Susan Powers is President of Urban Ventures, LLC, a Denver real estate development company that has built multiple mixed income and mixed-use projects in Denver over the past 27 years. The focus is to build communities which provide opportunities for residents and commercial tenants to live and work in a healthy and prosperous environment. Urban Ventures has led the redevelopment of a 17-acre former convent in northwest Denver into a model mixed income neighborhood called Aria Denver that includes 540 residential units (35% affordable) and commercial space. She also led STEAM on the Platte, an adaptive reuse of a former industrial property on the Platte River, south of Empower Field. It includes the renovation of a 100-year-old warehouse into office space for creative businesses and another building that was renovated for the city’s first Latino owned and operated craft brewery, Raices Brewing. Urban Ventures has been the development partner/advisor for Warren Village in the development of their new Campus on West Alameda which includes 89 residential units for single parent families and an Early Learning Center to serve 120 kids. This consulting role for affordable housing has also been an important part of the Colorado Health Foundation’s Tapestry Block in Uptown where the first phase building to serve lower income families is under construction. Urban Ventures is playing a similar role on the Clayton Early Learning Campus and at the Barth Hotel in downtown Denver. Prior to creating Urban Ventures, she was Executive Director of DURA (Denver Urban Renewal Authority) for 11 years (late 80’s and 90’s) and participated in the redevelopment of downtown Denver. She is a member of the board of directors of the Elevation Community Land Trust (ECLT), the ULI Advisory Committee, Advisory Board for Enterprise Communities, a member of the Denver Health Real Estate Advisory Committee and Chair of the Advisory Board for the MSU Affordable Housing Institute. She participates in many community initiatives regarding equity, affordable housing and historic preservation.