Kentro eyes income-restricted housing for former Gart site

The buyer of a little-used brutalist office building in Capitol Hill wants to construct incomerestricted housing on the site.

Denver-based Kentro Group submitted plans to the city last week proposing a five-story, 104unit residential building at 1001 Lincoln St.

Kentro purchased the 0.53acre property, which has a lowslung 18,500-square-foot office building on it, in December for $4.5 million. At the time, the company said it was still determining its plans for the site.

Kentro spokeswoman Robin Rothman said the company has yet to determine what the area median income, or AMI, restrictions for the units would be. She said the company expects to apply for low-income housing tax credits later this year.

The Lincoln Street building was formerly owned by Denver-based Gart Properties, the real estate firm that grew out of the Gart Bros. Sporting Goods chain, which for a time operated a store in the Sports Castle building next door at 1000 Broadway.

Gart said at the time of the sale that the 1001 Lincoln building had been used only sporadically in recent years.

While Kentro’s Capitol Hill project is early in the planning stages, the company recently moved into the construction phase for another incomerestricted project elsewhere in Denver.

Kentro held a groundbreaking ceremony March 8 for the 151- unit Krisana Apartments building at 4343 E. Arkansas

Ave., just east of Colorado Boulevard. The building will be reserved for those making up to 60% AMI, which is currently $49,260 for a single person or $70,320 for a family of four.

The property was previously the headquarters of the Colorado Department of Transportation.

A new King Soopers store is slated to be built on another portion of the property, replacing an existing store at 825 S. Colorado Blvd. Kentro also wants to redevelop that property once King Soopers leaves.