Fort Collins has finalized the sale of 5 acres on Kechter Road for its first for-sale, permanently affordable housing development.
Sale of the land, part of the city’s land bank program, has been in the works for more than two years and will create 54 permanently affordable townhomes at 3620 Kechter Road in south Fort Collins.
The development partnership includes Indiana-based TWG, Elevation Community Land Trust (ECLT) from Denver and Housing Catalyst from Fort Collins. TWG will build the townhomes and sell them to ECLT, which will retain ownership of the land but sell the homes to qualified households.
The city bought the land in 2002 for $566,735 and had been holding onto it for future development of affordable housing. It sold it to TWG for $25,000. “The city basically donated the land,” said Sue Beck-Ferkiss, who manages the Land Bank Program for the city.
“The location of this property between two schools and two parks makes it ideal for this townhome community. Generations of families will benefit from the housing built there,” Beck-Ferkiss said.
Between escalating land prices and the realities of Fort Collins’ fixed growth management area, this program ensures land will be available in the future to increase the stock of affordable housing, she said in a press release.
Since the city created the land bank in 2001, it has bought five parcels at fair market value and held onto them for at least five years as property values skyrocketed. In 2016,…
