The old Marycrest convent in northwest , and the new development taking its place will maintain the community lifestyle the sisters shared — without the commitment to the cloth.
The Aria Cohousing Community is under construction to remodel the old convent — 2861 W. 52nd Ave. — and convert it into 28 condos and shared community spaces.
“We’ve been waiting and praying for cohousing ever since we heard it was possible,” Sister Patty Podhaisky said. “Itap sort of the average person’s experience of what we do in religious life. Everyone gets to have community life.”
Cohousing is a community of private homes centered around a shared space. The residents buy into the community knowing their neighbors will be a large part of their lives.The neighbors can also share resources, such as tools.
“I would say both in Denver and nationally we’re seeing a growing interest in cohousing,” said Liz Babcock, manager of air, climate and water with Denver’s Department of Environmental Health. “I think it is a growing trend. With all the new development, there’s definitely a special place for cohousing that we’ll start to see more.”
Aria should be ready for move-in by March and prices of the condos range up to $480,000. Eight of the units are marked for affordable housing — priced between $169,000-$218,000 — and two are still available. Seventeen of the 20 market-priced units are under contract.
Developer Susan Powers with Urban Ventures said the $7.2 million project is her first foray into cohousing, but she has learned a lot about it in the last few years. Powers was under contract with the Sisters of St. Francis in 2007, but didn’t close on the property until 2012. She also built a new smaller home for the sisters nearby on a couple of acres the sisters still own.
“We were attracted to this property because itap eight minutes from downtown, itap on the edge of Denver, but itap still an area that is not as well-known as Highland or Sunnyside,” Powers said.
The cohousing concept is an attractive one to people of all demographics, and Aria already has commitments from people in their 20s and expecting children, couples in their 50s and singles in their 70s.
Marc Robson and his partner will be moving into Aria next year and said they were looking to downsize but also enjoy being part of a community. With no immediate family in the area for Robson aside from his partner, he thinks his neighbors will be a family to him.
He said people often get the wrong idea of the cohousing concept — which has its origins in Europe and is very popular in places such as Denmark and the Netherlands — and that everyone will still have as much privacy as they like.
“We want to be part of the community and share our lives. Itap not a hippie commune. People are not going to just walk into each other’s units. We do have privacy,” Robson said. “We all feel our lives will be better for doing this.”
Suzanne Leff has lived in cohousing at Hearthstone at Highland Gardens Village — built over the old Elitch Gardens near 38th Avenue and Tennyson Street — since 2004 and others moved in when the development opened in 2001.
She was unfamiliar with the concept when looking to move, but at her friend’s urging she went to check out Hearthstone and said she felt at home, having grown up in a small town.
“It has a really nice small town feel within an urban environment,” Leff said.
At Hearthstone, the residents have access to a community house on the development and live in townhomes surrounding the house and a playground. The residents gather at least once a week for a community meal and each household takes turns of planning the meal.
Leff said she is glad to see more cohousing communities pop up and that they are all special places.
“Itap not necessarily our dream homes, but itap a dream community,” she said.
