By Eric Heinz
This month, The Denver North Star is looking at several significant properties in the city’s Northwest communities. Some of these properties have gained prominence with regard to location, and some we were just curious about.
1450 Morrison Road
Imagine watching a Broncos game (well, maybe during a different season) from the rooftop of a seven-story apartment building overlooking Empower Field at Mile High. The 1.3-acre vacant property was acquired by a company led by Atlanta-based Wood Partners for $6.25 million in late December 2021, and the developers plan to construct a 216-unit apartment complex by 2025.
Walter Armer, a managing director with Wood Partners, said the complex will include “junior” one-bedroom and one- and two-bedroom units along with several three-bedroom units.
“We’re really excited about the transformation that’s happening there in Sun Valley,” Armer told The Denver North Star. “There’s a great mix of uses between the public-oriented housing projects that are coming.”
A sports theme will accent the complex, which will also have a community room, a swimming pool and deck, and additional courtyards, as well as a rooftop deck with a view of the stadium. The building will be located within walking distance of Meow Wolf and right next to The Original Brooklyn’s restaurant in addition to the stadium. It’s also near the Decatur-Federal RTD rail station and the Lakewood Gulch open space and trails.
“We feel like we’re kind of in on the ground floor of the neighborhood that’s burgeoning, and it’s just so well located relative to downtown and the Auraria campus,” Armer said.
The building will also have a parking space for each unit.
4890 Zuni St.
Austin Sittko, the registered agent for the corporation that owns the property, said the company may sell the 12-unit building as apartments or as townhomes once it’s completed. The construction has taken about two and a half years.
“We are going to start drywalling the units this week and stucco and painting and the weather warms up to about 40 degrees, and our goal is to be done about March 31,” Sittko said.
The building will be made up of four different floor plants with units ranging between 1,300 and 1,800 square feet. The majority of the units will have rooftop decks and the others will have front porch decks connected to the living rooms.
The property is actively on the market for $7.9 million, Sittko said, after the company bought the property for $800,000 two and a half years ago.
3930 W. 38th Ave.
This property was once Chupultepec Too and was originally planned to become the landing spot for the now-closed Local 46, but the owners have not come to a decision of what to do with the location at this time.
Niya Gingerich, owner of Local 46 and part-owner of the 3930 W. 38th Ave. property, said the location was going to become Local 38, but it was in such disrepair that it couldn’t accommodate a new bar, and it has since been demolished. Gingerich said they may try to develop the location with a new condominium or apartment complex, “something that’s much more feasible,” she said, but no timeframe as to when a decision will be made was given.
2557 W. 46th Ave.
Crystal Marquez, who took over the salon Hair on Earth in 2019, said she had to move her business to 6890 W. 44th Ave. in Wheat Ridge after her rent was raised too high.
The owner of the new building is allowing Marquez to put up a sign that says Hair on Earth at Fiore’s, which is the name of an existing salon in the building, but Marquez said she wants people to know Hair on Earth is still operating.
“Since he knew we were coming as a whole salon, he gave us our own suite, so it’s basically our own salon again, thank god,” Marquez said. “With the market prices, I cannot qualify for any kind of business loans or anything to try and buy the (old) building.”
Hair on Earth had been at 2557 W. 46th Ave. location since 1974. According to city records, the building and 3,700-square-foot lot were purchased by a company with the name Littleton-based Sonshine Enterprises LLC in 2019 for $355,000.
City records show the one-story building was erected in 1920, and zoning permits have been filed with the intent of turning it into a coffee shop or some other kind of retail shop.
Will there be any apartment units that will be based on 30/35% of the occupant’s income???