Homes for people with brain injuries who are coming out of homelessness, affordable housing at a variety of price points, and a preschool are set to replace a shuttered East Colfax strip club and a nearby site.
An announcement from Denver Economic Development & Opportunity on Tuesday outlined that stunning transformation for PT's All Nude II at 8315 E. Colfax Ave., an adjacent lot at 1500 Valentia St. and 7900 E. Colfax Ave. that the city bought in 2017 in hopes of creating affordable housing and an economic boost for the area. DEDO said the lots will be developed by the regional arm of the national affordable housing developer Mercy Housing and by Denver-based Brothers Redevelopment Inc., which builds and manages affordable housing in Colorado and like Mercy provides other services to low-income residents.
Mercy Housing Mountain Plains and Brothers, which won a competitive process to build at the site, each is getting a plot for $10 in exchange for maintaining affordable housing at the sites for 99 years. The deal has to be approved by City Council, which had earlier approved a rezoning that allows for buildings of up to five stories at the sites.
Mercy will build about 80 apartments, including 17 for households earning up to 30 percent of the area median income at the Colfax-Valentia site. Other units will be for households earning up to 80 percent AMI. The apartments will range from one- to four-bedroom in a city that has identified a particular need for affordable housing for larger families. Mercy Housing also plans to lease the ground floor of its project to a preschool.
Brothers Redevelopment will build one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments for a total of 72 families at 7900 E. Colfax. It is working with the Brain Injury Alliance of Colorado to provide on-site services to the tenants at the supportive housing project for people who have experienced homelessness. The brain injury group also will provide community services.
"We're excited to work with Brain Injury Alliance of Colorado to build the first-of-its-kind community in the state to serve individuals with acquired brain injury," Jeff Martinez, president of Brothers, said in a statement Tuesday. "A brain injury can impact a person's performance in school or work and lead to lifelong physical and cognitive disabilities, and place them at risk for homelessness."
Mercy intends to pursue state and federal affordable housing tax credits and Brothers federal tax credits. DEDO said it would provide gap financing to each following the awarding of tax credits. The projects are slated to open in 2022.
The developers and DEDO will lead a community meeting about the project at the East Colfax RNO at 6:30 p.m. July 16 at Counterpath, 7935 E. 14th Ave.
