“Welcome to the first night of the economic recovery,” developer Randy Nichols, head honcho of the Nichols Partnership, told the crowd of roughly 1,300 who gathered at the Colorado Convention Center to celebrate the launch of Spire, a 500-unit high-rise condominium at 14th and Champa streets. “They say housing always leads to economic turnaround.”
City officials, business leaders and lookie-loos toured the two model units across the street from the building, which is still under construction.
Twenty-one-year-old first-time homebuyer Meagan Pieper is a walking advertisement for Spire, which aims to attract young buyers with prices that start at $210,000 for a one-bedroom unit and $290,000 for two bedrooms. She bought the second unit sold; Nichols bought the first. Friends and family get first dibs, and sales to the general public start April 4.
“We were over at (Nichols’) house for dinner, and he showed me the plans on his computer,” said Pieper, who works for MegaStar Financial, the mortgage company that’s working with Nichols. “He took me on a tour of the units on the 10th floor that are done. I said, ‘Where do I sign?’ “
