In conjunction with New Town Builders, Forest City is hoping to catch up on its original affordable housing promises. “Certainly, the market has dictated what we could do in the past,” says Forest City president Phil Dargossi. “We have been meaning to do some things for a long time, but we really couldn’t. You know, because of the market.”
Dargossi believes that Stapleton residents are also to blame. “We know that Stapleton people don’t want affordable housing-type people living near them,” said Dargossi. “They may say they are fine with it, but we know. And hey, we are trying to sell million dollar homes in this community, and then we are going to put affordable homeowners near them? That’s just not going to happen.” Dargossi points to the number of affordable rentals in the community when he discusses how much Forest City has done to reach their original affordability goals. “Hey, we shot a few apartment complexes up,” said Dargossi. “It’s an easy way for us to reach our goals, plus the apartment buildings are an obvious red flag to our residents of where the affordable housing is at.”
Dargossi says that Forest City has a new plan which will take positive steps in accomplishing the original affordable housing promises. “We have an agreement with New Town Builders where we are basically going to build an affordable housing community,” said Dargossi. “We may even give them their own school, albeit, an affordable one. Probably a good way to keep affordable housing kids out of the other schools, right?” Forest City states that they plan to have 120 units built north of I-70 (link 120 units built north of I-70 to: ). It is unclear when that project will begin. “We are so busy selling non-affordable lots, which make more money for us,” said Dargossi. “So when things slow down, we promise to get right on that whole affordable housing thing.”
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