Solana Olde Town Station Apartments – Garden-Style Colorado Community Meshes History With High Transit

Multifamily Executive

September 19, 2018

With multiple new light-rail stops under construction, the inner-ring Denver suburb of Arvada, Colo., is ripe for new transit-oriented development, especially for the millennials and young professionals in Denver’s workforce.

Solana Olde Town fulfills this opportunity right next to the future side of the Olde Town Arvada station, just five stops away from Denver’s Union station and a quick walk or bike-share ride from Olde Town Arvada itself. This provides the project’s target market with easy access to jobs and entertainment from an amenity-rich community outside the city.

The Solana Olde Town Station Apartments will contain 352 market-rate garden-style apartments when complete, ranging in size from 660 to 1,345 square feet with one to three bedrooms. The unit plans are arranged in wide, shallow configurations that allow natural light to penetrate throughout the unit, and save on square footage in order to keep units affordable. KTGY Architecture + Planning drew architectural and material inspiration for the property from the brick and stone of Olde Town Arvada, combining masonry and stucco with contemporary clean lines and a high-contrast color palette to form a balance between Arvada’s new development and its historic context.

Despite its advantageous location, the 15-acre site presented multiple challenges for KTGY and builder–developer ReyLenn Properties. The land was divided across six parcels owned by many separate on- and off-market sellers, covered in abandoned structures, and environmentally condemned from poor industrial use. ReyLenn partnered with the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority to combine and remediate the land for multifamily development and incorporated a 1.4-acre public park and street-facing landscape into the project’s north end to create a pedestrian-friendly corridor for the community and surrounding neighborhood.

The land also spanned a drastic grade change, with a 30-foot elevation drop from north to south. While this required the construction of a retaining wall across three of Solana Olde Town’s buildings, it also created a “basement” opportunity on the lower side of the site, which now offers walk-outs and garages for select units.

On the higher grade, a two-story clubhouse offers residents a wide variety of amenities, including a 24-hour fitness center with dedicated yoga and spin rooms, a half-court basketball court, a sports simulator, an indoor/outdoor lounge with a bar and fire pits, a saltwater resort-style pool with in-pool cabanas, and an outdoor kitchen with a pizza oven. A dog wash and dog park; electric-car charging stations; and a bike, ski, and snowboard repair station are also available on-site, and six pocket parks are located throughout the property.

Solana Olde Town will meet LEED Silver certification standards once complete, with highly energy-efficient appliances and water-efficient plumbing, on-site recycling, and sunshades in all units and public spaces to help control temperature and curb energy use.