Condo project near CSU sets land-use trend

FORT COLLINS – A Denver real estate developer is poised to launch a “trailblazer” project on the southwestern edge of Colorado State University’s campus, one that could spur a broader urban redevelopment of a declining neighborhood.

Jeffrey Evans, owner of Observatory Park Realty in Denver, is in the midst of marketing loft-style apartments in the Observatory Park Condominiums, a four-story, 58-unit project on West Prospect Road.

The proposed project is about 400 feet from the CSU campus, on a 1.67-acre assemblage of three lots where three decaying ranch homes, built in the 1950s and 1960s, will be scraped away to make room…