DENVER — True to its name, Denver's Sun Valley neighborhood has stepped out of the shadows recently. What was once the city's public housing projects has now been demolished, leaving a new landscape ripe for development.
“This market really helps just bring everyone together,” said Jessie Robinson, who was shopping for cereal and a few other items at Decatur Fresh.
Grocery shopping isn’t something that sounds particularly exciting to most, but when you consider this neighborhood hasn’t had a store of its own in decades, it’s something those in Sun Valley can’t stop talking about.
“And the prices in there are incredible,” said a neighbor named Dian. “I feel like everything is a great deal, so that’s always very nice.”
“It’s finally something that we have that’s not 7-Eleven, where you just get crap,” said Robinson.
Robinson has seen the transformation first-hand in Denver’s Sun Valley neighborhood.
“I’m glad that they’re doing something,” she said. “I’ve been here 10 years. It was getting bad. Just like the crime. It was just seedy over here.”
“Sun Valley was a great move for me,” said Craig Allen, who has found a new home here, too.
“Like the washer/dryer inside the apartment. The dishwasher, the balcony, which I didn’t have at the last place,” said Allen. “It made, to me – life a lot easier. No more going up and down the stairs or elevator just to do laundry.”
“I wouldn’t be able to live here without the subsidy,” said Robinson. “And I have a full-time job. I do at-home health care.”
“I like it a lot,” said Dian. “It definitely does have that up-and-coming feeling.”
The neighborhood sits just south of Empower Field at Mile High and much of it is still owned and operated by the Denver Housing Authority (DHA). But unlike previous housing projects, this time around it looks and feels different.
Part of Sun Valley is also being privately redeveloped.
“It’s so nice and well-maintained,” said Allen.
A new sense of community is growing daily.
“To me, it’s like, here – being part of a family,” said Allen. “A brand-new family.”
Allen even started a weekly breakfast meet up, aimed at getting his Sun Valley neighbors together.
“If you know your neighbor, the less you have problems with your neighbor,” he said.
And with Denver City Council’s approval this week for more than $10 million in additional funding for housing, parks and roads here, those who are already sold on the new Sun Valley say the sky is the limit.
“And I hope other people come from around the country and see what they’ve done here,” said Allen. “It is a model redevelopment.”
DHA has already opened two new buildings, with an additional building set to open in the coming weeks and others planned for the months ahead. It's a complete reimagining of a neighborhood that had fallen into blight and disrepair.
Part of Sun Valley is also being privately redeveloped.
As for the new DHA buildings, they are one-bedroom up to five-bedroom units, some of them are geared toward super affordable or those making less than 30% the area median income.
For more information on qualifying or applying, please visit DHA’s website.