Today’s News + Insights from Kentro Group

The Colorado Housing and Finance Authority has awarded tens of millions of dollars in housing tax credits to nine projects planned to build a total of 840 affordable rental units in the state, seven of which are in the Denver-metro area. The developments will be awarded a reservation of federal and state housing tax credits, according to CHFA. Five of the developments were also awarded a Transit-Oriented Communities (TOC) credit.

A 194-unit apartment complex that rose in 1972 in Denver has changed hands for the first time since just after the properties were built. An LLC tied to Kentro Group Real Estate purchased the Korsakov Apartments at 1625 and 1675 South Birch St. on Sept. 30 from the Littleton-based LLC that had owned the property since at least 1975, according to public records. Kentro Group spent $33.3 million buying the apartments, which are located close to Colorado Boulevard and Interstate 25. According to marketing materials for the sale, the residences are 92% occupied with an average unit size of 867 square feet. The purchase price represents a $198 per-square-foot price. The acquisition was financed using a $22 million Fannie Mac loan with a $7.5 million second mortgage from the city and county of Denver, according to public records. Should the developer be interested, the property is eligible for Low-Income Housing Tax Credits provided the Denver Housing Authority is involved, according to marketing materials. The Kentro Group did not reply to a request for comment about its plans for the property. It has partnered with nonprofit providers in the past, including on a new proposal for workforce housing off Colfax Avenue. The Kentro Group also recently canceled plans to build a 12-story tower in Denver’s Belcaro area. It has plans for a 170-unit mixed-use project in the Platt Park neighborhood. The Platt Park project would include a Trader Joe’s location. The Kentro Group typically anchors projects around grocery offerings. Dan Woodward, David Potarf, Matt Barnett, Jake Young and George Hanlon of Walker & Dunlop brokered the sale in partnership with Henry Group Real Estate.

A developer has proposed building a six-story affordable apartment complex on Colfax Avenue east of downtown, the latest proposal for a lot that’s seen more than a few ideas over the past decade. After 10 years and seven different concept plans, developers recently submitted plans to the city for a transit-oriented affordable housing complex targeting health care employees. If approved, Williams Workforce will offer 111 studio, “micro-apartments” and 1-bedroom units, the plans show.

Trader Joe’s wants to open a store in Denver’s Platt Park neighborhood that will look different from its others in the region. The grocery chain has applied for a retail liquor license for a planned store at the northwest corner of Pearl Street and Louisiana Avenue, according to a notice posted at the site. The site at 567 E Louisiana Ave is home to a shuttered 7-eleven. But Trader Joes, does not plan to occupy that building – or a standalone structure at all, as its other Denver stores are.

After receiving pushback from nearby homeowners, the local firm slated to buy a retail site along Colorado Boulevard says it won’t seek to have the site rezoned. Denver-based Kentro Group, led by the Balafas brothers, says it hasn’t fully determined what it will do with the 7-acre site at 825 S. Colorado Blvd. but will work within the existing three-story zoning.

A long-running, high-profile legal battle over a 100-year, $10-per-year lease signed in 1991 ended at the close of April 2025 when the Supreme Court declined to hear a case encompassing the Mall of America and Transform Holdco, an investment group led by former Sears CEO Eddie Lampert.

Denver has a new King Soopers under construction, set to replace an existing one along Colorado Boulevard in Belcaro. The grocery chain, a division of Cincinnati, Ohio-based Kroger, and Denver-based development firm Kentro Group held a groundbreaking ceremony Friday to mark construction on the new store at 4201 E. Arkansas Ave.

A preliminary development review meeting on the future of the Belcaro King Soopers Shopping Center on South Colorado Boulevard in Denver drew a crowd of 150 neighbors on Thursday night — many of them irate about prospects for what could be a highly vertical project with buildings towering to 12 stories and maybe more. The neighbors from the low-density, single-family neighborhood to the west of the supermarket expressed worries about bringing in housing density and tall buildings to what they described as an area with a suburban — not urban — character. Some of their points echo the congestion worries regarding the rezoning of the west side of the Cherry Creek Shopping Center for a 13-acre mixed use community known as Cherry Creek West. That project has already received the green light of the Denver City Council. Meanwhile, the potential developer told the attendees that the site offers an “opportunity,” perhaps even a broader vision, while city representatives described that the meeting as just the first step of a long process.

Succeeding in Colorado’s restaurant scene is like a giant Mexican or Chinese restaurant menu with multiple columns of delicious choices. And whenever and wherever these combined options are available, they can lead to a fantastic, savory and sweet business journey.

The Ofpers Partners sold the Parkway Center in Breckenridge, home to the City Market grocery store, on April 25 for $49 million. The Kroger Co., the parent company of City Market, partnered with the Denver-based Kentro Group to buy the center. They plan to renovate the grocery store and honor the current leases for the businesses in the center.

If we were sitting with an astrologer, trying to learn more about the future of retail, we might see that a new moon is rising in our favor. Fortunately, we have the benefit of solid, contemporary data that speaks more clearly: Retail real estate is having a moment.

Though it might feel like a century has passed, the Federal Reserve’s rate hike policies began only in March 2022. As you read this article, the Fed just raised rates for an 11th time, lifting benchmark borrowing costs to their highest level in more than 22 years. Officials gave little indication of the course they might take at their next meeting in September. The effects on CRE transactions are clear. The cost of capital and uncertainty around property valuations have become giant hurdles.

After buying a one-story office building in Capitol Hill in December, a development firm wants to tear it down and build affordable housing units. Denver-based Kentro Group purchased 1001 N. Lincoln St. from Gart Properties in December for $4.5 million.

What used to be old, dilapidated buildings housing the Colorado Department of Transportation in Virginia Village will now host a park, a supermarket and affordable housing.
Kentro Group and Lexton McDermott broke ground on the old CDOT headquarters a few blocks north of I-25 and Colorado on Wednesday to make way for a housing project that’s been in the works since 2018.

The City of Denver celebrated the groundbreaking of a new affordable housing project on Wednesday.
The Kentro Group and Lexton McDermott broke ground on the Krisana Apartments located on the former Colorado Department of Transportation headquarters site in Denver’s Virginia Village neighborhood. The complex features 151 units of affordable housing.