Frisco has been awarded a $5 million grant from the Colorado state government to help the town build affordable housing at 101 W. Main St.

The property is currently owned by the NHP Foundation, a national nonprofit focused on preserving affordable housing. Last year, Frisco teamed up with the NHP Foundation to work to redevelop two properties, including the West Main Street property where 1970s-era offices now stand.

The NHP Foundation has proposed a minimum of 45 deed-restricted, affordable rental units at the 101 W. Main St. property. 

“We’re committed to solving this (housing) problem as best we can,” Frisco Mayor Hunter Mortensen said. “And this is a huge step in it. To get that grant award was really huge for us and really the community as a whole.”

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced in a news release late last month that Frisco is one of 16 entities earmarked to receive a combined $25,340,000 from the first batch of Proposition 123 Land Banking Funds.

Established by Proposition 123, which Colorado voters passed in November 2022, the land banking program provides grants to local and tribal governments to help acquire and preserve land for affordable, for-sale and rental housing development, the release states. The program also provides forgivable loans to nonprofits with a dedicated history of providing affordable housing.

“We need more housing now,” Polis said in the news release. “And these funds will support a critical first step to create those housing opportunities for Coloradans around the states.”

Land availability is considered one of the most significant barriers to affordable housing development and the 16 recipients of the funds are expected to create an estimated 1,380 housing units across the state, the release states.

Frisco and other recipients of the awards must complete statutory requirements in coming years, including achieving proper zoning, finalizing development plans and securing development funding and permits to gain access to the funds, according to the governor’s office.

The NHP Foundation has submitted an application with a proposal to rezone the West Main Street site from mixed-use zoning to a planned unit development, according to Frisco’s newsletter recap of the Jan. 23 town council meeting.

The rezoning would encourage flexibility in the development and provide relief from certain standards of the underlying zoning district, the newsletter states. The 45 deed-restricted, affordable rental units would reportedly serve households up to 80% of the area median income, while allowing minor deviations up to 100% of the area median income.

The NHP Foundation recently entered the Colorado affordable and workforce housing market with three deals in mountain resort communities, the New York-based nonprofit announced in a statement last month.

The NHP Foundation’s Colorado projects include the affordable housing project at 101 W. Main St., a workforce housing project on Galena Street in Frisco and a workforce housing project in Granby.

Colorado’s mountain resort region is notoriously short on housing inventory, particularly workforce housing affordable to the employees who make up the local labor pool, according to the NHP Foundation. 

The other project the NHP Foundation is involved with in Frisco is located at 602 Galena St., where up to 54-units of workforce housing are planned.

“We’re still trying and by no means have we solved this (housing) problem,” Mortensen said, “but we’re doing everything we can to keep chipping away at it.”