Property Tour: The Rose on Colfax
Join AHIC for a tour of The Rose on Colfax, Mercy Housing Mountain Plain
s’ 82-unit LIHTC family community in Denver’s East Colfax neighborhood.
The development combines affordable family housing, a co-located early childhood education center, resident services, and neighborhood reinvestment on a prominent urban corridor.
Built on the site of a former strip club acquired by the City of Denver and later conveyed to Mercy Housing, The Rose on Colfax offers a practical case study in the kind of complex, partnership-driven affordable housing development increasingly required in high-cost urban markets.
For LIHTC equity investors and syndicators, the tour provides a firsthand look at how housing, childcare, resident services, public-sector participation, philanthropy, and nonprofit sponsorship can come together in a single transaction — and what those elements mean for underwriting, asset management, community impact, and long-term performance.
Why It’s Worth the Stop
Layered capital stack
The project brought together multiple sources of financing, including 4% federal LIHTCs, state tax credits, private activity bonds, city-supported land, and philanthropic support for the early childhood education center build-out.
Public-private site assembly
The City of Denver acquired the former strip club site for $1.3 million and conveyed it to Mercy Housing for $10, reflecting the type of public-sector participation often needed to make affordable housing feasible on constrained urban corridors.
Co-located childcare and housing
The property includes an early childhood education center serving infants through preschoolers, reducing transportation burdens for families and creating daily connections among residents, children, educators, and service providers.
Community-informed programming
Radian supported an inclusive outreach process to understand neighborhood childcare needs before the center’s program was finalized. Engagement included interviews, demographic analysis, an early childhood education needs assessment, a public town hall, a focus group, and multilingual community surveys.
Resident-centered design and services
The development combines family-sized affordable units with resident services for the broader property, plus additional supports connected to the early childhood education center.
A visible example of corridor reinvestment
The Rose on Colfax demonstrates how LIHTC developments can help transform underutilized or challenging sites into long-term community assets while addressing housing, childcare, and neighborhood needs at the same time.
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