Birch Street Group doesn’t want its homes to stand out in Denver’s oldest neighborhoods.
“We want to blend in with the homes that are already there,” said David Woodward, one of the infill development group’s founding partners. “The character of these neighborhoods is what makes them attractive, so the last thing we want to do is change it in any way.”
When the three founding partners came together four years ago, they saw big potential in Denver’s smallest lots.
“The big trend is people wanting to move back into the city rather than out to the suburbs,” Woodward said. “People don’t want to be in Highlands Ranch anymore. They want to be able to walk to an established coffee shop rather than having to get into their cars and drive to Applebee’s for a cup of coffee.”
The group’s other two partners are Chris Cardiff and Mitch Linder, who met while working as software developers at the Denver information technology company CSG Systems.
When the tech bubble burst, Linder actually had to lay Cardiff off, but not before the two made plans to go into business together. Linder joined Birch Street about six months after it was founded.
“I went to Realtor school to get my Realtor’s license,” he said. “Chris went to contractor school to get his contractor’s license, and it has worked out great ever since.”
The group’s first project was on Birch Street (thus the name) in the Park Hill neighborhood. The partners bought an older, 1,745-square-foot home, renovated it and sold it, a practice known as “fix and flip.”
“Although we made money on this project, we learned a lot,” Woodward said. “You don’t always know what you have until you start opening up walls and ceilings, and it is very easy for construction budgets to run over.”
The group’s customers are empty nesters such as John and Linda Jacobs, and young families such as Charlotte and Rob Gillespie. Both demographics share the goal of living close to the city center.
The Jacobses lived in Aurora for 33 years before buying a home in Bonnie Brae last year. Now in their 60s and semi-retired, they split their time between Denver and Florida.
“Living closer in is just so much nicer,” John Jacobs said. “We’ll enjoy everything that’s going on down there, from the restaurants to the cultural events to sports activities.”
The Gillespies and their two young children lived in suburban Broomfield for five years before moving to a home in Bonnie Brae.
“Before, we were getting in the car all the time just to go to a local restaurant,” Charlotte Gillespie said.
Moving to an older neighborhood also involves making compromises.
“You give up the big yards you have in the suburbs, but you can have a cozy backyard without a ton of space,” she said.
Birch Street, funded by private investors, has grown 50 percent to 75 percent annually. In neighborhoods that have been built out for 40 to 60 years, they replace cramped bungalows with larger, fully loaded new homes. In four years, they have completed more than 100 homes and have 60 more under construction.
While most of their homes sell for $800,000 to $1 million, some are priced in the upper $2 million range. A recent “row house” project had units costing $300,000 each.
The group’s volume sets it apart from other infill builders. “We are a big fish in a small pond,” Woodward said. “The other builders doing what we do are generally one guy with a truck who does a couple of houses a year.”
Often those builders renovate old homes rather than replacing them with new ones.
Birch Street has confined its spec homes to neighborhoods within Denver city limits such as Bonnie Brae, Cherry Creek, Park Hill, Highland, Observatory Park, Platte Park and Hilltop.
“We’re very selective about the neighborhoods,” Woodward said. “The place has to be safe and secure and ready for redevelopment. That said, sometimes we push a neighborhood that’s right on the edge of being ready.”
Woodward gives the University Hills neighborhood as an example.
“It’s in the very early stages of the type of transformation Bonnie Brae has undergone,” he said. “By being one of the first to start new construction in the area, we feel like we’re helping to start that transformation.”
