Rocky Mountain Nonprofit Buys 162-Unit Complex for Affordable Housing Project

LEADVILLE, CO-The Denver-based Rocky Mountain Mutual Housing Association is paying $3.9 million for a 162-unit apartment complex in Leadville, a city south of Vail and east of Aspen.

The purchase represents the nonprofit’s first affordable housing project in the mountains, where many seasonal ski slope workers are priced out of the market. Eligibility requires that renters earn 50% to 80% of the median income of the areas where they work. Many workers fall into the $10 to $15 per hour pay scale.

Rocky Mountain Mutual plans to spend $1 million to upgrade the property, including mandated conformity with the American With Disabilities Act. The complex had been built as military housing and later had been used as housing for miners at the nearby Climax Molybdenum Co. mine. Timberline Apartment LLC of Ft. Collins is the seller.