Boulder leaders push forward 30Pearl plans

BOULDER — Boulder leaders gave their blessing Tuesday to a plan that advances the city’s 30Pearl project, a Boulder Housing Partners-led affordable-housing redevelopment effort on the former Pollard Friendly Motors Auto Sales site at the corner of 30th and Pearl streets.

“BHP will provide 120 units of permanently affordable rental housing mixed with market rate housing, below market commercial space, and public benefits such as public art and a park,” according to city documents.

The Boulder City Council passed a motion on its consent agenda Tuesday that allows the city to move forward with conveying the 5.4-acre site to BHP to allow the organization to begin development.

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BHP, with funding from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, plans to construct a three-building community at 2360 30th St. with 120 permanently affordable apartments for locals who earn between 30 and 60 percent of the area’s median income. These homes, which will include 20 independent-living units for people with disabilities, will be located among other market-rate homes that will be built in the Boulder Junction neighborhood.

“The transit-oriented neighborhood includes a mix of ownership and rental housing affordable to households with a wide range of incomes and commercial space for smaller locally owned businesses and nonprofits,” according to a city memo on the project.

BHP stepped into the developer role at 30Pearl in 2018 following the departure of Zocalo, a Denver-based development firm that previously partnered with the city.

The measure approved by the council Tuesday also authorizes the sale of the southwest quadrant of the 30Pearl property to developer Morgan Creek Ventures LLC. When the $5.5 million deal closes, Morgan Creek intends to build “76 market rate residential units with ground floor commercial,” according to city documents. “Half of the ground floor commercial space will be leased at below market rate rents.”

The city-owned land is expected to be conveyed to Morgan Creek and BHP by November so development can begin before the end of 2019. The project is expected to be complete by 2021.