The developer says Denver is "in desperate need of housing.”
Developers are planning a five-story, 40,000-square-foot building in the Art District on Santa Fe.
Madelon Group, a New York-based developer that focuses on affordable housing and prefabricated and modular homes, plans to break ground in 2023 and deliver the project in 2024.
The building will consist of 64 prefabricated microstudios, each 400 square feet. Each unit will come pre-furnished, with a bathroom and kitchenette, bed, sofa, table, storage and closet space. Four units will share a common area with a larger kitchen and laundry.
Alfonso Medina, CEO at Madelon Group, is an architect by trade and launched Madelon Group three years ago. Medina met Minyoung Sohn, founder of investment company Blue Room, through their shared work in the art and architecture world. Sohn is on the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, and after investing in Madelon Group and seeing its projects come to life in New York, Medina said the two of them wanted to bring the idea of affordable, prefabricated apartments to Denver.
“We’ve always had a special connection to Denver,” Medina said. “It’s a great balance in that it’s still a city where you can still build, but it’s also a city that’s in desperate need of housing.”
Madelon Group has also developed a software program called REDtech, which finds existing parcels and their zoning, and also automatically generates floor plans for development.
“Something that was very important for us was finding a site that we don’t really need to rezone,” Medina said. “We developed part of our platform to be able to source those sites. We found a couple in the Arts District and it wasn’t even a listed site.”
Madelon Group launched its first property in Brooklyn in December 2021, with another six developments under construction. The development company plans to open three more buildings this year in New York.
Rent will be $900-$1,000 for each unit, according to Sharon Schneider, president of Blue Room’s housing initiative. Schneider said the entire upfront investment for the project is $15 million.
“Instead of anchoring on the market, we’re really anchoring in terms of what is actually affordable to residents,” Schneider said.
IndieDwell, a manufacturer of modular homes in Pueblo, Colo. and Newport News, Va., is building the prefabricated studios.
On Feb. 14, Liminal Space LLC purchased the property at 801 W. 8th Ave. for $985,500, according to property records.
The new building will also have ground-floor retail at the property, according to a news release.
While Madelon Group did design the building, Medina said the architect on record for the project is Studio K2 Architecture and the local contractor is Proset Construction, Inc. out of Montrose.
Madelon Group and Blue Room both plan for their Art District on Santa Fe project to be the first of dozens of projects they do together throughout Colorado. They think their model of easily replicating prefabricated buildings is one solution to bringing housing that people can afford to the state of Colorado because it decreases buildings costs by 10 to 25 percent.
“Colorado as a whole needs another 225,000 housing units in the next couple of years,” Schneider said. “It’s a massive supply problem that we have.”
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