By Rich Laden, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Sep. 26--Medalion West, a 12-story retirement center on downtown Colorado Springs' eastern edge that's home to 106 senior citizens, is being closed and sold by operator Centura Health and will be turned into apartments or condominiums.
The deal is a testament to the increasing demand for downtown housing.
But it also caught Medalion West residents off guard, said Karen Hoskins, vice president of senior services for Centura Health. The closing is planned for Jan. 31.
The Englewood-based Centura says it's committed to relocating residents and will work with them and their families during the next few months.
If space is available, some residents might move to Medalion East, a Centura-owned retirement home at Union Boulevard and Bijou Street in the Springs. Other alternatives are Centura facilities in Denver or Pueblo, as well as other non-Centura centers in the Springs or elsewhere.
Medalion West, near the southeast corner of Wahsatch Avenue and Kiowa Street, is being purchased by Belvedere Enterprises LLC, a company formed solely to acquire and remodel the property.
David Crane, Centura's executive vice president, said the closing of Medalion West was a financial decision. The 39-year-old building needs major upgrades and Centura lacks the capital to invest. The building has no central air conditioning system and needs improvements to its windows, elevators, kitchen, apartments and roof.
'I'm sure on the eve of this decision, they (residents) may disagree,' Crane said. 'But it's just not a facility that we think we can be proud of on a going-forward basis.'
Centura Health operates nine other senior-living facilitates along the Front Range, none of which is affected by the Medalion West decision. Money from the sale of the building will be pumped back into other Centura senior centers, Crane said.
Of the 106 residents, about three-fourths live independently and the rest receive assistance. The building is 87 percent occupied.
Les Gruen, a longtime downtown booster and owner of Urban Strategies, a local real estate consulting and development firm, is managing partner of Belvedere Enterprises.
Belvedere has contracted to buy the building for an undisclosed price, he said. He declined to reveal the date when the deal is scheduled to be completed, but said the goal is to market the property by the end of 2002.
What type of housing it will contain is unknown. Gruen said Belvedere hasn't decided whether the building will be converted to condominiums or apartments.
The next several months will be spent conceiving designs and plans for the 93,000-square-foot building, Gruen said.
Despite an economic slowdown, Gruen said Belvedere is 'firmly committed' to the project. Downtown backers long have identified the need for area housing, and Belvedere thinks the market will be there. The building is less than a 10-minute walk from downtown.
'People are looking for ways they can enhance their quality of life and getting out of their car, to be able to walk where they want to go, is a tremendous asset, and certainly will favor this building as downtown housing,' Gruen said.
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(c) 2001, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
