Changes on south side of avenue’s 1300 block

Three older houses that had fallen into disrepair were recently demolished on the south side of the 1300 block of West Colorado Avenue. On the 15,000 square feet of land where they once stood, a Victorian-styled structure will be built, according to David Brinker, president of Peak Professional Contractors, which owns the property as DNA Investments LLC. Three houses, recently demolished because they had reportedly fallen into disrepair, are shown as they appeared when the Old Colorado City Historical Society and the Organization of Westside Neighbors shared the cost of photographing about 3,600 houses in the older Westside in 2005. LEFT: 1317 W. Colorado Ave. MIDDLE: 1321 W. Colorado Ave. RIGHT: 1323 W. Colorado Ave. A new Victorian-styled building is eventually planned to take their place on the 15,000-square-foot space that's currently vacant. Courtesy of Dave Hughes        “The houses were just sitting there, decrepit,” Brinker said in an interview. He had looked at renovating them, “but you can't get a bank loan when buildings are almost condemned.”        The new building will have 4,800 square feet of commercial space plus four apartments. However, he said, it will be “at least a year” until any work starts. In the meantime the vacant land, totalling 15,000 square feet, will be seeded for grass.        Brinker's company just finished remodeling 1327 W. Colorado Ave., a Victorian just west of the demolished homes. His wife's business, Breathe Aromatherapy & Wellness Spa, is at that address. The rear of the house, 1329 W. Colorado Ave., was remodeled and given an addition to create a two-bedroom residence, Brinker said. Between the fence of 1315 and the renovated 1327, all is vacant land for now in the 1300 block of West Colorado Avenue. Westside Pioneer photo        Brinker said he became interested in the 1300 block because of other upgrades to older homes in that vicinity. “This is a nice stretch,” he said, adding the thought that in terms of real estate interest, “there is a movement toward the center of town.”        The removed houses had the addresses of 1317, 1321 and 1323 W. Colorado Ave. (with the latter two combined on one lot as a house and cottage). They had been built in 1899, 1923 and 1899, respectively.        The 2009 book, “Historic Westside Design Guide-lines,” has an enclosed document with spreadsheet information by the Organization of Westside Neighbors (OWN) for each of 3,600 properties in a geographically specified older Westside area north of Highway 24. Although 1317, 1321 and 1323 were not known as prominent historic homes, the OWN document had identified them as Victorians in style, ranking the 1321 house as “contributing” to the area's historical heritage and the 1317 and 1323 houses as “somewhat contributing.” Westside Pioneer article