Local duo begin work on long-planned building at former Berkeley restaurant site

Ilan Salzberg and John Cianci are going vertical on their corner lot at the intersection of two Denver neighborhoods The developer duo through their firm SC P LLC started construction in January on an apartment building on their half-acre lot at W th Ave where the West Highland neighborhood blends into Berkeley It comes after over six years of changing plans and partners on the project A lot of projects they re hitting the hard pause button right now Cianci disclosed And we re trying not to do that Cianci and specific other partners purchased the site at the intersection of Irving Street and th Avenue formerly home to a Thai restaurant in September for million Salzberg joined the project a meager years later after other partners exited The two expect to complete the building by the summer of The three-story structure will have market-rate apartments up top and square feet of retail space down below It will be made of steel brick and concrete While more expensive up front the structure will be more durable than the traditional wood frame projects common around town The final cost Well into the eight digits Salzberg explained The pair both years old are self-performing developers meaning they act as the general contractor on their projects Cianci hails from a construction family and holds master s degrees in environmental and civil engineering Salzberg a Denver native has a law degree from the University of Denver The two have built dozens of projects around town since the early s from single-family homes to ground-up industrial rise Salzberg estimates that they have completed about a half-dozen projects that cost over million and a bunch more between million and million Our operating expenses are less over time which allows us to be more competitive on rents Salzberg reported The project at th and Irving has evolved over the years When Cianci bought the property a hotel was planned But that idea was killed by the pandemic He returned to the drawing board and came up with the current proposal spending the past limited years working through the city s permitting process and securing financing Last year he completed horizontal work on site putting in utilities and infrastructure for the building We decided it s a nice time to go vertical now There s a lot of things delivering in Denver but there s going to be a gap in a year a year and a half from now where there s nothing being delivered Nobody s really champing at the bit to start So it s kind of a nice time to build Cianci reported The corner lot is not the only evolution site keeping the pair busy Cianci and Salzberg are working through the city approval process on an apartment project at th Avenue and Xavier Street near Sloan s Lake Plans are also in the works for a residential evolution at th Avenue and Wolff Street as of now a single-family home on a -acre lot but that requires the property to be rezoned first Related Articles Hotel residential buildings and concert venue planned around Ball Arena in Denver New Colorado junk fees law signed by Polis will prohibit common apartment charges require transparency Suburban Denver city the latest flashpoint in Colorado s housing affordability saga feels squeezed by density pressures Resident who suffered severe burns in arson sues Ivy Spanning Apartments for liability negligence Colorado lawmakers introduce bill to expand protections for undocumented immigrants That process is no walk in the park We tried to rezone th and Wolff to open space to do an upscale club pool We had people champing at the bit to buy membership but the immediate neighbors flipped out and commented We want affordable housing here Salzberg mentioned Affordable housing is its own challenge because you have to pre-commit to certain things and there s no funding So it s a chicken-and-egg cycle he added So now the developers are back at the drawing board They hope to do housing at the site but the form it will come in townhomes or apartments is still being ironed out Get more real estate and business news by signing up for our weekly newsletter On the Block