Affordable-apartment project breaks ground
Site will give low-income families and veterans preference and is near the Anschutz Medical Campus
City officials and developers celebrated Wednesday as crews broke ground on a 39unit apartment project in Aurora geared toward low-income families and veterans.
The nonprofit Brothers Redevelopment Inc. is leading development of the Paris Family Apartments, 1702 Paris St. Featuring 24 two-bedroom and 15 three-bedroom units, the complex will “give preferential consideration” to families and veterans bringing in 50 percent of the area median income or less who apply to rent there, according to a company news release. Brothers tracks that number at $37,800 for a family of three in Adams County.
The $12.9 million project is drawing funding from a variety of neighborhood revitalization and community stabilization focused sources including $2 million in federal money dedicated through Aurora’s community development division, according to a news release from Brothers. The city also provided the half-acre of land for the project. The lot sits near the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and forthcoming U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in the city. Brothers president Jeff Martinez called Aurora’s investment “unprecedented.”
“It’s been a long journey to get to Paris Street. We faced some long odds to get here,” Martinez said at Wednesday’s groundbreaking, according to a spokeswoman for Brothers. “But it’s finally springtime in Paris.”
It is the second city-supported affordable housing project to get underway in Aurora in
the last six months as leaders in the community of more than 360,000 strive to carve out space for the financially disadvantaged amid a period of dramatic rent growth across metro Denver. The third phase of the Village at Westerly Creek project started construction in September. That development, from the Aurora Housing Authority, will include 74 units, including 50 two- and four-bedroom townhouses geared toward families.
“There’s a big demand for more family affordable housing,” Craig Maraschky, the executive director of the Aurora Housing Authority, said at the time.
Denver-based Shopworks Architecture designed the Paris project. Deneuve Construction Services is the general contractor. Apartments are expected to open next March.
“Affordable housing is an important part of Aurora’s planning, and Paris Family Apartments offers a great example of how government, nonprofits, businesses and lenders can work together to build a welcoming, inclusive community,” Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan said in a news release.