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A $25 million condominium project is planned for 2200 S. University Boulevard, right across from the main entrance to campus. The Rocky Mountain Conference of the United Methodist Church is relocating its headquarters and has sold its property to investors, Dan McCoy and Allen Anderson. The new complex will be called Observatory Place. The 45,000- square-foot site appealed to the two investors for it’s proximity to DU, downtown, and the future RTD Light Rail stop.”The most unique thing about it is the location,” said McCoy. “It’s as close to school as you can get, and it’s rare to find a parcel that big right adjacent to school that is available.””The trustees of our conference are the group that has been looking for alternatives to this building for a couple years,” said Dan O’Neil, the treasurer and director of the church conference support services. The building in which the headquarters is currently housed is 50 years old, not air conditioned and is not handicap accessible. “We find that unacceptable,” he said. “We are buying a new building,” said O’Neill. The new building is located in the Tech Center, in Greenwood Plaza near Orchard and I-25. “It is our intention to remodel it and move in there right about the end of this year,” he said. “It’s a very solid financial move.”Meanwhile, McCoy and Anderson are hoping to begin construction, on the condominiums in March 2006.”It will be a 14-to-15- month construction time period,” said McCoy. The current estimated opening date for the five-story building is mid summer of 2007.The new condominiums are already on sale and McCoy and Anderson have already secured 23 reservations out of the 75 available units. The cost of the units starts at $285,000.”We had our first reception on campus, and we’ve been taking reservations for about two weeks,” said McCoy. “The response has been terrific.” Though anyone can purchase a unit in the future complex, McCoy and Anderson feel their largest group of potential costumers lies in DU faculty, alumni, graduate or law students.”We’re focused a little bit more on people who want to be owner occupants of the building,” McCoy said. Since undergraduate students mainly rent apartments or live on campus, McCoy feels they will represent a minimal number of buyers, but he does not discount the possibility. “If you’re a sophomore and you know you’re going to go to business school here and you’re from out of state, your parents can help you out,” he said.He also believes it will benefit married couples who work downtown and go to school since the light rail will soon be available a few blocks from the condominium location.”If one spouse is going to school here and the other one works downtown, it’s a great place to be,” said McCoy.The United Methodist Church on the corner of Wesley Avenue and University Boulevard will remain.The regional office supervises 260 United Methodists churches in Colorado,Wyoming and Utah

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