In open houses similar to Tupperware parties, Curtis Park residents almost two years ago wooed their friends with wine and cheese and the promise of riches.
But instead of kitchen gadgets, the hosts sold their neighbors $5,000 shares in six new Merchants Row brownstones being built at 26th and Champa streets – a $3 million project expected to be finished next spring.
“It was all word of mouth,” said Cathy Bellem, operating manager of the project. “People got the sense of what we were doing and got really excited about it.”
When all was said and done, more than 40 investors ponied up almost $500,000 to make sure they could choose what to build on the empty lot down the street from where many of them live, said Bellem, who lives nearby.
The group decided to buy the lot after they lost a fight to rezone it in August 2003. Those who invested belong to a limited-liability corporation in which they equally share the risks and gains of the project.
Two of the Merchants Row units have already been sold for about $600,000 apiece. The most-expensive unit still for sale is $665,000; the least expensive is $599,000.
At least a third of the new investors had already seen the unorthodox investment strategy work at the nearby Champa Terrace – a $1 million, four-unit townhome project at 2937 Champa St., started in 2002. Residents who put money into Champa Terrace made returns of about 20 percent in two years, Bellem said.
But in a neighborhood such as Curtis Park – near the historic Five Points district, just blocks north of downtown Denver – direct returns aren’t necessarily the point, said John Hayden, a real estate broker and a resident.
“Neighbors are coming together and putting their money where their mouths are,” Hayden said. “It’s a little unique to inner-city neighborhoods – you have to be committed to the community as well as to your house.”
Homeowners have also taken aggressive steps to combat crime, hiring off-duty police to watch parks and volunteering to pick up trash. Less than five blocks away from construction workers in hard hats nailing plywood sheets at Merchants Row, “no loitering” signs are pasted on boarded-up buildings.
“We’re trying to change people’s perception of Curtis Park and Five Points,” said David Carnicelli, project architect and Bellem’s husband. “Sometimes it’s an uphill battle, but here there’s more bonding, more a sense of community.”
Positive momentum continues to grow as developers see what homeowners are doing, Hayden said. A Montessori school is moving into the former Ideal Laundry building at 25th and Curtis streets. At least two other upscale residential townhouse buildings are going up nearby. A new high-rise building is slated for 20th and Lincoln streets, and RTD light rail is expanding.
“We’re turning a new chapter on the life of the neighborhood,” Hayden said. “There will always be all income levels here. If you don’t like that, if you can’t handle it, this isn’t the place for you. But, yes, it can pay to value diversity.”
