The Landscape: Rich Laden's real estate blog

Few apartments are being constructed these days in Colorado Springs, but a Denver group has proposed a 230-unit project on 13.3 acres southwest of Union Boulevard and Woodmen Road on the city’s north side. SW Woodmen LLC is asking the City Planning Commission to sign off on a conditional use permit for the project. The complex would consist of one, two and three-bedroom apartments; future amenities would include a playground and picnic area. Some nearby residents, including members of the Cottonwood Creek Townhomes, have expressed concerns about drainage from the project, the height of one of the buildings, noise and traffic, among other issues. In 2001, another apartment complex was proposed for the site, but  never developed. Three years later, a neighborhood shopping center with a grocery store was proposed, but also didn’t get off the drawing board. The City Planning Commission will consider the project when it meets at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 17, at the Pikes Peak Regional Development Center, 2880 International Center in central Colorado Springs. Here’s a link to the commission’s Dec. 17 agenda: http://www.springsgov.com/Agendas.aspx?AMID=353

The Colorado Springs area has passed another unfortunate milestone on foreclosures. In early November, with nearly two months left in the year, El Paso County registered its 4,603rd foreclosure filing — breaking the record of 4,602 filings in 2008 and setting a third consecutive annual record. On Friday, Dec. 4, the county recorded its 5,000th foreclosure filing — a mark that a few years ago “would have been unimaginable,” El Paso County Public Trustee Tom Mowle said in a statement. Foreclosure filings are the first step in a legal process that can lead to the loss of a home, although roughly 40 percent of filings are resolved before that happens. Meanwhile, as part of Gov. Bill Ritter’s “Feed Colorado” initiative, Mowle said his office will collect non-perishable food items to assist people in need. ”Let’s try to reduce the number of people making a choice between food and housing by contributing non-perishable items,” Mowle said. The Public Trustee’s food drive starts Monday, Dec. 7, and runs through Wednesday, Dec. 16; items can be dropped off  at 105 E.  Vermijo Ave., Suite 101, in downtown Colorado Springs from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. The Pikes Peak Community Action Agency is partnering with the Trustee’s Office on the effort; donated food items will be taken to the PPCAA’s Billie Spielman Center at 1616 W. Bijou St. More Springs. More information: Call the Trustee’s Office at 520-6780 or go to the PPCAA Web site at www.ppcaa.org/family_stabilization1.html.

On the same day he was indicted by a grand jury on charges he misled investors in business deals, Colorado Springs developer Ray Marshall (right) also lost several high-profile properties that had fallen into  foreclosure months earlier. Marshall was involved in partnerships that owed $18.9 million on four undeveloped parcels, totaling 76 acres, along retail hotbed Powers Boulevard, on the Springs’ east side. At a Nov. 25 foreclosure sale held by the El Paso County Public Trustee, the parcels were taken back by their previous owners – local business people who had sold the properties to Marshall, according to Trustee’s Office records. Under that arrangement, the previous owners acted as the lender and financed the purchase by Marshall and his partners. The properties had gone into foreclosure in July. Also on Nov. 25, a 4th Judicial District grand jury indicted Marshall, who is chairman of LandCo Equity Partners, and LandCoPresident James Brodie on charges they stole thousands of dollars from investors. A 33-count indictment alleged violations of the Colorado Organized Crime Act, securities fraud and theft, which are all felonies. The indictments followed a six-month investigation by the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office into the developers’  business dealings. A Marshall attorney denied the charges. LandCo had developed a downtown office building that will become the new headquarters for the Colorado Springs-based U.S. Olympic Committee. 

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The Colorado Springs Planning Commission signed off last month on an amended concept plan and rezoning for 50 acres southwest of Powers Boulevard and Woodmen Road and owned by Nor’wood Development Group of Colorado Springs. The 50-acre site is just east of the Powers Auto Park. And, at one time, furniture czar Jake Jabs considered Nor’wood’s property for an American Furniture Warehouse store. Does the amended concept plan and rezoning mean something is planned for the property? Not at the moment, said Fred Veitch, a Nor’wood vice president. Given the slowdown in the economy, Nor’wood is merely positioning the property for better times, he said. “We always want to try and stay ahead of the power curve in terms of our planning efforts,” Veitch said. For years, Nor’wood has been the Springs’ biggest and most active real estate developer; the company developed the First & Main Town Center farther south on Powers, as well as several other prominent projects along Powers, in downtown and on the city’s far north side.

For the first 11 months of 2009, the number of single-family building permits in Colorado Springs and El Paso County totaled 1,017, down from 1,180 during the same period last year. But the dollar value of those same residential permits year-to-date in 2009 totaled $346.4 million, compared with $244.4 million during the same time in 2008. Why do fewer building permits issued in 2009 carry a greater dollar value than those issued in 2008? Henry Yankowski, who heads the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, said the increased value of permits in 2009 results from the department’s decision to switch to a construction trade group’s standardized method  for determining building costs per square foot. In the past, residential home builders estimated their construction costs; in April 2008, the Regional Building Department adopted a building cost method used by the International Code Council, Yankowski said. The ICC methodology already was used by the Regional Building Department for commercial construction, he said.

Foreclosure filings in El Paso County, which includes Colorado Springs, already broke last year’s record of 4,602 and are on their way to exceeding 5,000, Public Trustee Tom Mowle has said. However, a Colorado Division of Housing report Thursday at least shows that El Paso County is doing OK when it comes to comparison to other counties. Third-quarter foreclosure filings in El Paso County were up 64 percent when compared with the same period last year. But in Douglas County, filings more than doubled, while Denver and Arapahoe counties increased 67 percent and 76 percent, respectively, in the third quarter. Foreclosure filings are the start of the state’s foreclosure process; property owners who receive a foreclosure notice have a few months to try and resolve the problem. Foreclosure sales in El Paso County — properties that went through the foreclosure process and there were sold by the Public Trustee at auction — rose 3 percent in the third quarter over the same period a year earlier. Foreclosure sales in Boulder County rose 4 percent and were up 5 percent in Weld County. Foreclosure sales tripled in Mesa County, where Grand Junction’s economy has fallen on hard times.  Here’s a Housing Division table on foreclosure filings and sales: