Maikers Housing Partners, a Westminster-based developer of affordable housing, plans to construct a five-story apartment building on the former site of the Boyer’s Coffee plant in southwest Adams County.
A fire on March 31, 2020, destroyed Boyer’s manufacturing plant and most of a nearly century-old brick schoolhouse at 7295 Washington St. that had been converted into a coffeehouse and community gathering space.
Luna Gourmet Coffee & Tea Co., which acquired Boyer’s Coffee in 2016, shifted roasting and bagging operations to a new facility in Denver and tore down the burnt-out plant while leaving remnants of the schoolhouse, which now serves as a backdrop to a coffee truck, standing.
Brothers Douglass and Jason Barrow, who own Luna, wanted to see the land put to good use and if possible maintain a retail presence at the location, which was a popular draw in the Welby neighborhood. They approached Maikers Housing Partners about a land sale.
“We saw the potential for a mixed-use development that could fuse the commercial and light industrial aspects of the neighborhood with the residential history of the area as well. Families that farmed that area for generations still live there,” said Steve Kunshier, vice president of real estate development with Maikers.
Adams County used federal pandemic recovery funds to purchase the land for $2.25 million, which in turn allowed Maikers Housing Partners to step forward as the developer.
Justin Blaire, building safety manager with Adams County, said Maikers has applied to rezone the parcel from industrial to planned unit development, which would allow for a mix of commercial and residential uses. No building permit has been filed.
Maikers has held a meeting to get community feedback and there was strong support for including a coffeehouse and providing a public meeting space, both of which are being incorporated into the building’s design, Kunshier said.
The goal is to complete the zoning change by this summer then line up financing with a construction start in the summer of 2026. Construction would take about 18 months at a minimum, meaning under the best-case scenario residents won’t be able to move in until 2028.
But there are a lot of unknowns, including whether belt-tightening by the federal government will reduce the affordable housing tax credits that developers like Maikers sell to raise financing. Those credits and other outside support, such as grants, allow rents to be affordable to those earning between 30% to 70% of the area median income.
About three-quarters of the 117 apartments planned will be one-bedroom, with the remainder two-bedroom. At a 50% area median income, the rent on a one-bedroom would run at $1,223 a month with utilities, while a renter earning 70% of the area median income would pay $1,712, Kunshier said.
“We are seeing some uncertainty on the grant funding side and waiting for more guidance on the future availability of grants,” he said.
Tariffs and mass deportations are other concerns for upcoming construction projects. Although Maikers has a buy-American policy, construction materials that come out of Canada could face a 25% tariff, which could add to project costs currently estimated at $40 million to $41 million.
In a nod to the original schoolhouse, which isn’t salvageable, the building’s design has brick on large parts of its facade and it preserves a dedication marker from 1927 to the school district’s superintendent at the time. And it will be part of a larger development plan that Adams County has for the North Washington area.
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