Metro Caring Floats Housing Above Offices in Denver

A Denver-based anti-hunger nonprofit is hoping to build a new $100 million campus with affordable housing.

Metro Caring has proposed building a new structure to house the nonprofit’s offices as well as 139 units of affordable housing at its current City Park West home at 1100 East 18th Avenue, the Denver Business Journal reported. The project is expected to cost more than $100 million.

Last year, Metro Caring received funds from the state’s land banking program known as Proposition 123, approved by voters in 2022 to allocate 0.1 percent of federally taxable income from the state toward affordable housing. Money from Prop 123 largely financed the $3.6 million land purchase for Metro Caring to buy the rest of the block next to the organization’s current building, with the transaction completed in November.

In addition to Prop 123 funding, Metro Caring plans to apply for low-income housing tax credits on the project and is currently looking to raise $23 million in capital.

“Every portion of this funding is critical to making this project a go,” Teva Sienicki, CEO of Metro Caring, told the Business Journal. “The capital stack is a complicated one when you’re doing a project like this.”

The site of the company’s headquarters on the edge of City Park West is zoned for up to eight stories. The proposed new building would be connected on the first and second floors and have three separate towers rising above to create three outdoor terrace areas. The housing portion is expected to include three- and four-bedroom units for families, while other units will be dedicated to senior residentswith accessibility features built in.

The three rooftop spaces will each serve a different purpose. One will be used for social gatherings with barbecues and garden beds, and another will have a dog run and playground. A third would be reserved for relaxation, complete with a water feature and herb gardens. Other amenities on site would include a homework area for children and large common laundry machines to complement in-unit laundry appliances.

Metro Caring largely serves working families with children and those living on disability or Social Security who may be spending up to 90 percent of their income on rent, thus making it difficult to secure food. Housing has emerged as a top need among community members, Sienicki said. When complete, the building will also feature kitchen areas for meal preparation.

“Our mission is both to meet people’s immediate needs for nourishing, culturally connected foods, but also to work on addressing those root causes of hunger,” Sienicki said of the choice to pursue housing. “One thing that we hear consistently in [the] community is that the cost of housing in our community is a leading driver of the fact that it’s difficult for them to put food on the table for their families.”

Metro Caring anticipates breaking ground on the project in 2028.— Chris Malone Méndez