Colorado Real Estate Journal -
Susan Powers may be the only major developer in Denver who attended Woodstock. “I can’t tell you the answer to that one. If there are any other real estate developers who were there, they probably wouldn’t admit to it, anyway,” said Powers, principal of Urban Ventures LLC, which she created with four partners in 1998, after leaving her post as executive director of the Denver Urban Renewal Authority, which she held for 11 years. Combining her public and private developments in Colorado, Powers has spearheaded close to $1.5 billion in projects in Denver. Powers, who has become a player in an industry that has tended to be male dominated to the extent that at times it has been described as a “good-old-boys’ club,” retains the spirit that drew her to Woodstock in 1969, where she pitched a tent near the Grateful Dead’s stage and saw a host of other rock icons, including Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix and her favorite, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. “I’m a child who came of age in the ’60s and the ’70s,” Powers said. “I kind of came into my professional life with an attitude assuming women could do anything they want. I did enter a more male-dominated industry, but fortunately I worked with some great men who did not go through life thinking women had a less important role than they did.” There were exceptions, however. Powers recalled one incident when an older, out-of-state developer was scheduled to meet with then Mayor Wellington Webb and other people to discuss a major development in downtown Denver. At the last minute, Webb had to cancel. Instead of meeting with the mayor, the developer met with Powers; Stephanie Foote, Webb’s chief of staff; Cathy Reynolds, then the president of Denver City Council; and Jennifer Moulton, who was the city’s planning director. The developer was not pleased to be dealing with a roomful of women, saying he would only discuss his huge proposed project with the mayor. “This is the A team,” Reynolds told him, Powers recalled with a chuckle. “The sisterhood is very powerful,” Powers said. One person who never harbored that kind of sexism is her longtime friend Bill Mosher. “You know, she and I went to grad school together (at the University of Arizona), but we have a rule that we never talk about that, so you can’t include that in the article,” Mosher quipped. In the mid-1980s, Mosher, who was working in Tucson, Ariz., was interviewed for the job of executive director at DURA. “I accepted the DURA job, then I ‘untook’ it,” Mosher said, fearing that the funding for DURA would be pulled. “The No. 2 person for the job also declined it,” Mosher said, and the search committee asked him if he had any suggestions. “I suggested they look at Sue,” who at the time was running the Englewood Urban Renewal Authority, Mosher said. “The rest is history.” Powers had not considered applying for the job because she had her hands full with a baby and a toddler at home. But she was interviewed for the job by Denver lawyer John Moye, who at the time was the chairman of DURA, and was so impressed by him that she accepted the post. At DURA, Powers was involved in more than $1 billion in public-private partnership deals, including the saving of the historic Denver Dry Goods building; turning surface parking lots along the 16th Street Mall into the Denver Pavilions; and combining the vacated May D&F department store building with a former Radisson Hotel, rebranding it as an Adam’s Mark hotel, which is now a Sheraton. She also was involved with about $250 million in urban renewal projects in Englewood and has developed about $130 million in projects at Urban Ventures. At Urban Ventures, her completed projects include: • The 56-unit Highland Terrace Lofts and the 29-unit Bridge Lofts in Highland, which include the hip retail tenants Masterpiece Delicatessen and Living the Sweet Life Bakery. • The 69-unit Mills Loft, a mixed-use loft development that resulted from a partnership with East West Partners and Continuum Partners to create affordable housing for the Riverfront Park community. • The 166-unit Fire Clay Lofts development north of Coors Field, which was completed in 2009 and served as the catalyst for revitalization of the Upper Larimer/RiNo neighborhood. She also is currently working on the Aria Denver development, a 17.5-acre site at Federal Boulevard and West 52nd Avenue, just east of Regis University, which is being turned into a sustainable, mixed-use community. Urban Ventures teamed up with Chuck Perry of Perry Rose LLC on that development, which had been a convent for the Sisters of St. Francis for about 75 years. Aria will even include a co-housing community. Powers, who grew up in a place called Germantown in Philadelphia, an area that included mansions and affordable housing developments, loves Aria so much that she said perhaps a niche she should pursue is redeveloping convents all across the U.S. Although Aria is the first deal that Perry and Powers have done together, the two have known each other for about 25 years. When they first met, Perry was with the Denver planning department, but was so impressed with his dealings with Powers that he left the city to work for her as her assistant director at DURA. At that time, the “R” in DURA could have stood for “raze” instead of “redevelopment” as the role of urban renewal authorities in Denver and across the country had been seen as that of taking over blocks of blighted downtowns and tearing down old buildings that were considered obsolete, no matter their historic importance, Perry explained. “I think Susan is a real leader,” Perry said. “She led DURA into a new era.” Prior to Powers, DURA was often at odds with the city, but Powers ushered in a new era of working first with Mayor Federico Peña and then Webb, he said. She joined DURA at a time when department stores were fleeing downtown, never to return, Perry said. Also, she emphasized the importance of returning historic buildings such as the Denver Dry to their former glory, but in a way in which they were also economically feasible, he said. Perry noted that Powers also is committed to affordable housing and has heightened her sensitivity to helping people who are financially struggling by volunteering for a number of groups. Powers is on the board of the Denver Health and Hospital Authority, Downtown Denver Inc. and Denver Bike Share, and she is an executive member of the University of Colorado Real Estate Center. “And for years, Sue was involved with the Women’s Bean Project,” a nonprofit dedicated to help women break the cycle of unemployment and poverty, Perry said. “She still sends us something from the Women’s Bean Project every Christmas.” Mosher, who took the job as the head of the Downtown Denver Partnership soon after Powers joined DURA, ended up working hand-in-glove with his old friend. “Sue is one of those rare people who can assess and respond to the private sector and to the public sector,” Mosher said. “She understands the motivations of both sides and can balance them,” he said. “She has a very strong ethic and she values the public agenda, and understands the importance of accountability and transparency. At the same time, she bridges the gap with the private sector,” which she knows needs to make a profit. “Sue has shown that you can have one eye on the public sector and another eye on the private side and there can still be a return on investments for both,” Mosher said. Powers left DURA because she had gotten a number of very difficult projects off the ground, such as Pavilions and the Denver Dry, and wanted to try something new. “It was pretty rough,” she said. “I remember Denver Dry had 23 different lenders and 17 layers of lead-based paint.” Powers said she has retained the same values that she had as a teenager listening to CSNY and other rock legends at Woodstock. “I want to not just build buildings, but build communities, like we are doing at Aria,” she said. And she still loves rock ‘n’ roll. “I go to concerts at Red Rocks whenever I can. The way to stay young is to listen to rock ‘n’ roll. It keeps your spirit alive and young.”