More housing coming to southeast Colorado Springs

A new 84-unit complex is expected to open in April in southeast Colorado Springs.

The

is located at 1975 Chelton Road. They’re being assembled in an adjacent lot at the corner of Chelton Road and South Murray Boulevard.

is the developer and builder of the cottages.

will manage the complex.

“We felt this was a unique product for the market,” said Bryan Kniep, the vice president of planning and community development for Goodwin Knight. “Nobody else in Colorado Springs or El Paso County is doing this type of product around that we’re aware of.”

The land the cottages are being built on used to be vacant. According to Kniep, there are four different housing styles: studio; one bedroom, one bathroom; two bedroom, one bathroom; and two bedroom, two bathrooms. The prices range from $850 to about $1,200.

“We try to look at it as ‘attainable market rate’ housing,” Kniep said. “If you go for true quote-unquote ‘affordability’ or affordable product, there’s HUD financing requirements. There’s other government intervention that gets in the way, and we felt we could do this right and do this well and create a quality product that can be an entry-level product for a lot of families.”

The units are essentially duplexes -- each one shares one wall with another unit. At last check, Kniep said there were 168 people on the waiting list for the 84 units.

“In this area in general, there’s a pretty big housing crunch,” he said. “From a rental standpoint, the same holds true. It’s still a constrained market. During the downturn, everybody stopped building, and that didn’t mean the community stopped growing. People didn’t evaporate.”

This is the first of five cottage developments going up around Colorado Springs. Kniep said cottages were also being built at Torin Point and Fountain Boulevard, North Cascade Avenue near Winters Drive, North Carefree near Academy Boulevard and near the Nazarene Bible College.

“We’ve had quite a bit of interest on people just calling up and saying, ‘Hey, I really want to be in a product like that.’ It’s unique. It’s different, and it’s better than an apartment to some people, so I think it’s got a lot of opportunity for that,” Kniep said.

All the units in the Cottages at Sand Creek will be single story. The complex also has a small clubhouse, workout room, playground and patio with a fire pit.

Kniep said he imagines the complex will house a wide variety of people, including single residents, small families and retirees.

“With this type of community where it’s all single level, you have limited steps getting up to your front door,” he said. “You could have parking right in front of your unit essentially. It allows us to create a little bit more of an interesting community I think than you get out of an apartment community.”

Kniep said he expects people to start moving in at the beginning of April.