A groundbreaking ceremony is set for Friday for a new 50-unit complex of rent-controlled apartments in north Durango.
Lumien Apartments will be built at the southeast corner of 32nd Street and East Animas Village Drive. The project, to be built by Solvera Affordable Housing Advisors of Denver, seeks to ease Durango’s severe lack of affordable rentals.
Rents will range from $500 to $800 a month, said Karen Iverson, executive director of the La Plata Homes Fund Inc. and Regional Housing Alliance of La Plata County, which are partners in the project. Rents will be controlled for the first 40 years of the project.
The apartments will have one or two bedrooms. Tenants will be required to have $35,000 a year or less in household income, Iverson said.
Lumien Apartments will meet a pressing need, said Greg Glade, a partner in Solvera.
“I think it’s going to provide young people, singles, families, possibly some seniors, an affordable place to live within Durango,” he said.
Construction is expected to take just over a year, and Lumien should be open to tenants by July 2015, Glade said.
The project is meant to provide workforce housing. Vacancies are sparse in Durango, a phenomenon that is affecting students, workers and others while home prices in La Plata County remain north of $300,000.
“As vacancies go down, obviously the rents are going up, and the ones that get squeezed out are those that need homes the most,” said Iverson.
Durango had a vacancy rate of 4.3 percent, with an average rent of $983 in the most recent survey conducted by the Colorado Division of Housing. The statewide averages were a 4.5 percent vacancy rate, and $944 rent. The third-quarter 2013 survey had a limited local sample of 253 responses.
Lumien Apartments has a total budget of about $11 million. A lead contractor has not been selected, but Glade said he is in discussions with Ridgway Valley Enterprises Inc. of Montrose and FCI Constructors Inc. of Durango.
The project is funded in part by the sale of federal tax credits. La Plata Homes Fund Inc. also is providing a loan backed by the Colorado Division of Housing.
Gov. John Hickenlooper is expected to attend the groundbreaking event at 4:30 p.m. Friday during a visit to Durango.
Lumien Apartments will have attractive units and other amenities, Glade said, including elevator service, an exercise center, landscaped outdoor areas and a playground.
“The aesthetics of the property are important to us because we want it to fit in the community,” Glade said.
Affordable housing projects often meet resistance from neighbors, but Glade praised the collaborative process that brought about Lumien.
“It’s been a really positive experience,” he said. “You don’t always find that.”
cslothower@durangoherald.com
