Greenwood Village approves residential project on long-empty 13 acres

Todd Baker is doing the unthinkable building houses on the empty lot at Greenwood Plaza Blvd The Greenwood Village City Council voted - last month to approve the developer s plans to construct single-family homes on acres just south of the Landmark advancement which is has a movie theater shops and two condominium towers It was unanimous Absolutely unanimous Which I m not so sure anybody ever expected in the history of this parcel explained Baker an executive with homebuilding giant Century Communities Groundbreaking is set for next year on the project that will create a new gated locality just west of Interstate Baker expects to start sales in Homes will be three or four stories and range from to square feet with rooftop decks and garages Baker reported They ll list for million to million Anybody could be a buyer but we believe the right buyers are empty nesters retirees executive professionals he added Twenty years ago before Baker was with Century and when Mike Shanahan was still coaching the Denver Broncos the site was envisioned as a dense -unit progress dubbed the European Village It was proposed by Zack Davidson the builder of the Landmark retail center and its accompanying condo towers The New York Times profiling Davidson in detailed the project s planned manor-style homes modeled after those in Florence Italy and spread out among English gardens and courtyards cobblestone streets and tree-lined promenades A party promoting the project featured chateaubriand veal scallopini and lobster salad piled high in martini glasses The Denver Post communicated But the plan never materialized Davidson s European Village went bankrupt in and the developer filed for personal bankruptcy a year after In late an Arapahoe County grand jury indicted Davidson on counts of theft forgery and embezzlement of general property He allegedly stole million from a metro district he created to fund the project A insufficient weeks later he committed suicide The site has languished since This piece of dirt has been there for -plus years and I view it as a blight on the city and we ve been waiting and waiting and waiting to see what could be done with this piece of this property Councilman Paul Wiesner disclosed at last month s vote Century purchased the property from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp for million in general records show The publicly traded homebuilder which is headquartered on the other side of I- in Greenwood Village proposed a similarly high-density project at the site in both and But both plans were withdrawn before being voted on What we discovered is there was a compromise that needed to be taken place between the folks that lived at the towers at Landmark Baker revealed At last month s meeting that newfound compromise was on full display with several Landmark residents speaking in aid of the project No one spoke against it I spent the last nine-and-a-half years looking out over that nice piece of brown property Anything we do would be an improvement I do believe they are the best alternative mentioned Landmark Towers resident Roger Squire Baker declared units was the minimum number that would ensure profitability Related Articles Smashburger closes after years on th Street Mall OKC restaurateur debuting M Cherry Creek steakhouse I went big Lone Tree pickleball lawsuit sent back to District Court following appeal Founder of Colorado mountain bike maker Revel Bikes says company is profitable again Chicago breakfast and lunch restaurant Egg Harbor opening first Colorado locations Ninety was a compromise I mean let s be honest it would reliably be nice to build more But this was the amount that we felt was right for the site that all of the stakeholders would truly say Yeah I can live with that he noted Century s site will join the Landmark towers as anomalies in the density-resistant suburb We discourage density more than four units per acre but we did not say that we prohibit it Councilman Dave Kerber mentioned If I was the king I d say it s too tight you need to be units but I m not the king I m not the landowner and I am impressed by the attention to detail Thank you for listening to us for not coming in here with something crazy for not coming in here with something that you came in here with back in or which was nuts This is good high-quality appropriate density Councilwoman Anne Ingebretsen reported Read more from our partner BusinessDen Get more business news by signing up for our Economic activity Now newsletter