The blighted, long-abandoned D Street Apartments on First St and D St in Salida’s downtown are finally gone (see the above photo for proof). After demolition commenced on Monday, August 21, JKS Industries spent most of last week transporting truckload upon truckload of waste—roughly 1,000 cubic yards worth—to the Chaffee County Landfill.
Now that the City of Salida has a sparkly-clean empty lot on its hands, the natural question is: how are they going to fill it up?
The city has put together plans to partner with Artspace, a Minnesota-based, trans-national property development organization whose mission is to “create, foster, and preserve affordable and sustainable space for artists and arts organizations.”
According to a press release from Salida’s interim city administrator, Christy Doon, Artspace, “completed a needs analysis for the City in 2022, [and] also brings with them some funding for the project via a variety of private foundation sources and public programs.”
Now to correct a rumor that only artists will be allowed to live in the new building. This is untrue. Even though art is right there in the name — and within the potential tenant organizations — the completed dwellings will be available to all members of the Salida community and workforce who meet the income requirements—not just artists and other creative professionals.
“To be sure,” said the release from Doon’s office, “a restaurant server, teacher, peace officer, health care worker, small business owner, etc. will be as comfortable in the development as a sculptor, painter, or musician—and often they may be one and the same.”
The city of Salida has already taken in $600,000 worth of grant money for the pre-development aspects of this project, which includes the now-complete demolition and the designing of new buildings. Salida has also received, by way of Colorado’s Affordable Housing Development Incentives Grant Program, $500,000 for the construction of a new facility.
Per current projections from the city and Artspace, the new building is likely to have 19 total available units. The community will have opportunities to provide feedback and input on the designs this fall, and also as the project develops into 2024. Move-in is currently projected to be possible sometime in 2025.
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