December 2016 Partner Spotlight of the Month: Holly Square in NE Park Hill!
The Urban Land Conservancy celebrates the achievements of its partnerships that create and preserve nonprofit facilities and affordable housing for communities in metro Denver. ULC’s Monthly Partner Spotlight is awarded to partners who demonstrate the value of collaboration, furthering our mission to improve the lives of Metro Denver residents through our real estate investments and community assets.
Congratulations to our December 2016 Partner Spotlight of the Month: Holly Square!
Since our founding in 2003, Urban Land Conservancy has invested in real estate for community benefit. While this ranges from building and preserving affordable housing to rehabilitating neighborhoods in need, serving the community has always remained our first and foremost concern.
As ULC works in Denver’s competitive real estate market, it often takes time for our real estate investments to come full circle. Yet when they do, we are constantly reminded exactly why we are in the community building business. One such investment – the redevelopment of Holly Square in Northeast Park Hill – was recently completed following the devastating fire in 2008. In 2009, ULC worked with the community to purchase the 2.6-acre site with the support of Denver’s Office of Economic Development (OED) and The Denver Foundation’s Strengthening Neighborhoods program (SN). From the very beginning it was ULC’s vision to revitalize the Holly with direct participation from nonprofit stakeholders and residents of the Northeast Park Hill community.
Once ULC oversaw demolition of the burned structures on the site, the Holly Area Redevelopment Project (HARP) was created in partnership with SN and the Hope Center to act as a community visioning process. HARP began hosting regular community wide meetings to gather input from local residents, and hired a local planning group, Community by Design to help with visioning of the Holly redevelopment. For ULC, learning what community members envisioned in their neighborhood – versus a developer telling them what they needed – was essential.
During the community planning process, ULC worked with several nonprofits to create positive uses at the Holly. Local nonprofit, Impact Empowerment Group (IEG), formally Prodigal Son, with support from The Denver Foundation and Piton Foundation brought needed interim amenities to the Holly including basketball and futsal courts, Holly Mural project, Peace Poles, playground, and a gathering space for the neighborhood.
Aaron Miripol, President and CEO of Urban Land Conservancy, made it his mission to rebuild the Holly in a way that was not only beneficial to the neighborhood, but was truly what the community wanted. To ensure the neighborhood’s vision lives on, ULC continues to own the Holly land and has 99 year ground leases with its nonprofit development partners. After recently celebrating the seventh – and final – phase of redevelopment, Miripol hopes the community will thrive and grow with the new Holly Square .
“Through our partnerships with HARP we aimed to rebuild what was lost,” Miripol said. “We put a great deal of work into this redevelopment, used the community land trust ground lease to protect our investment, and worked to ensure the Northeast Park Hill community was a part of this redevelopment through their selection of developers at the Holly.”
Today, after multiple phases of redevelopment and nearly $15 million in direct investment, Holly Square is complete. First to be finalized was the Nancy P. Anschutz Center, which was made possible by a generous donation from the Anschutz Foundation, who gifted $5 million to construct the facility. The Center, which is also home to the Jack A. Vickers Boys & Girls Club, opened its doors in October 2013.
And as 2016 comes to an end, so does ULC’s redevelopment of Holly Square. In August this year, Roots Elementary opened its new building adjacent to the Boys & Girls Club for the 2016-2017 school year. In December, ULC celebrated the final phase of development with the completion of the Holly Square overlook. This outdoor space, complete with solar lighting from Nokero and construction by nonprofit Colorado Construction Institute (CCI), has truly brought the work of ULC and its partners full circle.
To see residents, nonprofits and developers come together for the benefit of the community is why ULC does what we do every day. During the celebration of the Holly Square overlook this past December, we witnessed students from Roots Elementary, students from CCI, ULC tenants and local community members gather to recognize the triumph that is Holly Square. Thank you to everyone who participated in the past seven years of work, we could not have done it without you!