Affordable housing site price jumps 18.4% in 24 hours

Boulder got a bit of good news last week when Academy Senior Living announced it planned to build 100 units of affordable senior housing at 1665 33rd St., the soon-to-be former site of longtime patio furniture store Fruehauf’s.

But the land targeted for the development rose $700,000 in value in a 24hour period thanks to a land flip executed by another Boulder developer of affordable housing, Element Properties.

Experts say the increase in price won’t hurt the affordability of the new housing if and when it is ultimately built.

But the transaction highlights the super-heated development market in Boulder and the difficulty in building affordable housing, experts said.

Element already had the 2-acre property under contract when Principal Scott Holton mentioned it to fellow developer Don Altman in casual conversation. Altman was at the time looking for a site for a large medical tenant and became interested in the Fruehauf property.

“I asked him if he would sell it to me,” Altman said.

By the time Element closed on the property last March, for $3.8 million, Altman was ready to purchase. The next day, he bought it for $4.5 million — an 18.4 percent jump in price.

Sometime during negotiations with Element, Altman’s medical tenant decided against a move. So Altman began looking at other possibilities. One presented itself almost immediately: He was developing senior housing at 311 Mapleton with Academy Senior Living, which is planning approximately 77 units of market-rate senior apartments.

Altman decided to go the off-site development route with the former Fruehauf site at 1665 33rd, and to do more than the required number of units.

“We wanted to go above and beyond,” he said.