Denver Approves $15 Million for Affordable Housing
By Robert Davis
Denver City Council passed a resolution this past Monday to provide up to $15 million to finance affordable multifamily housing by Mercy Housing Mountain Plains located at 8315 E. Colfax Avenue and 1500 Valentia Street.
The five-story project is expected to provide 82 units in all. Sixteen units will be made available for people earning 30 percent of Denver’s Area Median Income (AMI). For a single earner, that is an annual salary of $21,000, according to the Department of Housing Stability.
An additional five units will be available to people earning 40 percent AMI, 10 units for people at 50 percent AMI, 37 units at 60 percent AMI, and 14 units at 70 percent AMI. Units will range from one-bedroom up to four.
Councilman Christopher Herndon (District 8) submitted the resolution.
According to the resolution request, the project is anticipated to include “structured parking and [will] be built using highly sustainable construction methods meeting the [US] Department of Energy’s Zero Ready Homes guidelines and Enterprise Green Communities standards.”
It will also include family-focused amenities such as courtyard and play areas, community kitchen, game room, and after-school programming. Additionally, the project will include a 5,300 square foot ground floor early childhood care education center.
“Mercy Housing is grateful for the City of Denver’s financial support of our 8315 East Colfax family affordable new development, inclusive of the City’s allocation of its tax-exempt bond authority,” Kuhl Brown, Mercy Housing’s director of Real Estate, told the Denver VOICE.
The funding will come from the City’s Multifamily Housing Revenue Bonds, a type of public activity bond (PAB). PABs are issued by local governments to help pay for privately developed projects. Denver’s total war chest – known as the “PAB Volume Cap” – is $106,794,281, according to the Department of Local Affairs.
PABs are sold to private investors, and municipalities have no obligation to return the investment capital, according to the Internal Revenue Service. These funds can also be used for single-family and housing assistance, mortgage credit certificates, and industrial development uses.
The land the project sits on is the former location of PT’s strip club that was identified for redevelopment in 2017.
It was sold to Mercy Housing in August 2020 for $10. Included in the deal was a 99-year restrictive deed term requiring Mercy to provide a residential facility, according to the sale agreement.