Denver Church Poised to Become Affordable Senior Housing

A former church building in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood is poised to turn into housing for seniors.

Brighton-based Hindu nonprofit Mounashram filed initial plans with the City of Denver to convert the 14,000-square-foot Highlands Lutheran Church building at 3955 North Irving Street into 10 income-restricted apartments for seniors, the Denver Post reported.

Mounashram purchased the 70-year-old property in February 2024 for $1.5 million. At the time of purchase, it secured a $1.4 million loan from Bhoomi Ventures LLC, which has the same Brighton address as the nonprofit itself.

Denver’s rental housing crisis stems from a shortage of affordable apartments. The city’s multifamily market had a deficit of at least 13,000 units in 2022, according to the Common Sense Institute Colorado. And some estimates show the crisis has only gotten worse since then, with the National Multifamily Housing Council predicting this year it will take the market a century to catch up at the rate it’s going.

Mounashram submitted a site plan to the city before it can move forward with rezoning the property to convert it from church to residential use.

The former Highlands Lutheran Church building has been vacant since the end of last year. After buying the building, Mounashram leased it to El Siloe Community Church, though redevelopment was the plan from the beginning. Rather than demolishing the building and erecting for-sale duplexes that could fetch millions of dollars, Mounashram is pursuing the income-restricted housing path.

“They’re not as profit-oriented,” Phil Workman, a Denver consultant for developers working with Mounashram on the project, told the newspaper..

Mounashram has been in discussions with local neighborhood association Berkeley Regis United Neighbors, as well as preservation groups and city agencies, about the projects. Residents and other neighborhood stakeholders wanted the church building to stay as-is and don’t want to see it turned into a retail space, Workman said.

Mounashram owns duplexes and other homes in the Denver area already, but the proposed redevelopment of Highlands Lutheran Church is its largest to date.

— Chris Malone Méndez