Auraria Campus Getting $50M Housing

Housing at the development will be offered to students, faculty and staff at all Auraria schools including the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center's Downtown Denver Campus, Metropolitan State College of Denver and Community College of Denver. CUREF and CU have entered into a marketing and referral agreement that makes the project housing available to entering international students and nonresident freshmen.

"This has been a complicated development, with many moving parts," saysSusan Powers, principal of Urban Ventures.

"This project is critical to the university's efforts to bring morenonresident students to the Downtown Denver Campus of UCDHSC," says JamesShore, chancellor of the University of Colorado at Denver and HealthSciences Center. "We can't imagine a more convenient location for studenthousing because the site is just a five-minute walk from the center ofcampus, with easy access to light-rail transit and all of the amenities thatDowntown Denver offers."

John Freyer, president of CUREF, says the project will "fulfill our missionto support CU, but to also meet a need of all of the Auraria institutions." Several attempts had been made over the years to develop student housing on the site. Through Walnut Development Group LLC, Urban Ventures assembled several parcels of property during the past few years and recently completed all of the entitlements necessary to proceed with the project. The properties were conveyed to Campus Village Apartments LLC, a single-purpose entity controlled by CUREF, and WDG will complete the development of the property on behalf of Campus Village.

Project team members also include Allen & O'Hara Educational Services LLC, which is acting as a student-housing consultant to WDG and will manage the completed housing project, AR7 HooverDesmondArchitects and Palace Construction. Urban Ventures develops residential real estate projects including loft and condominium housing, affordable housing and mixed-use properties. The company also has considerable experience renovating historic properties. CUREF was created in 2002 by a volunteer board of real estate industry professionals to develop a real estate investment portfolio that generates returns for the benefit of the University of Colorado and to assist CU'scampuses in implementing their master plans.