Milestone Development Group is building a $30 million apartment complex in Lafayette.
The project, expected to break ground this month, will add 254 apartments to a community that hasn’t seen new multifamily housing developed in the past 15 years.
The site, on South Public Road, is one mile north of Northwest Parkway adjacent to Good Samaritan Hospital on U.S. 287. The complex should be completed by March.
“We always look for high-traffic areas,” said Ken Kiken, principal of Denver-based Milestone. “(U.S.) 287 in Lafayette carries 50,000 cars a day. They realize we’re under construction, that we’re coming, and it cuts down on marketing.”
The one-, two- and three-bedroom units will rent for $850 to $1,350 a month. The project, called Prana Apartments, will also include a 6,000-square-foot clubhouse with a 2,000-square-foot fitness center, and a seven-lane junior Olympic swimming pool and spa.
Lawyer Erik Foster of Moye White helped Milestone get the project through the city process within eight months. One of the challenges, he said, was that Lafayette’s growth ordinance only allows the city to issue 200 building permits a year, but Milestone needed one for each of the 254 units.
“When they put that growth ordinance in place, they were thinking in terms of homebuilders building single-family homes,” Foster said. “No one thought about the need to have rental apartments.”
When the city approved the project in December, it immediately issued Milestone 150 building permits. In January, it committed to providing the additional permits out of this year’s allotment.
“Working with Lafayette was truly a pleasure,” Foster said. “So many times in the past, I’ve had challenges working with city government and county government with all the bureaucracy and rules.”
The city also borrowed from its water fund to help the developer with infrastructure costs. The developer will pay the money back with proceeds from bonds that are to be sold.
The project is being financed through a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program designed for market-rate apartments.
Margaret Jackson: 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com
