Greccio Housing doesn’t just do business deals.

The nonprofit residential developer and property manager aligns its projects with a mission of providing stable, safe and affordable housing that helps struggling residents achieve stability, according to Executive Director Lee Patke.

The Center for Strategic Ministry, a nonprofit arm of Woodmen Valley Chapel, also is mission-driven in seeking and responding to needs in the community while adhering to Christian principles, says Randy Scott, a board member.

The two organizations believe they have created an ideal partnership that is coming to fruition with Thursday’s grand opening of Sunrise at Shiloh Mesa.

The 50-unit affordable-housing development for seniors 62 and older also will offer extra services to help residents as they age.

The kicker: the new apartments are located on Woodmen Heights, the northeastern campus of Woodmen Valley Chapel.

“Most churches don’t realize that a lot of them have land they’ve acquired over the years and had great ideas for it, but it’s just sitting there not being utilized. What do you do with it? Most churches don’t have the capacity to do something,” said Scott, the Center for Strategic Ministry’s point person on the project.

Here’s what the non-denominational Woodmen Valley Chapel did: The church that serves about 10,000 congregants on five campuses donated 1.1 acres to Greccio to build Sunrise at Shiloh Mesa.

The empty parcel west of the church building was valued at $900,000, Patke said.

“That helped keep the debt service low, so we’re not having to include the cost of the land into the deal, which means we can keep the cost of rent low,” he said.

Over the spectrum of incomes, Patke said demand remains highest for Sunrise at Shiloh Mesa’s intended market — seniors who have the lowest income levels, earning 30% to 50% of area median income.

That means one person with an annual income starting at $15,761 qualifies for the lowest rent payment of $655 a month for a 570-square-foot one-bedroom unit. Two people in a unit can earn up to $45,000 annually and still be eligible for the 50% area median income level of rent.

Residents are continuing to move into Sunrise at Shiloh Mesa over the next few weeks, Patke said.

A public grand opening and ribbon cutting with tours will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at the site, 7727 Mulberry Wood Drive.

Greccio handled land development and construction. Now, the organization will manage the property and offer programs that promote housing stability.

Greccio is familiar with how it all works. The organization owns and/or operates 920 affordable apartment units across 29 properties in El Paso and Teller counties.

This is its second affordable housing project for seniors and fifth development to have been awarded low income housing tax credits through the state.

The Center for Strategic Ministry is bringing to the table a large contingency of church volunteers from the 1,800 members of Woodmen Heights, who will provide residents with welcome bags, ongoing transportation, community activities, including potluck dinners and social events, and other supportive services.

“We want to love on our congregation, but we want to love on our community more,” Scott said.

The $17 million project has been six years in the making, Patke said.

Design and construction have followed the philosophy that just because people are low income doesn’t mean they don’t deserve dignity, Scott said. “You walk into this building, and everybody’s like, ‘Really? This is affordable housing?’”

The exterior matches the surrounding master-planned Shiloh Mesa neighborhood with an angled roofline of stepped levels to three and four stories to prevent residents from seeing into nearby homes and vice versa, Patke said.

Inside, there’s a community room, an activity room and fitness area, a library, a rooftop terrace on the fourth floor, where rooftops, a mountain view and seating await, a ground-level garden with patio seating and deliberate socialization spaces.

That the building is new is a perk to the affordable cost, said Sandi Smith, who moved in earlier this month.

“In the past, I had no financial cushion,” she said Monday. “This place has given me structure, routine, people around me and a chance to heal. A place where I can exhale and rebuild instead of just survive.”

With interior public areas touting pleasing subdued colors, abstract art, comfortable rocking chairs with a mountain view and cushiony sofas, Smith said she feels safe and at peace.

The 67-year-old, who is part Cherokee and embraces Native American spirituality and culture, moved back to Colorado Springs from living in New Mexico for the past two years to be closer to her three children and two grandchildren, who helped her relocate.

“I call it home already,” Smith said, smiling.

Sunrise at Shiloh Mesa is the second marriage of affordable housing and church land in Colorado Springs.

The 75-member Solid Rock Christian Center, a non-denominational, multicultural church in southeast Colorado Springs, formed Solid Rock Community Development Corp. and in 2024 opened The Village at Solid Rock on what had been an empty field next to the church building.

Scott said such an undertaking requires knowledgeable leaders to navigate myriad hoops involving financing, permitting and working with crews to ensure the do-good idea becomes a community benefit.

“Churches can have better utilization of their land with collaboration with someone who knows what they’re doing,” Scott said. “These things are never easy to put together. Churches are churches, and they’re kind of bureaucratic. It takes a lot of conversations to get to a reality.”

A failed proposal that Gov. Jared Polis championed in 2025, called “Yes In God’s Backyard,” would have made building affordable housing on faith-based and educational land smoother.

This year, state lawmakers passed a broader measure.

Signed into law in March, the new law enables faith-based houses of worship, public schools, colleges, nonprofits, transit agencies and housing authorities to bypass local zoning regulations to ease the permitting process.