First Live-Work Units Take Shape at Lowry

DENVER-Jim Hartman, a developer and architect, along with partner John Keith of Harvard Communities, recently started construction on 10 live-work units at Lowry. Lowry, a former Air Force Base, is nearing the end of its development cycle into a mixed-use, master-planned community.

“We’re real excited about this,” Hartman tells GlobeSt.com. “It’s a new product at Lowry.” The units are under construction the historic town district area of the former military base.

The four bigger units will have about 3,000 sf of space on three levels. The first level, which has its own entrance, can have a commercial sign. “We have one under contract to a buyer who would have an interior design business,” Hartman tells GlobeSt.com. A coffee shop and a mortgage company also are possible uses on other units, he says.

The two floors above the workspace each have 600 sf to 800 sf of space. The units are priced from the low-to-mid $700,000s, he says. Operating a business on the first floor and living above it is a New Urbanism-style concept that harkens back to small-town America. Tom Markham, executive director of the Lowry Redevelopment Authority, the non-profit, quasi-public group responsible for the redevelopment of Lowry, says that he has long wanted to bring live-work to the former military base, which closed 11 years ago.

“The nice thing about the layout, is that you could work out the first floor and live above, or you could rent out the commercial space and live on the top floors, or you could operate a business on the ground floor and rent the upstairs,” Hartman tells GlobeSt.com. “Flexibility is the key. You could do any combination you want.”

Each of the six smaller units will have two stories and 1,600 sf of space. “These will have mostly residential space, a small work space and a little office nook,” Hartman tells GlobeSt.com. Those units are priced from the low $400,000. Denver-based Buchanan Yonushewski Group is designing the units, although as an architect, Hartman worked closely with BYG.

Hartman tells GlobeSt.com that he believes the demand for live-work units will go far beyond his project. “It was a risk-based decision,” to only build 10 units, he tells GlobeSt.com. “We always thought that live-work would be great, but as the first kid on the block, you can never be sure.” He tells GlobeSt.com that a friend of his, also an architect, has plans for a live-work project on the drawing board for Lowry.