Globeville and Elyria-Swansea neighbors are buying more land so they can stay put.
The Globeville, Elyria-Swansea Coalition used $2.7 million in public dollars last month to buy a 0.7-acre site along Brighton Boulevard just north of Interstate 70. The deal at $86 a square foot is intended to be the first step in building a 40- to 60-unit residential project.
GES Coalition Director Nola Miguel said the group has about 600 residents and its own land trust. She said the group has already built 14 homes in the area, with 23 more planned.
“We’re at the point where we’re really rolling, and it’s even more critical now that we have the community organizing and community accountability structures in place so we’re doing what our mission intends to do,” she added.
The property it just purchased runs along the east side of the street from 4640 to 4684 Brighton Blvd. and is currently home to a brick duplex and a car wash. GES is in talks to buy more land directly to the south from the Colorado Department of Transportation, which owns it due to its proximity to the interstate, Miguel said.
The coalition’s Tierra Colectiva Community Land Trust is responsible for making the acquisitions and owning the real estate, oftentimes selling the houses to families but retaining ownership of the land via a ground lease. It used money from the Proposition 123 Land Banking program to buy the Brighton Boulevard property, with those funds being adminstered by the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority.
“We’ll develop an RFP (request for proposals) for a developer, so we will maintain ownership of the land and look for a developer to work with us to build out the building,” she said.
Miguel added that she would like to find a way for future residents to gain an ownership stake in the building while living there.
Financing would come from public sources, but getting Low-Income Housing Tax Credits for the project would be tricky, given the property’s smaller size and the saturation of developments that have used that method to build in the neighborhood, Miguel said.
Miguel said Creser, a child care provider, and Centro de los Trabajadores, a workforce development center, could take space in the building. She said it might be a good spot for small businesses looking to benefit from the nearby National Western Center.
Elsewhere in the neighborhood, the coalition has a small ownership stake in a 170-unit project at 4995 Washington St., where a former used-car lot is being redeveloped into housing and a public library, the first in Globeville.
“We formed as organized neighbors in Elyria-Swansea to prevent displacement. … [We] make sure that we are building out the vision of the community itself,” Miguel said.
Correction: This story’s headline previously incorrectly referred to the land as being in Globeville. It is in Elyria-Swansea.
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