existing apartment complex it already owned. The Sheridan Station apartments are part of an Urban Land Conservancy community land trust, which takes the cost of the land out of the equation for the builders and guarantees affordability for residents for at least 99 years.

Three years after the land was secured, a team that includes Denver-based Mile High Development and Illinois-based Brinshore was awarded $1.3 million in federal low-income housing tax credits and $1.6 million in state tax credits for Sheridan Station Apartments. The project is the first in Colorado for Brinshore, which has developments in a dozen states and has secured tax credits to build thousands of affordable units.

In 2018, Sheridan Station Apartments got a loan of nearly $2 million from the city's Affordable Housing Fund. Additional financial support came from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority.

Last year, the Sheridan Station team signed a lease for up to 120 parking spaces in an RTD parking garage for apartment residents to use, saving more than $2 million in construction costs.

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