Balfour Senior Living’s new $74-million senior living community in downtown Denver broke ground on April 24. The 281,000-sq-ft, five-story, 203-unit project will include a mix of 112 independent apartments, 65 assisted-living apartments and 26 memory-care units. The project also includes renovation of the 2,500-sq-ft historic Moffat Train Depot, which will be used as a great room.

Located in the Riverfront Park neighborhood, the facility will be downtown Denver’s first upscale senior-living facility. It will have all the amenities of a high-end hotel, including upscale suites, fine dining areas, a rooftop garden with panoramic mountain views, below-grade parking, a salon, banquet-performance hall, business center and a high-end spa with an indoor swimming pool and exercise facilities. A European-style plaza enhances the facility’s sophisticated atmosphere.

Denver’s JE Dunn Construction and klipp, a division of gkkworks, are teaming on the project, which is slated for completion in July 2014.

“Balfour at Riverfront Park is situated on a tight, urban site in the highly-active Central Platte Valley neighborhood,” said Erik Petersen, division director for JE Dunn. “Our downtown team brings the technical expertise in deep excavation shoring, as well as residential project experience, that is required to deliver this complex, one-of-a-kind project for the residents of the Central Platte Valley.”

More than 100 people attended the groundbreaking, including Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper; Paul Washington, executive director of Denver’s Office of Economic Development; and Michael Schonbrun, founder and CEO of Balfour Senior Living.