Sloan’s Lake demonstrates how thoughtful public policy, strategic development, public-private partnerships, and disciplined execution can create long-term housing stability — and what it actually takes to get a project like this across the finish line.
Zocalo Community Development
DPS Educator Housing Program
Housing continuum
Housing
continuum
Address the loss of naturally occurring affordable housing while reducing involuntary displacement in a rapidly appreciating neighborhood. Sloan’s Lake was experiencing accelerating land values and rents — threatening the stability of households and families who had built their lives in the neighborhood.
Create an intentionally integrated community combining permanently affordable rental housing, permanently affordable homeownership, the first Denver Public Schools educator housing program, and market-rate residences — a mixed-income housing continuum designed for long-term stability.
Lead rezoning, negotiate the Development Agreement, coordinate stakeholder engagement, and secure City Council approval. Without a clean entitlement foundation — and the civic and community relationships to support it — none of the capital coordination in Phase Two would have been possible.
Rezoning strategy and execution, Development Agreement negotiation
Community coordination, utilities, elected officials, and city staff
Development Agreement executed; City Council approval secured
Entitlement certainty that enabled the $300M capital coordination to follow
Coordinate approximately $300 million through four financing structures and three ownership entities while managing parcel reconfiguration, sixteen easements, Site Development Plan approvals, building permits, and the financing and implementation of a $19 million structured parking garage.
The structured parking garage generated zero operating revenue. Yet it enabled every residential phase of the project by preserving uninterrupted operations at the adjacent hospital — a non-negotiable precondition for the entire development's viability.
~$300 million across 4 financing structures
3 entities coordinated through a single closing
16 easements across utilities, City Council, and adjacent owners
Site Development Plan, building permits, assessor parcel reconfiguration
Maintained uninterrupted hospital operations through construction and closing
It was preserving the project’s viability through nearly eight years of changing market conditions, evolving public policy, and repeated financial disruptions. Each time the project appeared ready to move forward, the goal line moved farther away.
Rather than compromising the vision, the development team continually restructured financing, rebuilt partnerships, and solved each new challenge while maintaining momentum toward construction.
Two weeks before the Qualified Census Tract designation was set to expire, Lucero Development Services worked with the development team, tax credit counsel, and CHFA to secure a one-year extension — preserving a financing component essential to the project's affordable housing strategy.
The development team secured five extensions of the CHFA bond allocation — an extraordinary accomplishment in affordable housing finance — while navigating changing market conditions at every turn.
Three changes in Low-Income Housing Tax Credit equity investors, alongside declining tax credit pricing, rising interest rates, and repeated lender changes required constant restructuring of the capital stack.
Denver experienced a change in mayoral administration and approximately 90% turnover on the City Council — requiring relationships to be rebuilt and project commitments reaffirmed while financing assumptions continued to evolve.
Lucero Development Services coordinated the restructuring of three Colorado Division of Housing loans, managed the special limited partnership with the Denver Housing Authority, introduced The NHP Foundation, and helped secure a Colorado Proposition 123 Land Banking Grant.
The final closing required approval of seven settlement statements, invoice management, document recording coordination with the title company, and the simultaneous closing of multiple real estate transactions and financing structures.
Rather than compromising the vision, the development team continually restructured financing, rebuilt partnerships, and solved each new challenge while maintaining momentum toward construction.
The project’s community commitments extend well beyond affordable housing. They include dedicated housing for Denver Public Schools educators and families experiencing housing insecurity, supportive services designed to help families build toward self-sufficiency, permanently affordable rental and homeownership opportunities, and dedicated space for community-serving nonprofit services.
These commitments reflect a broader development philosophy: housing can create more than residences. When partnerships, services and long-term affordability are built into a project from the beginning, development can strengthen the surrounding community as well.
15 apartments in Aliyah reserved for DPS educators through a first-of-its-kind educator housing program.
Seven three-bedroom apartments reserved for DPS families experiencing housing insecurity.
Stable housing provides the foundation while DPS coordinates supportive services designed to help families build toward self-sufficiency and, when ready, transition successfully to housing of their own.
Affordable Housing Prioritization principles implemented before they became mandatory in Denver.
Permanently affordable rental, permanently affordable homeownership, educator housing, and market-rate residences on one site.
A dedicated nonprofit space was created through a shared community commitment: rent-free space from the property owner, tenant improvements from Zocalo, and furnishings from Lucero Development Services. The space initially housed Servicios de la Raza and later supported the STAR community response program.
A replicable model demonstrating how public-private partnerships, thoughtful policy, and disciplined execution can create long-term housing stability — not just at closing, but across the decades of community life that follow.
Approximately $300 million in coordinated public and private investment.
Four integrated financing structures closed simultaneously.
Three ownership entities successfully coordinated through closing.
A $19 million structured parking garage enabling every residential phase while maintaining uninterrupted hospital operations.
The first Denver Public Schools Educator Housing Program was integrated into a mixed-income residential development.
Seven family-sized apartments reserved for DPS families experiencing housing insecurity, with DPS providing supportive services to help families achieve housing stability and move toward self-sufficiency.
Voluntary implementation of Denver’s Affordable Housing Prioritization principles before they became mandatory.
A replicable model demonstrating how public-private partnerships, thoughtful policy, and disciplined execution can create long-term housing stability.
