A residential project that will take up a full city block in the southeast corner of Lake Park is finally moving forward after a developer changed what he called money. “
Denver-based ZOCALO Development, led by CEO David Zucker, has broken ground on a parking garage near Sloan’s Lake Medical Center.
Its completion, predicted for April at the end of April, will allow Zuker to start work on the meat of the project – 461 residential units, almost all of the limited units available for the fee used by the Medical Center.
Zucker said the serious increase follows 10 years of work. He first discussed the project publicly in 2018 and received the necessary revisions the following year. But the place remains unchanged until now.
Zucker said he closed $300 million in financing for what are essentially three separate operations within one.
The North end of the site, along 17th Avenue and very close to the park, will be a tower of 16 floors called Aliyah with 294 units: apartments limited to the Market and 10 areas measured by the market.
Income-restricted units are reserved for Denver school teachers of 60% of area income, or AMI. Northwest Mutual is a private equity investor and equity investor in the tower.
“It’s going to be a great project to live in Denver,” Zucker said. “It’s the sum of everything we know about delivering citizens’ goals.”
The South end of the site, along 16th Avenue, will include 158 affordable apartments in a four-story building called Lioya. Max income will vary per unit from 30 to 60 percent, and Zucker said there will be seven three-bedroom units for large families.
Lioya will be funded with debt financing, low-income tax credits and $9.5 million from the Colorado Division of Housing. The building will be hosted by the Nork-based NHP Foundation, using funds provided by the state of Colorado through the Proposition 123 World Bank Program.
The project will also include some retail space, as well as nine townhomes facing the newly created Mead of Mead Street area that will be reserved for middle-income earners.
“There’s nothing as life-changing for either a former tenant or for me as a builder as affordable construction for sale,” Zucker said.
330-Space Parking Garage Currently at the corner of 16th Avenue and Medree Street, in the southeast corner of the property. We end up working for a nearby medical facility known as Beth Israel Hospital, and Lioya.
Zocalo will build both buildings and own them upon completion. The company’s new recruit, Bldrs., is a general contractor. JG Architecture and Craine Architects were the architects for the project.
The smaller building is expected to take 16 months to build, and the Tower 26 months. Villages will be completed between the two buildings, Zucker said.
“Lioya at Sloan Lake is an example of what we can achieve when public and private partners come together with a shared commitment to the Department of Colorado,” Colorado executive director Makhosi Lonyoyo said in a statement.
Zucker had hoped to make tower maker-rate condominiums. But those plans were shelved in part because of the leftluster sale at Lakehouse Residences, a condo project completed in the 2020s four blocks west.
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