Zocalo Community Development is both the developer and the general contractor of RiverClay. Zocalo’s mission is to build high-quality yet affordably-priced for-sale dwelling units in centrally-located Denver neighborhoods. Our goal is to make ownership available to those who often have been “priced out” of downtown living. RiverClay’s neighboring development, Zocalo Condos, www.zocalocondos.com, was completed and occupied in September, 2006. It is located just one block from RiverClay.
Zocalo Community Development is composed of the following principals:
David Zucker, Managing Member: David Zucker arrived in Denver in 1990. The first condo project on which he worked was the Lofts over the Wynkoop Brewery in which he lived until 1995. Since the Wynkoop, David has been involved in historic conversions like the Downtown Denver and Downtown San Diego Courtyards by Marriott which were reliant upon the Historic Investment Tax Credit. More recently, at Silver State Lofts in the Ballpark neighborhood, David was one of the first developers to work through, develop and sell deed-restricted, for-sale units, a program that has become codified in the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance.
David received his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1990. He is a board member of both The Mile High Housing Fund and DenverWorks. He sits on the University of Denver's Burns Real Estate Research Council where he is co-chair of the school’s Affordable Housing Conference. He has an appointment to the Mayor's Task Force on Affordable Housing. David received the Affordable Housing Leader of the Year Award for 2006 from the Denver chapter of the Enterprise Foundation.
Chris Achenbach: Chris Achenbach is a licensed architect and a licensed general contractor. Chris practices architect-led “design-build” process which maximizes value in a project by combining good design with cost-effective construction solutions. Such an approach is applicable to affordable housing in which the success of a project is judged both by the financial return and the quality of life for the residents.
Chris has received the following awards and commendations: University of Colorado Research Competition - Awarded 1st place for the design of "An Affordable Alternative Materials House," and; the Steve Dach Memorial Award - Honorable Mention for the design of "An Affordable Masonry Home" Competition sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Masonry Institute.
More recently, Chris was an architect and project manager for: Watertower Lofts, a project which involved the conversion of an historic warehouse into 94 loft units in the Prospect neighborhood of Downtown, and the twenty-unit Jewell Townhomes, an affordably-priced townhome project located along Light Rail in the Virginia Village neighborhood in southeast Denver. Chris received a degree from the University of Vermont, and a Master's of Architecture degree at the University of Colorado.
Sarah Harman : Sarah is a REALTOR and Employing Broker with Powerhousing® Real Estate, www.powerhousing.com. Sarah founded Powerhousing as an empowerment-oriented residential real estate practice focused on education, empowerment and advocacy for moderate-income clients in Metro Denver. Ms. Harman has extensive experience representing developers of affordable housing (Zocalo Condominiums, Syracuse Village and Roslyn Court) and has proven expertise in selling affordable deed-restricted properties under Denver’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance (IHO).
A graduate of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Denver program, Sarah currently serves as President of the Board of Directors of Hope Communities, a not-for-profit provider and developer of service-enriched housing for low-income individuals and families and is a board member of the Federal Boulevard Corridor Improvement Partnership. Sarah holds an MFA from the University of Colorado.
John Gagnon: John is a registered Architect with over twenty years of architectural experience in all areas of architecture, including commercial, residential, multifamily, governmental and institutional projects including extensive experience in design/build project delivery. John is responsible for technically-advanced designs, including the design and construction coordination of the tensile fabric roof structure, lighting, pre-cast, glass and steel curtain-wall systems for the Denver International Airport facility.
For the past three years, John has been the Principal Architect for Samuel Engineering, Inc., a diverse multidiscipline Architectural and Engineering firm based in The Denver Tech Center. John’s recent career has been focused on building of a high performance architectural staff and the development of an active commercial division focusing on multifamily and commercial oriented projects.