Brickstone Partners pays $43.1M for Boulder apartments, plans revamp

BOULDER — Denver-based development firm Brickstone Partners closed recently on the $43.1 million purchase of the Cavalier Apartments in Boulder, with plans for extensive renovations of the property.

Brickstone Partners officials declined comment on Tuesday. But an application filed with the city for a “non-conforming use review” show that the renovations would include converting 84 one-bedroom, one-bathroom units to two-bedroom units and converting 12 two-bedroom, one-bathroom units to three-bedroom, two-bathroom units.

Brickstone, led by Dan Otis, is part of the development team that is building a 300,000-square-foot campus for Google at the southwest corner of 30th and Pearl streets in central Boulder.

The company, under the entity 2900 Boulder LLC, bought the Cavalier property at 2898 and 2900 E. Arapahoe Ave. from Centennial-based Kinnickinnic Realty Co. The two-building complex was built in the 1960s and 1970s and includes 220 units in all. All of the units are slated for new interior finishes and appliances as part of the renovation plan.

The non-conforming use review with the city is required for the site because it already doesn’t conform with current zoning. The area where Cavalier lies is zoned RH-5, which is intended for high-density residential. But Cavalier already includes 220 units on a 4.64-acre piece of land on which current zoning would allow only 126 units.

The non-conforming use review is discretionary and can be approved at the planning staff level, after which planning board would have a two-week window to call up the project for public hearing. City planner Sloane Walbert, who is working on the case, said that, in general, approval of such reviews requires that developers in some way reduce the degree of nonconformity or improve the appearance of the site.

Brickstone’s plan wouldn’t decrease the number of units. But it would increase the amount of open space — another determining factor of conformity. It would also upgrade some landscaping, remove a driveway along Aurora Avenue and convert existing maintenance buildings to long-term bike storage. The existing leasing office, meanwhile, would be converted to a clubhouse with an office/work space and small workout area.

Brickstone’s original plans also called for increasing the total number of parking spots from 253 to 262. But Walbert said planning staff, in comments to Brickstone, has requested that added parking be passed over in favor of additional open space.

Once Brickstone reponds to city staff’s comments and makes the desired tweaks to its design, staff would have three weeks to review the project for approval.

The Cavalier Apartments cater largely to students, given the complex’s proximity to the University of Colorado. Since the project isn’t adding any floor area or dwelling units, only bedrooms, the project would not increase the maximum occupancy of the apartment complex allowed by the city, which is limited on a per-unit basis. But it would add a few bedrooms in a city where student housing is at a premium.

“It seems like an appropriate place to do that since it’s mostly students,” Walbert said.

The Cavalier Apartments include a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units ranging in size from 360 to 1,120 square feet. Rents, according to the complex’s website, currently range from $1,020 for the studios to $1,575 for the largest two-bedroom units.

Thirty-six of the one-bedroom units being reconfigured to two-bedroom units are 780 square feet, while the other 48 are 610-square-foot units. All 12 of the two-bedroom units being reconfigured are the largest, 1,120-square-foot units.

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