The site has two homes on it and this single-story retail building used by Parlor Doughnuts. (Thomas Gounley/BusinessDen)
The owner of a stretch of lots along Lincoln in the Baker neighborhood said Denver’s new height incentives regarding income-restricted housing may make redevelopment of the site financially viable.
Dirk McCuistion
Dirk McCuistion owns 61-95 N. Lincoln St., a 0.7-acre site that has two homes on it, as well as a parking lot and single-story building used by Parlor Doughnuts. He assembled the site in multiple transactions in 2008, 2013 and 2021, paying a total of $2.3 million, records show.
McCuistion, who founded a massage therapy business, recently asked the city to rezone the property along Lincoln, from majority G-MU-5 to G-MS-5.
The change would allow ground-floor retail space, and allow the building to be built to the edge of the lot lines.
Both the existing and requested zoning nominally allow projects up to five stories. But the apartment building McCuistion is planning would be seven stories.
McCuistion said he intends to take advantage of a provision in Denver’s new “Expanding Housing Affordability” ordinance, enacted in 2022, that grants developers additional height in exchange for incorporating varying amounts of income-restricted units. The incentive was previously available only in limited parts of the city, like the area around RTD’s 38th and Blake Station in RiNo.
McCuistion said his understanding is that he can get the two additional floors at his Lincoln site if he restricts 10 percent of the building’s units to those making up to 60 percent of the area median income. He hopes to build about 160 units overall.
“The plan is to have retail on 1st Avenue and wrapping around the corner,” he said, adding he hopes to incorporate the donut shop in the new building.
The vision is a turnaround for McCuistion, who said he actually “pulled the plug” on redeveloping the site this past December. He’d been working on plans for three years, he said, and had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars.
At that point, McCuistion said, he couldn’t make the numbers work. He plotted a project both with and without income-restricted units. He plotted by-right development, strictly conforming to the current zoning, and also submitted an initial rezoning application for G-MS-5, only to withdraw it. Nothing was financially feasible with five stories, he said.
A five-story rendering of the apartment building. McCuistion now hopes to make the structure seven stories. (Courtesy Dirk McCuistion)
Then he learned about the height incentive.
“It really is the only thing that will make the project work,” McCuistion said. “Otherwise we probably can’t build it.”
McCuistion submitted the latest rezoning application on Aug. 28. No hearings have been scheduled.
McCuistion previously owned the building at 70 N. Broadway, which backs up to his development site. He purchased it in 2006 for $1.25 million and sold it earlier this year for $6.34 million, records show.
The site has two homes on it and this single-story retail building used by Parlor Doughnuts. (Thomas Gounley/BusinessDen)
The owner of a stretch of lots along Lincoln in the Baker neighborhood said Denver’s new height incentives regarding income-restricted housing may make redevelopment of the site financially viable.
Dirk McCuistion
Dirk McCuistion owns 61-95 N. Lincoln St., a 0.7-acre site that has two homes on it, as well as a parking lot and single-story building used by Parlor Doughnuts. He assembled the site in multiple transactions in 2008, 2013 and 2021, paying a total of $2.3 million, records show.
McCuistion, who founded a massage therapy business, recently asked the city to rezone the property along Lincoln, from majority G-MU-5 to G-MS-5.
The change would allow ground-floor retail space, and allow the building to be built to the edge of the lot lines.
Both the existing and requested zoning nominally allow projects up to five stories. But the apartment building McCuistion is planning would be seven stories.
McCuistion said he intends to take advantage of a provision in Denver’s new “Expanding Housing Affordability” ordinance, enacted in 2022, that grants developers additional height in exchange for incorporating varying amounts of income-restricted units. The incentive was previously available only in limited parts of the city, like the area around RTD’s 38th and Blake Station in RiNo.
McCuistion said his understanding is that he can get the two additional floors at his Lincoln site if he restricts 10 percent of the building’s units to those making up to 60 percent of the area median income. He hopes to build about 160 units overall.
“The plan is to have retail on 1st Avenue and wrapping around the corner,” he said, adding he hopes to incorporate the donut shop in the new building.
The vision is a turnaround for McCuistion, who said he actually “pulled the plug” on redeveloping the site this past December. He’d been working on plans for three years, he said, and had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars.
At that point, McCuistion said, he couldn’t make the numbers work. He plotted a project both with and without income-restricted units. He plotted by-right development, strictly conforming to the current zoning, and also submitted an initial rezoning application for G-MS-5, only to withdraw it. Nothing was financially feasible with five stories, he said.
A five-story rendering of the apartment building. McCuistion now hopes to make the structure seven stories. (Courtesy Dirk McCuistion)
Then he learned about the height incentive.
“It really is the only thing that will make the project work,” McCuistion said. “Otherwise we probably can’t build it.”
McCuistion submitted the latest rezoning application on Aug. 28. No hearings have been scheduled.
McCuistion previously owned the building at 70 N. Broadway, which backs up to his development site. He purchased it in 2006 for $1.25 million and sold it earlier this year for $6.34 million, records show.
