The parking lot at 901 Grant St. in late 2020. (Google Maps)
A state-owned parking lot in Denver’s Cap Hill neighborhood is poised for redevelopment.
The Colorado State Land Board agreed in March to lease the 1.17-acre parking lot at 901 N. Grant St. to Gorman & Co., a Wisconsin-based developer.
The firm submitted development plans for the site this week, proposing a five-story, 147-unit income-restricted apartment building. Plans also call for a ground-floor day care.
Kimball Crangle
Kimball Crangle, Gorman’s Colorado market president, praised the property’s central location.
“It’s so well-connected to infrastructure and existing services,” she told BusinessDen.
Gorman will pay $350,000 annually for the property at the start, a figure that will increase 2.6 percent annually, state documents show. The lease is for 50 years, with the annual payments beginning within two years of the lease execution.
The state took ownership of the parking lot in 2016, paying $6.2 million to buy it from Denver Public School.
The parking lot has been encumbered by two master parking lot leases since 2019, according to state documents. The larger lease, which generates about $220,000 annually, expires at the end of this year, and the operator does not want to renew.
“Due to the reduction of cars driving to downtown offices and the inability to backfill the largest annual lease, Staff believes the highest and best use of the Parcel is multifamily apartments based on the current zoning,” state staff wrote in a March document.
The land board issued a request for proposals last year from firms that would build income-restricted housing last year. Gorman and four other firms submitted proposals, documents state.
Income-restricted housing is Gorman’s specialty. Crangle said the company previously bought a property in Broomfield from the land board. And she noted the Grant Street parking lot is across from the former Colburn Hotel building, which Gorman bought in 2018 and renovated.
Plans for the new building call for 25 percent studios, 65 percent one-bedroom units and 10 percent two-bedroom units. The development timeline will depend in large part on tax credits. Crangle said the firm expects to apply for them through the Colorado Housing and Financing Authority this summer.
“Having safe and high-quality housing we know is fundamental to the city being a sustainable place where people want to live,” Crangle said.
Gorman is currently under construction on another project in the Ruby Hill neighborhood.
The land board controls 2.8 million acres in the state valued at $4.4 billion. The vast majority of its holdings are in rural Colorado. In Denver in recent years, however, the land board has also sold the former Rocky Mountain PBS property in the Golden Triangle to a developer for $15 million and ground leased a site a block from the Capitol for another income-restricted apartment building.
The parking lot at 901 Grant St. in late 2020. (Google Maps)
A state-owned parking lot in Denver’s Cap Hill neighborhood is poised for redevelopment.
The Colorado State Land Board agreed in March to lease the 1.17-acre parking lot at 901 N. Grant St. to Gorman & Co., a Wisconsin-based developer.
The firm submitted development plans for the site this week, proposing a five-story, 147-unit income-restricted apartment building. Plans also call for a ground-floor day care.
Kimball Crangle
Kimball Crangle, Gorman’s Colorado market president, praised the property’s central location.
“It’s so well-connected to infrastructure and existing services,” she told BusinessDen.
Gorman will pay $350,000 annually for the property at the start, a figure that will increase 2.6 percent annually, state documents show. The lease is for 50 years, with the annual payments beginning within two years of the lease execution.
The state took ownership of the parking lot in 2016, paying $6.2 million to buy it from Denver Public School.
The parking lot has been encumbered by two master parking lot leases since 2019, according to state documents. The larger lease, which generates about $220,000 annually, expires at the end of this year, and the operator does not want to renew.
“Due to the reduction of cars driving to downtown offices and the inability to backfill the largest annual lease, Staff believes the highest and best use of the Parcel is multifamily apartments based on the current zoning,” state staff wrote in a March document.
The land board issued a request for proposals last year from firms that would build income-restricted housing last year. Gorman and four other firms submitted proposals, documents state.
Income-restricted housing is Gorman’s specialty. Crangle said the company previously bought a property in Broomfield from the land board. And she noted the Grant Street parking lot is across from the former Colburn Hotel building, which Gorman bought in 2018 and renovated.
Plans for the new building call for 25 percent studios, 65 percent one-bedroom units and 10 percent two-bedroom units. The development timeline will depend in large part on tax credits. Crangle said the firm expects to apply for them through the Colorado Housing and Financing Authority this summer.
“Having safe and high-quality housing we know is fundamental to the city being a sustainable place where people want to live,” Crangle said.
Gorman is currently under construction on another project in the Ruby Hill neighborhood.
The land board controls 2.8 million acres in the state valued at $4.4 billion. The vast majority of its holdings are in rural Colorado. In Denver in recent years, however, the land board has also sold the former Rocky Mountain PBS property in the Golden Triangle to a developer for $15 million and ground leased a site a block from the Capitol for another income-restricted apartment building.
