The Estes Park Housing Authority held an open house for Fall River Village on Friday afternoon. EPHA acquired the property for workforce housing for $35 million in October 2024 from Fall River Village LLC, an entity connected to hotelier John Cullen. The property was acquired by the LLC in 2022.
Built as vacation lodging in 2008 by developer Paul Pewterbaugh, Fall River Village has 89 total units that will be leased for workforce housing. To qualify, residents have to meet the criteria of working 30 hours or more per week on an annual basis within the Estes Park School District R-3 boundaries and have an annual income of about 70% of the Area Median Income.
Residents began moving in after the New Year, and according to EPHA executive director Scott Moulton, around 20 units in the complex are already occupied.
“Hired housing needs are pretty significant, so being able to add these 89 workforce restricted units, particularly at the rates that we’re able to provide, is critically important to our workforce,” said Moulton, explaining that the hope is to retain workforce members in the community. “I think they’re vitally important, and the pace in which we’re leasing them is indicative of that.”
The property offers 1, 2, 3, and 4-bedroom units with different monthly rates as indicated on the EPHA website. As indicated by Moulton, these spaces will have 12-month leases, but there is potential for some variation.
“This will probably be our first foray into some seasonal housing, where I’m holding the door open to six-month leases, but maybe even five-month leases as well, depending on what our seasonal workforce needs,” said Moulton.
Funding for the property includes 6E money collected by Visit Estes Park as a bed tax from tourists, about $7 million Proposition 123 money from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, and funding from the Town of Estes Park’s workforce housing fund from fees paid by short-term rental owners.
In order to make the complex financially viable, the EPHA will also need to sell between 14 to 16 of the larger units.
“At some point, we’ll not be able to renew leases from those, but it’s not going to all happen at one time,” said Moulton. “We anticipate there’ll be some natural movements. Some people who are leasing with us now only need a year. So, if that’s the case, they only lease with us a year. Those are probably the first units that we begin to sell.”
Another building that the EPHA acquired with the Fall River Valley purchase is the SkyView event center, a three-story, 6,500-square-foot building previously used for wedding venues. JiThe housing authority plans to move its offices into SkyView as they’ve outgrown their existing rental space in the U.S. Bank Building.
During the open house, a ribbon-cutting ceremony occurred to commemorate the new workforce housing. Moulton, EPHA chairperson Eric Blackhurst, Mayor Gary Hall, Larimer County Commissioner Jody Shadduck-McNalley, and EPHA board member Jim Jameson were on hand.
Blackhurst, Mayor Gary Hall, John Cullen, and Moulton gave short speeches after the ribbon cutting.
“Fall River Village will be here to serve the community’s housing needs for decades to come,” said Blackhurst.
“It really was a rare opportunity. We probably don’t have many more of these around town,” said Hall. “We’re going to have to build, build, and continue to build, so I was happy to see this come through.”
Tim Nicholson, a resident of another workforce housing property and an EPHA employee, detailed the challenges he experienced prior to moving into workforce housing.
“I wasn’t able to find anything at all because I have a pet, so I’d been looking for a long time, and it’s just there was just nothing out there,” said Nicholson.
The EPHA’s 2023 Housing Strategic Plan and Needs Assessment by Root Policy Research estimated that the Estes Valley requires an additional 1,220 dwellings to meet existing demand and an additional 1,500 dwellings by 2030 due to the retiring workforce and anticipated job growth.
You must be logged in to post a comment.