Even before Dana Crawford bought the historic Flour Mill building in downtown’s Prospect neighborhood, investors like Tom Anthony and Lorraine Spargo saw the value.
Fourteen years ago, Anthony borrowed $15,000 against a cabin in Alaska to buy his first piece of property in Prospect. A carpenter by trade, he took on 53 investors to fund the balance of the purchase, an old red warehouse that Gart Properties later converted into WaterTower Lofts.
Over the years, he has purchased and sold half a dozen other properties in the neighborhood. He has plans to build 390 residential units, 50,000 square feet of commercial space and 40,000 square feet of offices on the parcels that remain, but he is still trying to get financing.
“It’s going to take somebody else besides me to build it all out,” Anthony said. “But the value appreciation has caught up to where we have enough equity we can get our financing done.”
Spargo saw an opportunity in the parking business when she learned that Denver would get a major-league baseball franchise in 1991.
“I bought as much property as I could,” she said.
When interest in the Rockies started waning, Spargo started selling her parking lots. Developers Jason Ahlers and Paul Bergner bought one at 2900 Inca St. and are working on a 29-unit townhouse project there.
The deal made sense, Ahlers said, because the project is located just north of Denver’s Union Station but on land that is cheaper than other parcels in the trendy Central Platte Valley.
“It came down to economics,” Ahlers said. “I knew what East West (Partners’ properties) were selling for in the Central Platte Valley. I knew that I could buy land and sell units for $50 a square foot less than them.”
Ahlers has sold 13 of the 29 units at his Inca 29 development and is teaming with Barry Hirschfeld to build a second phase.
Hirschfeld also bought a lot from Anthony at 3003 Huron St., where he’s considering a condominium tower.
“I look at the neighborhood as being in its infancy,” Hirschfeld said. “It’s a little different product, and it’s a little bit more popularly priced. There’s just a lot going on there.”
Despite the optimism of other developers, the Crawfords have stopped working in the neighborhood they started developing nearly a decade ago.
“We made a long-term bet that the transit hub would go into Union Station,” Jack Crawford said. “(Prospect) had very fast access to I-25 and a backdoor entrance to I-70.”
They had planned a mixed-use project called Prospect Place that would have included a number of residential buildings clustered around a piazza with shops, galleries and bistros. They completed just two buildings, Ajax Lofts and Jack Kerouac Lofts.
Citing escalating construction costs and a downturn in the condo market, the Crawfords are selling the remaining 5 acres to Trammell Crow Residential, which is expected to develop 450 luxury apartments.
Scott McFadden of Trammell Crow Residential could not be reached for comment.
Staff writer Margaret Jackson can be reached at 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com.
