ULC Celebrates 2013 Accomplishments
Urban Land Conservancy Friends and Partners,
As we look back on another successful year, ULC would like to thank each of our incredible partners who support our work and push us to achieve our mission through innovative and impactful measures. 2013 highlights include:
The year began with the acquisition of Park Hill Village West (PHVW), ULC’s largest land acquisition to date. This 9.4 acre property is strategically located at the 40th/Colorado station along the East Rail Line. ULC acquired the site, leading to the full deployment of the country’s first Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Fund. Thanks to the excellent work of the development team leaders, Debra Bustos and Cindy Everett, the $15M fund has been fully deployed 2 years ahead of schedule with 8 acquisitions, creating over 600 affordable homes and more than 100,000 sf of commercial/community space at 8 station sites in Denver. PHVW will include 156 affordable apartments in the first phase of development, and ULC is working with the community to incorporate maximum density development concepts for the remainder of the site. Not only will this new mixed-use development create economic development for the local area, but the site will also create new jobs and housing choices along a critical rail corridor connecting Denver Union Station to Denver International Airport.
Spring continued with the opening of the W Line of FasTracks, connecting Denver Union Station to West Denver, Lakewood and Golden with over 12 miles of light rail, transforming the way people live, work and make regional connections. ULC has been buying land and properties along the W Line for over six years, knowing that affordable housing and other community assets are critical components of successful public transit build out. ULC’s investments bring over $70 million in additional economic investment to the W Line rail corridor including housing, commercial space and a new Denver Public Library.
W Line Properties include:
NEWSED’s Jody Apartments (ULC owns the land under the apartments) will be redeveloped at a higher density level, expanding permanently affordable housing in a vibrant, mixed-use setting. Located on the border of Denver and Lakewood, Sheridan Station is a part of DRCOG’s HUD Sustainable Communities Initiative grant and the new 20 minute neighborhood in partnership with the West Line Corridor Collaborative. The 20 minute neighborhood will create opportunities for residents to have easy, convenient access by walking or bicycling to many of the places and services they use daily.
Mile High Vista has made fantastic progress in 2013, with both the 7 story mixed use development by Del Norte and the new City Library under construction. Once finished in 2014, the new two story library and Del Norte’s 80 affordable apartments and 10,000 sf of commercial space will be catalytic for the community and support ULC’s final phase of development.
This summer ULC and Medici Communities celebrated the grand opening of Evans Station Lofts on the Southwest Rail Line. This new construction five story building of 50 affordable apartments and 8,000 sf of commercial space was successfully completed and 100% leased up upon opening. In addition to being the first full cycle TOD Fund development completed, our communications team led by Christi Craine, marketed Evans Lofts to be featured nationally in the ULI Magazine and win the Denver Mayor’s Design Award this fall for outstanding place making design features. Because of our strong partnership and proven success with Medici, ULC recently selected Medici (with partner Denver Housing Authority) to be our development partner at our 38th & Blake site on the East Line.
ULC continued celebrating grand openings this fall at Holly Square with our partner, Boys and Girls Club of Metro Denver. Through ULC’s 99 year land lease and the generous grant from The Anschutz Foundation, the new Nancy P. Anschutz Center is now a welcomed neighbor to the residents of the Northeast Park Hill community. Soon after, ULC hosted a community BBQ, planned by our very own James Roy II, celebrating all of the positive development that has taken place at Holly, led by the Holly Area Redevelopment Project (HARP). The Center, home of the Jack A. Vickers Boys & Girls Club, not only helps heal the loss of an important neighborhood landmark, but provides services to 250 underserved young people in the area each day, providing a place for them to learn, grow and succeed in life.
The Tramway Nonprofit Center went solar in 2013! This two phase solar installation, providing 200 Kilowatts of electricity for Tramway, is better supporting the 16 nonprofit tenants in the building with more predictable fixed pricing for electricity. ULC’s asset management team is leading additional capital improvements underway including new windows, new main water line and a new kitchen configuration to make the building more efficient and enhance collaborative efforts. Thank you to all our wonderful nonprofit tenants to make Tramway such a vibrant asset to the community, and to Denver’s Office of Economic Development (OED) for so much support! OED is not only supporting existing renovations and past upgrades at Tramway, but has also provided funding for our real estate work at Sheridan Station (Jody redevelopment), Mile High Vista, Holly Square, Dahlia Apts, PHVW and Curtis Park Nonprofit and Community Center. ULC recently completed renovations of the Curtis Park Nonprofit Center and fully leased it to 8 nonprofits including Denver Shared Spaces (DSS), a collaborative that develops intentional, effective shared work space. As the DSS coordinator, Megan Devenport is establishing Denver as a national leader in shared space resources and implementation. Family Star Montessori runs their successful early educational programming in the Curtis Park Community Center.
Beyond ULC’s real estate work, we are an active member of several regional collaboratives that focus on equitable opportunity for housing, jobs, health and education such as Mile High Connects, Neighborhood Development Collaborative (NDC), Community Development Partnership, Denver Livability Partnership, West Corridor Collaborative and DRCOG’s Sustainability Communities Initiative. Thanks to ULC Associate, Karly Malpiede, for coordinating collaborative work and closely following local and federal policies and trends that inform our outreach efforts and maximize impact. These partnerships provide ULC with the opportunity to better coordinate our real estate work with the goals of public, private and nonprofit organizations working in the Denver region.
In addition to ULC’s regional focus, we continue to be a part of HARP and Westwood Unidos (WU) to better support our placed based real estate investments. Our participation with WU helps bring new resources from foundations and the public sector to support needed investment into the community.
Operationally ULC went through a significant growth spurt in 2013. Stephanie Tamblyn joined the ULC team in January as Asset Manager after consulting with us for over a year. We are thrilled to have someone with such extensive commercial real estate experience managing, making capital improvements and leasing our assets.
Jonathan Cappelli began working with ULC as an intern in January, and was hired in the summer. Jonathan is an Associate, supporting special projects including the coordination of both a regional and national policy collaborative focused on community development.
The PHVW purchase prompted ULC to conduct a national search for a newly created position, VP of Master Site Development. We were very fortunate to hire Tony Pickett from Atlanta, who has an extensive background in master site development. Tony has jumped right in, taking on the redevelopment of PHVW and Holly Square.
Much of 2013 was spent on the implementation of Yardi, ULC’s new accounting, leasing, and construction software. To better support our Yardi work and financing needs currently led by Courtney Clapp of The Denver Foundation, we hired Rick Woodruff in November as our Accounting Manager.
As we look into 2014, the ULC Board of Directors developed a new 3 year Strategic Framework to focus our work and investments to maximize our impact on communities. The new Framework was announced at the 10 Year Anniversary celebration in September and incorporates 5 Pillars of Activity for 2014 – 2016:
- Master Developer
- Real Estate Stewardship for Community Benefit Purposes
- TOD Investor
- Catalyst for New Initiatives
- Innovative Resource Development
Thank you to all who celebrated with ULC at our 10 Year Anniversary Soiree in September, expertly planned by ULC Office Manager Emily DeSimone. Not only did we unveil our new 3 Year Strategic Framework, but we were able to debut the first ever ULC video: ULC 10 Years Strong. The great Purnell Steen provided us with incredible music as we mingled with partners and community members at the Curtis Park Community Center looking back on success and looking forward to many more achievements.
ULC would like to sincerely thank all of our partners who are critical to providing opportunities to improve our communities. We wish you all peace, joy and prosperity in 2014.
Best Regards,
Rus Heise, ULC Board Chairman
Aaron Miripol, ULC President & CEO