Phil Workman, a Denver consultant for developers, says his latest project is his most unorthodox.
Mounashram Inc., a Hindu-centered nonprofit based in Brighton, purchased the former Highlands Lutheran Church building at 3955 N. Irving St. in February 2024 for $1.5 million. The group wanted to redevelop the site but didn’t have a plan or any real specifics about what that would entail.
“It’s very atypical for a developer,” Workman said.
The nonprofit submitted a simple working concept to the city last week. It calls for converting the roughly 14,000-square-foot, 70-year-old church into 10 income-restricted apartments for seniors. Workman said the city required that he submit the plan before it proceeded with the necessary rezoning to convert the use from a church to residential.
“This process is backward because we’d have to get it rezoned first,” he said. “I’m not really sure why the city asked us to do a site plan first.”
The Berkeley building has been vacant since the end of 2025. Mounashram had leased it to the Spanish-speaking El Siloe Community Church after it bought the site.
But the plan from the get-go was a redevelopment, Workman said. He was brought into the project when Mounashram was in the process of buying the site. He pointed out that the organization could probably raze the church, build duplexes and sell them for millions. But Mounashram was more interested in doing an income-restricted housing project.
“They’re not as profit oriented,” Workman said.
The consultant and his client have been talking with the neighborhood association and various historical groups and city agencies about the project. Two things have been made clear: People want the building to stay, and they don’t want it to become a retail operation.
“We’ve been in the hopper talking to neighbors and folks for a while,” Workman said.
Mounashram owns duplexes and other houses across the metro, but this project is its largest, Workman said. When it bought the property, Mounashram took out a $1.4 million, 30-year loan from Bhoomi Ventures LLC. That entity lists the same Brighton address as the nonprofit.
