RK Industries' old headquarters at 3800 Xanthia St. sold for
6.78 million and will become 329 apartments. The co-owner says Denver policy pushed him out.
Picture a chunk of heavy industry sitting right in the middle of some of the most expensive single-family homes in metro Denver. Trucks, fabrication, manufacturing. All of it surrounded by high-end houses, two blocks from the Central Park A Line station that runs you straight to downtown or out to DIA.
That was RK Industries at 3800 Xanthia St. for decades. An industrial island in a sea of residential.
Not anymore.
What just happened
The Garrett Companies paid
6.78 million for the site. The warranty deed was recorded in Denver County on September 25, 2026. And the plan is big. Garrett is putting 329 Class A apartments on roughly 10 of the property's 15 acres. RK is holding onto the other 5 or so, which could later get sold to Garrett for a future phase.
Construction is expected to start before the end of 2026. Completion is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2027. So if you live over there, buckle up, because the next couple of years are going to look very different out your window.
Eric Roth and Martin Roth of CBRE represented RK Industries in the deal.
Here is the part that makes this more than just another land sale.
The owner is not thrilled about why he left
RK Industries co-owner Jon Kinning did not frame this as a happy exit. He told BusinessDen (Matt Geiger's reporting, October 21) that the Central Park property would be worth millions less if he had not left, and that he sold most of it last month.
And he put the blame on the city.
Specifically, a 2022 Denver City Council policy that requires new apartment buildings to set aside 10% of their units for lower-income residents. Kinning's words: the city "took away our property rights."
That is a strong statement, and it gets at something real that most people in the neighborhood do not think about. City policy shapes what gets built next to your house. The affordable-housing mandate changes the math on new apartment development, and when the math changes, so does who buys the land and what they do with it. You feel the result at your fence line.
So where did RK go? Aurora.
Aurora rolled out the incentives
RK Industries moved its headquarters to 3301 Lewiston St. in Aurora, into a 154,488-square-foot facility. And this is the kicker. That move was supported by
4.4 million in tax incentives.
Think about that for a second. One city's housing requirement is one owner's reason for leaving. Another city's incentive package is the reason he landed where he did. This is the quiet tug-of-war between Front Range cities that never makes the front page, but it decides where the jobs and the fabrication shops and, eventually, the apartment towers end up.
RK does construction, manufacturing, fabrication and facility services. The kind of operation that needs room and does not exactly blend in with a block of custom homes. Which is exactly why it sat there almost island-like for so long, a holdout from an older version of this neighborhood.
This is Central Park finishing a long transformation
Here is the context people miss. Central Park used to be Stapleton. As in Stapleton International Airport. This whole area was built on industrial and airport bones, and over the last couple of decades it has turned into a largely residential, mixed-use community. The RK site was one of the last big pieces still doing the old job.
And the money has followed. The 80238 ZIP code that covers Central Park is one of the highest average-household-income ZIPs in all of metro Denver. So you had a working industrial headquarters parked in the middle of serious household income, two blocks from rail transit. From a pure development standpoint, that land was always going to get a hard look.
Transit access like that is not a small thing, by the way. Walkable distance to a train that hits both downtown and the airport is the kind of feature that drives both apartment rents and single-family home values in the blocks around it. That is the real reason 329 units pencil here and would not pencil in a lot of other spots.
What it means if you live nearby, or want to
If you own in Central Park, this is a real change to your immediate surroundings. An industrial parcel becoming hundreds of new apartments shifts traffic, density and who your neighbors are. Some folks will love losing the industrial use next door. Some will not love the scale of what replaces it. Both reactions are fair.
If you are shopping in 80238, keep an eye on this corner. New Class A apartment supply two blocks from the station changes the rental picture, and that ripples into what buyers and investors will pay nearby. Timing matters. The units are not done until late 2027.
And honestly, the most interesting thread here is the policy one. A 2022 affordable-housing rule, a frustrated business owner, a
4.4 million incentive deal in Aurora, and 329 apartments rising on an old fabrication yard. That is how a single city vote reshapes what gets built on the other side of your back fence. Most people never connect those dots. Now you can.
Want to know how a shift like this hits your specific block or your home's value? That is exactly the kind of thing Symbio Homes watches for you.
Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying