Union Station condos for mixed incomes – groundbreaking

Denver never had “projects” the way they were built in the East and Midwest (think Chicago’s infamous Cabrini Green).  But even more recently, in the 1990s, city leaders wanted something altogether different.

Mixed-income housing was a novel idea at the time, but then-Mayor Wellington Webb found like thinking in Atlanta developer Egbert Perry. In the clip below, Perry describes his work on the Village at Curtis Park development, which has no hint of “projects” anywhere around it. Perry visited Denver again this month to break ground on a 107 unit, mixed-income complex in the hot-as-habanero Union Station neighborhood, Ashley Union Station at 18th Street and Chestnut Place.  

comments by Egbert Perry, CEO, The Integral Group

Denver Councilwoman-At-Large Robin Kniech has long advocated for affordable and mixed-income development.   And the concept of mixed-income housing pushes against the 21st century trend of re-segregation in Denver’s neighborhoods and schools (as reported in the Rocky Mountain PBS News series “Standing in the Gap” at www.rmpbs.org/thegap).

“We know that parents have more job opportunities in those (mixed-income) neighborhoods,” Kniech explained in the interview below.

interview with Denver Councilwoman Robin Kniech

  

According to the Denver Office of Economic Development, based on the Area Median Income (AMI) of $72,000 for a family of three, 34 units will be available to households earning 60 percent of AMI, another 34 units will be offered to households making 50 percent of AMI, and seven units will be set aside for households at just 30 percent or less of AMI ($21,600/year).

A news release from the City says  Mayor Michael Hancock’s “3 x 5 Challenge” (producing 3,000 affordable units over five years) is “tracking ahead of schedule, with nearly 1,400 unites developed, rehabilitated or preserved after two years.”