New Affordable Housing Complex Will Have Breathtaking Views
LAKEWOOD, Colo. (CBS4) - An old, almost completely abandoned building will become a new apartment development with breathtaking views of the Rocky Mountains and downtown Denver, but it's not the latest upscale high rise to pop up in town -- it's an affordable housing complex for low-income families.
"To find a diamond in the rough like this, is a really great opportunity," said Brendalee Connors, the director of development for Metro West Housing Solutions.
The office building has barely been used for decades but will now become the latest effort to take on the housing shortage across the state and specifically in Lakewood on 5800 West Alameda Avenue.
"We started walking up the stairs, as we got further up, the views just became more and more apparent how incredible this building was," said Ryan Lunsford, the principal at WJL Affordable Housing Consultants. "By the time we got down, we were already scheming on how we could make a deal work."
Both teams focus on providing affordable options in Lakewood and know the project will make a dent in the high demand. Metro West Housing Solutions recently took applications for vouchers and say nearly 3,000 requests came in over a few days but they could only provide 200 vouchers.
"We have thousands of people on wait lists," said Connors. "Sometimes the list is 10 years long, so there's a huge need."
There will be challenges with converting the office building into residential living but the developers jumped at the chance because it was a unique opportunity to get creative with the available space in town.
"It was attractive to us because we're providing affordable housing," said Lunsford. "But we're doing it in a sustainable way by using a structure that was built 35 years ago and should last another 200 to 300 years."
Crews will have to demolish parts of the tower and then construct a new building on top of an empty parking lot that is part of the property. Designers say the layout of an office building will actually help to create more common spaces, areas that all residents can share and gather in as a community.
"We want it to be really prominent in the skyline and show what we can do if we're creative about reusing architecture," said Lunsford.
The goal is to create a complex that will be eye-catching on the outside while providing views that rival the most expensive condos in Colorado from the inside. Both buildings together will provide more than 150 buildings for families making $50,000 or less.
Applications will be available in early to mid-2018 with the building set to open in the fall of the same year.
"This is people's homes," said Connors. "We really believe that affordable housing should be beautiful housing."
Shawn Chitnis reports on the CBS4 Morning News. Email him story ideas at smchitnis@cbs.com and connect with him on Twitter or Facebook.
