[CSG PRINT]Luxury condo site in Colorado Springs being remade into nearly 200 units of affordable housing
In a unique approach, three Colorado Springs nonprofits well-known in the affordable housing arena have combined their brain power, leadership, money and good name to add much-needed stock for very-low to low-income residents.
The Bentley Commons expansion in southeast Colorado Springs is meaningful for the organizations as well as the community, said Mary Stegner, executive director of Partners in Housing, which operates nearly 70 transitional housing units and supportive services to families that are homeless or in danger of homelessness. It’s one of the organizations leading the development.
“It’s hard for people to understand how exciting this is; it’s finally happening,” she said.
Greccio Housing, which leases affordable rentals in 28 apartment developments, and Rocky Mountain Community Land Trust, which offers affordable home ownership programs for households with modest incomes, are the other partners in the trio of project orchestrators.
Drone footage of the 7-acre site off Hancock Expressway near South Academy and Astrozon boulevards shows the scope, commitment and complexity of the project that’s been 15 years in the making, Stegner said.
Originally constructed as luxury condominiums leasing for $300,000 apiece when completed in 2007, the developer went bankrupt as the Great Recession took hold and the housing market plummeted.
The property’s two existing apartment buildings of 12 units each were recast as affordable housing after the three separate organizations that operate together as GPR Properties purchased the land and buildings in 2009.
Now, construction on six additional apartment buildings for families, singles and military veterans began a few weeks ago. The outdoor swimming pool of the former posh complex has been filled and turned into a playground. And the condo’s clubhouse is construction central and destined to become a leasing office.
It took a while, Stegner said, for organizers to piece together enough money in loans, state and federal low-income housing tax credits, investors and contributions from their budgets to launch the estimated $65 million project.
“Everybody’s got money in this project to get us this far,” Stegner said.
Palace Construction of Denver is overseeing the work.
A pile of unearthed tires sits in one corner of the lot, as heavy equipment clears vegetation and debris that had piled up on what has been vast vacant land.
A dented metal canteen from World War II, a license plate from the 1960s and an old “Yahoo Mountain Dew” bottle are among the miscellaneous refuse that workers have excavated, said Darin Barnett, senior superintendent with Palace Construction, which has completed numerous affordable housing projects.
At the height of building, which he estimates will be in October, the company will use up to 200 primarily local subcontractors.
A Widefield native, Barnett said he remembers driving by the big open field as a kid decades ago and not thinking much about it.
Now, when he looks around the empty lot where heavy equipment is contouring dirt, he envisions a new community for hundreds of people who may never have thought it was possible to live in a neighborhood where they would have an expansive view of the Cheyenne Mountain foothills and Pikes Peak, and be in walking distance of a grocery store, bus stops and other services.
“It’s amazing for me to see this,” Barnett said Monday, while giving a tour of the site. “It’s hard to see right now, but it is taking shape.”
When completed in mid-2025, 168 new one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments of independent living for households earning between 30% and 60% of the area median income will be on the market.
Combining the existing 24 units on the site will give the development a total of 192 apartments, of which 28 will be earmarked for veterans who receive housing vouchers and assistance through the federal Department of Veterans Affairs.
The area median income for El Paso County is $97,500 for a family of four.
It’s unusual, said Nathan Clyncke, executive director of Rocky Mountain Community Land Trust, for total local interests — from development to design to building and management — to lead a project that will benefit residents who are bottom wage-earners.
“Most of the 60% and under projects (of area median income) are from out-of-state developers,” he said. “We’re very entrenched in this community.”
In fact, three-quarters of Bentley Commons residents will earn 50% or less of the area median income, he added.
As 2024 marches forward, families continue to struggle economically, the affordable housing industry leaders said. And affordable housing remains at a crisis level in the community, they said.
R. Lee Patke Jr., executive director of Greccio Housing, said another affordable project his organization is part of opened a pre-leasing ”interest list” a week and a half ago for 77 units that will debut in a few months. There are now 700 names of people interested in living at the Village at Solid Rock, which is also rising in southeast Colorado Springs.
At Bentley Commons, “We’ve committed to serving the lowest possible income levels,” he said.
Greccio Housing will provide management services as buildings come online. Patke said pre-leasing for Bentley Commons won’t start until next year, four months before apartment complexes are finished.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the project will be held Jan. 30, with Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade scheduled as one of the guest speakers.
Contact the writer: 719-476-1656.
Construction on affordable rental apartments is underway to expand Bentley Commons off Hancock Expressway on Monday. Bentley Commons was originally supposed to be luxury condos, but when the owner went bankrupt, eventually the condos were purchased to rent as affordable housing.
Lee Patke, executive director of Greccio Housing, left; Mary Stegner, executive director of Partners in Housing; and Nate Clyncke, executive director of Rocky Mountain Community Land Trust, are pictured Monday at the site of an expansion of Bentley Commons.
An artist’s rendering of the expansion buildings at Bentley Commons.
