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Wazee Partners Plans Senior Apartment Community

Colorado Real Estate Journal by Jennifer Hayes

The first development at the Wheat Ridge Town Center site is one step closer to fruition and will bring with it much needed affordable senior housing to the city. The Colorado Housing and Finance Authority recently awarded a tax credit allocation to Wazee Partners for its development of Town Center North Senior Residences, an 88-unit age-restricted affordable apartment community. Town Center North Senior Residences is planned to kick off redevelopment efforts of the Wheat Ridge Town Center site at West 44th Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard, which has sat stagnant for more than 30 years. “We are very excited to have Wazee Partners on this project,” Mayor Jerry DiTullio said in a release. “They have a quality housing community planned, which will provide new housing options for the city of Wheat Ridge.” “I think what is really important and what makes the project unique is the partnership between the city, the urban renewal authority and us,” Tyler Downs, principal with Wazee Partners, said of the project. “It’s a unique infill opportunity and offers the chance to revitalize an urban site.” “We are very excited about being able to work with a proven builder such as Wazee Partners,” added Rick Adams, chairman of Renewal Wheat Ridge, the city’s urban renewal authority. “Now that Wazee Partners has been approved for their tax credits, over the next 30 days they will offer those credits to the open market to locate an equity partner in the project. We will work with Weston Solutions to create all the legal boundaries and subdivision maps required for the project to move forward.

After that process is complete, Renewal Wheat Ridge will work with Weston to hire a contractor to build the street and utility infrastructure for the apartments. Now we can focus our collective efforts on attracting a quality occupant to locate on the substantially larger front portion of the available land.” Wazee Partners currently is under contract on the approximately two-acre site, the eastern portion of the 9.4-acre redevelopment site.

The site is bounded by West 44th to the north, a FirstBank building on Wadsworth to the west and Upham Street to the east and was purchased by the city’s urban renewal authority in 2008. Once Wazee Partners closes on the land this fall, it plans to start construction on the four story wood-framed building, expected to deliver in late fall or early winter 2012. Kephardt is the architect for the project. The general contractor is Catamount Constructors Inc. “The apartment community will provide high-quality, amenity-rich senior housing at affordable rent levels,” said Downs. “Residents will enjoy large, on-site community spaces, including a fully furnished exercise room, library, card room, coffee and bistro room, community room and outdoor courtyard with garden plots for residents.”

Town Center North Senior Residences will feature a mix of one-bedroom apartments of 632 net rentable square feet and two-bedroom apartments ranging from 770 to 820 net rsf. All of the apartments will include a patio or balcony, walk-in closets, computer station and in-unit washer and dryer. Apartments are geared to individuals earning 40 percent, 50 percent and 60 percent of area median income. “Wheat Ridge has never had any Section 42, 9 percent (tax credit) affordable housing,” added Downs, who noted without marketing the project two individuals already are on the waiting list. The community also features slab-on-grade construction, two elevators, surface parking and garages. Wazee Partners develops market-rate and affordable senior apartment communities for seniors and families throughout the intermountain West.