A team led by former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb and developer Jim Sullivan has gotten the go-ahead to pursue redevelopment of the Dahlia Square shopping center in Denver’s northeast Park Hill neighborhood.
The board of the Denver Urban Renewal Authority on Friday approved a selection committee’s recommendation that the authority negotiate exclusively with Alliance Development Partners Inc.
The group’s preliminary site plan calls for 203 units of housing, a Denver Health clinic and a day-care center, although DURA and Alliance officials said details may change as negotiations move forward.
Friday’s vote marks one of the most significant steps in a redevelopment effort that has dragged on for years.
“I never knew it would be this difficult,” Webb told the board Friday.
Dahlia Square would be the first development project for Webb, who runs a consulting business, Webb Group International LLC.
During his tenure as mayor, Webb encouraged redevelopment of the 8.3-acre site at East 33rd Avenue and Dahlia Street. His administration helped set aside funds for the project. It was hindered, however, by setbacks and false starts that included the discovery of a landfill beneath the site.
The site – once home to a grocery store, a dry cleaner and other small businesses – is owned by the nonprofit Parkhill Community Inc., a subsidiary of Brownfield Partners. Parkhill is handling the $8.4 million cleanup and remediation with a combination of city and federal funding.
Webb’s group will pay $10.35 per square foot for the property once it has negotiated a final deal with DURA. That amounts to $450,000 per acre.
Under Alliance’s plan, half the homes will be single-family attached in the form of town homes and patio homes. The other half would be multifamily rental housing.
A portion of the rental housing is expected to include affordable or senior housing. Alliance Development is in discussions with the Catholic Archdiocese, which is interested in constructing the affordable housing, and the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, which is pursuing the senior housing.
Webb declined to discuss prices for homes on the site.
Besides the 12,500-square-foot health clinic and the day-care center, the plan also calls for an underground parking garage. Although initial discussions called for a small commercial center on the site, the plan presented Friday did not include stores.
A DURA staff member said any retail on the site would depend on whether the market could support it.
The tallest building on the site would be four stories.
DURA’s board is to vote on a final agreement with Alliance at its Jan. 15 meeting.
Staff writer Kristi Arellano can be reached at 303-820-1902 or karellano@denverpost.com.
