For more than 50 years, the land at Third Avenue and Holly Street in the Crestmoor neighborhood served as a bustling shopping center that drew families to mingle over greeting cards and suck on drugstore sodas.
Since 1991, the empty 1.5-acre parcel has been enclosed by fencing in the genteel residential area from Colorado Boulevard to Monaco Parkway, between Alameda and Sixth Avenues.
Now longtime Denver developer Richard R. Landon wants to bring back the shoppette tradition with some residential thrown in.
Landon expects to start construction in early 1998 on a three-story, 32-unit condominium project with surrounding retail in a project he calls Hillcrest Village in the Hilltop/Crestmoor neighborhoods.
The project will consist of 24 two-bedroom units measuring 1,300 to 1,860 square feet and eight 2,000-square-foot penthouse suites. Prices will start at roughly $185 a square foot, and units will be targeted to people 50 and older who are ready to vacate their single-family homes in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Retail uses could include a coffee shop, bakery, video store, dry cleaner and pharmacy. No leases have been signed.
“Obviously a lot of people at one point in time frequented this little neighborhood shopping,” said Landon, who is known for filling in and redeveloping sites in the city, including the Mayan Theatre and other buildings on its central Denver block. “I saw a need to rebuild it and create some high-quality housing with some retail.”
Landon said he’s getting support from neighbors. While some are concerned about the density of the project, he said, many are happy to get some neighborhood conveniences back and see the housing as attractive for themselves.
“They would be able to stay in the neighborhood,” said Debbie Parsons, a Crestmoor resident who grew up in the area and moved back about 10 years ago. “I think that is a big point with the neighbors–that that’s the market he’s aiming for.”
She added that Landon has been open about his plans.
“He’s come back several times to the neighbors showing them drawings,” she said. “I would have to say he’s done everything he said he would do and has been very responsive to the neighbors.”
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It’s not often new construction takes place in this older, established part of town, Landon said. The condominiums will be built Colonial-style with red brick.