Plans are underway for a for an urban infill project that creates new affordable housing for Denver area residents on the site of the former airport. Forest City Stapleton, Inc. is the developer behind the plans that call for 1,600 single-family homes and apartments for lower-income homebuyers and renters to be built on a 7.5 square mile parcel of land that was formerly Stapleton International Airport, seven miles from downtown Denver.
What used to be runways, terminals, and car rental offices will become a mixed-used project that includes a Town Center with about 150,000 square feet of retail space, including a 60,000-square-foot grocer, and open space for recreation. Forest City was selected by the Board of the Stapleton Development Corporation (SDC) as its development partner in 1998. It represents the largest urban infill project in the United States.
The new residents will be single-family home households earning 80 percent or less of the area median income. Apartment dwellers must earn 60 percent or below the area median income to qualify. Greg Vilkin, president of Forest City Stapleton, told the Denver City Council, Denver International Airport and Stapleton Committee that Forest City will provide far more affordable housing than originally anticipated. "We're going farther with this than we have ever gone at any development in the country," Vilkin said.
According to a report by John Rebchook, News Real Estate Editor of the Rocky Mountain News, Forest City Stapleton will accept Department of Housing and Urban Development Section 8 housing certificates for low and very low-income individuals. The affordable housing will be spread throughout the 4,700 acres, north and south of Interstate 70.
Forest City Enterprises, Inc., is a $4 billion NYSE (FCEA) diversified national real estate company headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. Forest City develops, acquires, owns and manages commercial and residential real estate properties. Its portfolio of nearly 200 retail, residential, office and hotel properties throughout 21 states and the District of Columbia is operated by regional offices in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Tucson, Denver, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco.
Pat Rioux
