Lone Tree's 1st affordable housing planned at RidgeGate East

Market-rate units also coming to transit-oriented site

Nick Puckett
npuckett@coloradocommunitymedia.com
Posted 5/26/20

Two apartment complexes are scheduled to break ground in 2021 near the RidgeGate RTD light rail station, including Lone Tree's first affordable housing development at RidgeGate East. The RidgeGate …

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Lone Tree's 1st affordable housing planned at RidgeGate East

Market-rate units also coming to transit-oriented site

Posted

Two apartment complexes are scheduled to break ground in 2021 near the RidgeGate RTD light rail station, including Lone Tree's first affordable housing development at RidgeGate East.

The RidgeGate Station Transit Oriented District (TOD) will be home to a market-rate complex with 540 units and another complex with 67 units of affordable housing. Construction for both is expected to begin by 2021, with leasing scheduled to launch in 2022.

RidgeGate has committed to building at least 350 affordable housing units east of Interstate 25.

“We believe that by starting development on RidgeGate's east side with a wide range of rental and ownership residential options, it will respond to the strong demand for residential, enhance the opportunity to attract an anchor employer for the east side and appeal to a wide range of future resdients,” said Keith Simon, executive vice president for Coventry Development, the master developer for RidgeGate, in a May 19 news release.

Koelbel and Company will undertake the 67-unit affordable housing development. The complex will include a fitness center, community room and on-site leasing, according to the release.

Those eligible for leasing must have a household income between 30% and 80% of area median income, which in Lone Tree is about $110,000. The first residents are expected to take up occupancy in late 2022.

Diane Leavesly, executive director for the Douglas County Housing Partnership — the local housing authority — said the facility's wide range for salary qualification would be unique to the area. As examples, she said the apartments will be available for a single person earning less than about $42,000 a year or a family of four with a household income of about $60,000 a year.

"There are a lot of people who live in Douglas County that provide service-level jobs, and having housing that charges rents more affordable to the salaries they get means they can live near where they work without spending so much on their housing costs that they can't afford other necessities," Leavesly said.

Douglas County has 12 affordable living facilities. Two more complexes are being planned for construction in Parker and Highlands Ranch.

Leavesly said the affordable complex, and others like it, could help bring younger people into the economy as well as open the door for for seniors on a fixed income.

"This lets generations live in the same community," Leavesly said. "Douglas County has gotten a lot more expensive and it's not really easy to get people's kids to come back here and live."

The first market-rate complex at RidgeGate Station will be constructed by Regency Residential. The complex will take up two city blocks between Havana Street and I-25.

The development will be built in two phases of 270 units each. The development will be a “highly amenitized apartment complex" with secure parking, according to the May 19 news release. The units will vary in size. The first residents are expected to take up occupancy in early 2022.

RidgeGate Station, part of RTD light rail's Southeast Extension, opened in May 2019 with a 1,300-car parking garage. Officials plan to have 700 residential units along with retail and other commercial uses, including hotels, office, entertainment and restaurants in the RidgeGate TOD.

The RidgeGate Station TOD will border the city's 65-acre regional park, still in being planned, to the west.

Lone Tree City Council has approved a seven-story apartment complex to be built at the Sky Ridge Station farther north last September.

The Prescient apartment complex will have 241 units with an average size of 744 square feet. Of the units, 80% will be one-bedroom apartments. Some units will be as small as 500 square feet.

Simon told Colorado Community Media in September the “progressive modern” look of the smaller apartments will be more common in RidgeGate East.

RidgeGate has been preparing for expansion of its east side for several years and is moving toward residential development. RidgeGate West, the original neighborhood west of I-25, is home to 6,000 residents. Lone Tree's population of 15,000 in 2020 is expected to triple by 2040, largely thanks to the coming development of RidgeGate East.

On the east side, the first designated development site, known as the Southwest Villages in RidgeGate East, will have 1,900 single-family homes, 540 market-rate apartments and 175 condominium units.

affordable housing, Lone Tree, light rail

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