A large group of people, including construction workers and visitors, posing for a photo on a rooftop solar installation site. They are wearing hard hats and safety vests, and solar panels are spread across the roof. The city skyline and cranes are visible in the distance under a bright blue sky.
Sun Valley

Social Enterprise Foundry

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Commercial Leasing
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Nonprofit Space

The Social Enterprise Foundry is a 45,000-square-foot warehouse in Denver’s Sun Valley neighborhood. Three nonprofits work out of the foundry, and all focus on sustainable and environmental services supporting the Denver metro area.

Aerial view of a large industrial building with a white roof, lined with colorful exterior walls transitioning from blue to pink. Solar panels are visible on part of the roof, and several cars are parked along the front. The surrounding area includes streets, trees, and industrial buildings.
  • 45,000
    SQ FT
    Affordable industrial space supporting sustainability-focused nonprofits.
  • 100%
    solar
    The building’s energy needs are fully met by a rooftop solar array.
  • 03
    Nonprofits
    Collaborating under one roof to serve the Denver metro area.
Why It Matters

Affordable Space for Nonprofits

After cannabis became legal in Colorado in 2012, affordable industrial spaces became hard to come by. With the corresponding increase in all real estate prices citywide, warehouses became even harder to afford – especially for nonprofits. As the Sun Valley neighborhood undergoes mixed-income redevelopment following a 2013 City and County of Denver station area plan and a Denver Housing Authority redevelopment plan, ULC is doing its part to secure and maintain affordable industrial space for local sustainability-minded nonprofits at the Social Enterprise Foundry.

In 2023, in partnership with GRID Alternatives and Mile High Youth Corps, Urban Land Conservancy installed a solar array on the foundry roof. The project was fully funded by Denver’s Climate Action, Sustainability, and Resiliency (CASR) office, and the solar array is designed to provide 100% of the building’s electrical consumption.

Explore Leasing Spaces
  • Aerial view of a large industrial building with a white roof, lined with colorful exterior walls transitioning from blue to pink. Solar panels are visible on part of the roof, and several cars are parked along the front. The surrounding area includes streets, trees, and industrial buildings.
Backstory

Supporting Sun Valley

Acquired in the summer of 2014, this property was financed through the Calvert Facility Fund as part of the Ours to Own Initiative where community members can invest as little as $20 to invest in their own neighborhoods through small business creation and real estate preservation and development.

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