new affordable housing to be built in downtown fort collins

In an effort to provide more housing options for lower-income residents, Fort Collins may soon see the construction of just under 70 new apartment units.

Those units would go up on land purchased more than a decade ago by the Fort Collins Downtown Development Authority at 140 E. Oak Street.

That site for decades was the home to a local Elks Lodge chapter that has since been demolished.

In announcing an intergovernmental agreement with Housing Catalyst, the city’s public housing agency, the Downtown Development Authority said it had not yet determined the final size of the planned new affordable housing project.

Two options, both of which will include retail and commercial space, are on the table: a five-story structure with 66 units, or a four-story building with 49 apartments.

The cost for the smaller structure is estimated at just under $15 million, while the 66-unit project would cost around $23 million to build.

The exact size of the new complex is expected to be announced sometime next year.

Fort Collins officials have increasingly been pushing for more affordable housing options as rents in the northern Colorado city have jumped from around $900 a decade ago to more than $1,500 for a single-room apartment today.

The quest to build new housing in the city’s downtown fits in with the Development Authority’s mission to foster redevelopment in the area.

Since its founding in 1981, the Development Authority has spearheaded the redevelopment of a large number of commercial and office properties within a 783-acre downtown area.

In earlier announcing the purchase of the Elks Lodge property, Matt Robenalt, the Development Authority’s executive director, told the Coloradoan newspaper, “There are not a lot of sites left in downtown, and we are fortunate to be in the position we are to leverage public financing to have an impact on a community need.”

By Garry Boulard

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