In a complicated real estate transaction that will ensure the corner of Montview Boulevard and Quebec Street near South Park Hill stays campus-like, the Urban Land Conservancy finalized its purchase of the former Johnson & Wales University campus.

The 13 buildings on the 25-acre campus will have three different owners: the non-profit conservancy, Denver Public Schools and the Denver Housing Authority. The Johnson & Wales school closed the campus in 2020, along with others across the county. The campus once housed the Colorado Women’s College and the University of Denver law school.

“As the only nonprofit organization to submit a proposal, ULC is most grateful to have been selected. It shows a true commitment on JWU’s part to preserving the campus and ensuring it continues to benefit the community for many years to come,” said Aaron Miripol, president and CEO, in a release. “We operated on a very rapid timetable to make this happen, and I appreciate how CBRE and JWU worked with us through that.”

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DPS will expand its Denver School of Arts on the “west campus.”

“When I heard that the [Johnson & Wales] University would be selling the property right across the street, I began thinking about how DSA might expand to the campus to serve more students,” said Dr. Anthony McWright, Principal of Denver School of the Arts, in a statement.

The expansion will allow the school to add 500-700 additional students over time, “focusing on equity and inclusion of low-income students and students of color.”

DPS finalized the deal for $30 million in May, after the board approved it, BusinessDen reported.

The housing authority purchased the south-side campus buildings, former dormitories, with plans to create affordable senior housing.

CBRE’s Nina Farrell, Karlen Beitman, Martin Roth and Eric Roth represented Johnson & Wales.

The whole deal was sealed for more than $61 million, confirmed ULC’s VP of Master Site Development Erin Clark.

“The speed at which this deal was put together and all the parties involved is definitely a deal the ULC was built for,” Clark said in a phone interview. “We do deals that have not been done before, or can’t be done to affordable housing specifications. We exist to do deals like this, which meet our mission for the last 18 years.”

That mission is to “intervene in the metro-area real estate market on behalf of low-income, disadvantaged communities currently put at risk for displacement from gentrification by commercial redevelopment.”

The sales price was likely below what a market rate would have brought, but Johnson & Wales wanted a buyer that would be “committed to implementing the property’s highest and best use and providing a benefit to the surrounding community.”

ULC has inked a deal for St. Elizabeth’s School to move into iconic Centennial Hall this summer. The school has educated northeast Denver students for 15 years.

The Kitchen Network, Denver’s longest-running shared kitchen which incubates specialty food businesses, will expand to the Culinary Arts Building and Vail Hall.

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Archway Communities has plans to buy four residential buildings on the east end of the campus. It “elevates lives by providing affordable housing, food security, and the supportive social services people need to thrive.”

ULC reports: “The campus sits at the intersection of two very different communities: South Park Hill, with an average income of $141,851 and 6.06% families in poverty, and East Colfax, with an average household income of $57,413 and 23.6% families in poverty.”

“As a Denver native who spent part of my childhood around the corner from this campus and who watched my mother graduate from DU Law School there, I am immensely proud to have been involved in preserving this longstanding community asset,” Clark said. “This was always a public place and part of the neighborhood that’s important to Park Hill and the city of Denver.”