Apartment building about to rise at the edge of Platt Park

A new local development firm’s first project is about to break ground at the edge of Platt Park.

Narrate, led by Adam Fenton, expects to begin work May 17 on a five-story, 73-unit apartment building at 1230 S. Pearl St. and be finished in 15 months.

Fenton purchased the 0.43-acre site for $3.9 million in November 2019. It was previously home to an auto repair shop called Buchtel Motors and a pair of singlefamily homes. Those structures were demolished recently.

“I think we’ve designed a project here that the neighborhood will be very proud of,” Fenton said. “I think it’s something that lines up with modernness but also a very historic feel. It’s an 80 percent brick building, 10 percent windows and 10 percent metal panels. We spent a lot of time with Oz, the architect, on the project to design what we feel is a building that will stand the test of time.”

Shaw Construction will be the general contractor on the 60,000-square-foot project.

The second through fifth stories will be residential, Fenton said, with primarily one-bedroom units mixed with about 10 two-bedroom apartments. The site will feature 56 below-grade parking spaces.

“We spent a lot of time on interior design,” Fenton said.

The ground floor will have two retail units. One, which Fenton anticipates will be leased to a restaurant, is about 3,400 square feet, he said. The other is approximately 1,600 square feet. No tenants have been lined up yet.

Fenton worked locally for Washington-based multifamily developer Holland Residential from 2011 to 2015, and for Denverbased developer BMC Investments from 2015 until he founded Narrate.

Fenton said Narrate will focus on smaller projects.

“Our M.O. is these specialty locations and this kind of high-end experience, as compared to the big bombers,” he said.