Developer buys Uptown site of planned apartment complex

A multifamily developer currently building in Rino and Lakewood has purchased a site in Uptown.

Charlotte, N.c.-based Crescent Communities and partner Oxford Properties Group paid $11 million earlier this month for 0.87 acres at the southwest corner of 16th Avenue and Logan Street, according to public records.

The deal works out to about $292 a square foot.

The site, which was sold by entities related to Denver-based ranch brokerage Hall & Hall, has been primarily a parking lot.

A structure in the middle of the site was torn down in 2020.

Prior to Crescent, San Francisco-based apartment developer Carmel Partners had expressed interest in building at the site.

Crescent said it plans to develop a 261-unit apartment complex at the site, which would top out at 10 stories.

The company said it is starting construction on Novel Uptown this month and hopes to complete it in April 2024. The project’s address will be 1557 Logan St.

BMO Harris Bank is providing financing, according to Crescent. Tryba Architects is the project architect, and Milender White is the general contractor. Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee, which operates in other Crescent buildings elsewhere in the country, will take retail space in Novel Uptown.

Crescent’s two other projects underway in the Denver area are the 483-unit Novel Rino at 1300 40th St., which broke ground in early 2021, and the 202-unit Novel White Fence Farm in Lakewood, which broke ground in the middle of last year at the former restaurant property at 6263 W. Jewell Ave.

The company has not previously developed any projects locally.