ENGLEWOOD, Colo. - A major apartment complex project was approved this week in Englewood.
The address of the new development, 401 Englewood Parkway, has changed a lot since it was part of one of the biggest malls west of the Mississippi, Cinderella City.
"This area used to be Cinderella City Mall and was a really great income resource for this city," said Rita Russell, an Englewood City Council member.
The mall closed in the late 90's. These days, the lot is a strip mall with a handful of businesses and an empty storefront owned by Kimco Realty.
Final approval was given to turn the shopping center into an apartment complex. Kimco is expected to work with a third-party developer whose name has yet to be determined.
"[It's] a 260-unit, multi-family residential apartment project, which should be about four or five stories tall with the parking garage as well," said Will Charles, community development department planner for the City of Englewood.
The concept was brought to the city by Kimco, who said a future phase could include a 120-room hotel or more residential units on the lot.
Denver7 recently sat down with an Englewood Affordable Housing Task Force member about the need for more low-cost units.
"One shocking thing we discovered in our process was that the City of Englewood is currently short by approximately 2,500 units. For me and for the rest of the task force, that really amplified how important and urgent this problem is," said Amber Reyes, a member of the task force.
Denver7 asked the city just how many units of the newly approved project would be offered for lower incomes.
"Currently, in the Englewood municipal code, there's not an exact number of how many affordable housing units are required in a development project," said Charles.
That will soon change as the city council is supposed to take recommendations from the Affordable Housing Task Force and can potentially come up with a certain requirement for new developments.
"Ten percent is not enough, so we made recommendations to the city council to pick a more meaningful percentage for future developments," said Reyes.
Even though the project has already been approved, Kimco has committed to following whatever the council decides.
"There is a commitment to meet any requirements that the city codifies," said Charles.
"Even if it's 25%, do all the units have to be affordable?" Denver7's Danielle Kreutter asked.
"Correct? So, anything that is adopted by city council as far as affordable housing requirements, the applicant will be required to meet those," said Charles.
The approved ordinance reads: "The project shall meet all affordable housing requirements in effect at the time of building permit submittal, including any applicable requirements adopted by the Englewood City Council."
Two Englewood council members, Kim Wright and Rita Russell, voted against the development.
"Even if I don't support it, it doesn't mean that I don't think we need affordable housing, but how we get it is where we differ," said Russell.
She said she's very concerned about adding high-density housing to the city while also removing retail opportunities for residents.
"All of the affordable housing we had in District One, they tore it all down and built duplexes that cost $ 1 million to $ 1.5 million per side," she said. "The one thing that I would have favored at the very beginning was to build duplexes, neuro duplexes, that weren't so massive and two-stories next to an 800 square foot house."
She said the council would discuss affordable unit requirements at a study session on March 24 before bringing the issue to a regular council meeting.
"It could take a little bit of time for this to happen. I really felt like that's why Kimco agreed to whatever we have in place at the time of the building permit," said Russell.
Denver7 has contacted Kimco to see when they plan to submit their building permit. A spokesperson tells us that since they're currently within the standard appeal period following approval, they cannot disclose that date at this time, adding:
"We've enjoyed working closely and constructively with the Englewood technical staff throughout the process, and we're excited about seeing this property repurposed into another vibrant development that complements and enhances the Englewood community."
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