This City Park West Home Sat Vacant for Decades. Then, a Local Designer Flipped It for Nearly Double Its Purchase Price.

Driving through Denver can sometimes feel like you’re cruising through the early scenes of the Disney animated movie Up. Quaint, historic homes are encircled by clangorous construction zones making way for the newest contemporary row homes and apartment complexes. But Jordan Bagus, founder and creative director of Larapin design studio, is here to fight for the Carl Fredricksens of the world.

A Denver native, Bagus lived in New York City and worked under two of the most influential architects in hospitality design—Jeffrey Beers of Jeffrey Beers International and Jun Aizaki of Creme Design—before heading back to her hometown in 2014 and starting her firm soon after. “When I moved back to Denver, there were so many great changes happening in the city,” Bagus says. “But I couldn’t help but notice how quickly the old neighborhoods were being redeveloped.” Through her business’ preservation-based real estate model (read: she purchases older residential properties, restores them, and resells them), she devotes her design skills to saving character-filled homes from demolition and reconstruction.

We caught up with Bagus to chat about her company’s guiding principles and one of her recent preservation success stories: a once-dilapidated City Park West home that she purchased for $350,000, fixed up, and sold for $690,000.

Editor’s note: The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

5280: What exactly is preservation-based real estate development?
Jordan Bagus: Preservation-based real estate development means that the work stems from the goal to preserve—it’s the driver in our decision-making process. Real estate development is inevitable; it’s important and necessary for growth. The problem is that so often the driver behind the real estate development is purely profit, which almost always produces structures that are poorly made and completely disassociated from the local surroundings. That’s not to say that Larapin doesn’t need to make a profit, it does—it’s a business. But the difference is that our business model prioritizes preservation first, with budget considerations following that. Our process is guided by the following questions: Will this preserve the architecture of the home? Will it respect the existing fabric of the community? Will it contribute to Denver in a positive way and help preserve its history? It’s a combination of common sense, creativity, and respect.

What’s your design philosophy?
First and foremost: Consider the context. I like to really tune in and let the house tell me what it needs versus coming in with a preconceived design agenda. Understanding the neighborhood, the architecture, the history, and even how the light comes in are all very important. My goal is for the home to feel soulful and intentional, always.

Flipping homes requires a lot of up-front costs for materials, labor, etc. How are your projects funded?
Like a lot of other startups or new businesses, I have raised the money by pitching to private investors. Prior to jumping into our first project, I spent a good year or so thinking through how to pitch the idea and raise the money. My background in design and architecture and experience in renovation really helped as I was approaching investors with a lot of the skills and credentials already in place.

How did you find this home in City Park West?
As a licensed realtor, I am constantly watching the market, and I’m particularly tuned in to older neighborhoods. When this house came on the market, I was intrigued. It had the magic. However, I had a project going at the time and was not in a position to take on another property. The house went under contract twice, falling out both times, and when it came back on the market a third time, I was ready to go. I made an offer, and we went under contract. The home was in a state of disrepair and without heat, water, or electricity. Most of the windows were broken, the walls were peeling from deferred maintenance on the roof, and huge areas of bricks were missing from the exterior. It needed the works.

This house sat vacant for more than 30 years. What magic did you see in it? 
I tend to be drawn to the most challenging properties, and this was one of them. Most of the homes that we consider are advertised as “scrapes.” It’s really important to me to use my experience to add real value. I don’t believe in buying properties only to make cosmetic updates (carpet, tile, kitchen refresh) and turn around and sell it for a profit. Those types of homes are better suited for buyers with some DIY skills or with the desire to take on a renovation. I’m looking at homes that require more than that—extreme cases where I can come in with my team and really add value. We are essentially taking old homes apart and putting them back together again.

What were the biggest challenges of this project?
Balancing the preservation with budget. It’s almost always cheaper to gut something than it is to restore, so we have to get very clear from the beginning about the elements in the home that we want to preserve, as that has the biggest impact on budget. We never want to skimp or cut corners, so a ton of effort goes into determining priority items to invest in.

The other challenge on this particular home was pulling light through the space. As with a lot of homes in Denver’s older neighborhoods, the adjacent properties were just a few feet away. When I first toured the home, I needed a flashlight to see most of it. By reworking the layout and strategically shaping the space to take advantage of natural light, we were able to pull light all the way through, reaching even the innermost corners.

And finally, storage! That is always a challenge in these older homes, which often have the most beautifully proportioned rooms to begin with. When you start trying to box in a bunch of closets, all of a sudden that beauty is lost. So, we were very strategic about where we placed additional storage, making sure it felt totally natural to the architecture.

What pieces of the home did you preserve and what did you replace?
One of the biggest restoration projects was the windows. All of the existing windows were completely restored, including the two stained glass windows at the front of the home. Other preserved items include the tiled fireplace, wood floors, plaster walls, moulding throughout, existing interior doors, exterior brick, and exterior woodwork. Everything (fixtures, finishes, cabinetry, hardware, etc.) in the kitchen and bathroom area is new. We also replaced the front and back doors and the lighting fixtures throughout.

What’s your favorite space in the renovated home?
The kitchen. I wanted it to feel open but also like its own space, so we framed out a wall that connected it to the dining and living areas and softened the opening with corbels. We went with a diagonal checkerboard pattern on the floor, which feels both joyful and timeless. The cabinets were a challenge—I can’t tell you how many cabinet layouts I did for this kitchen. The kitchen was petite, and we didn’t have much wall space to work with. So again, we were presented with the challenge of meeting the plentiful storage needs of a modern-day kitchen, while maintaining an open and natural feel. In the end, I think we got it, and we even managed to tuck a little seating area into the sunny east-facing corner where the morning light comes in.

How do you know when you’ve nailed a home restoration?
One of the most meaningful outcomes from our development projects has been the overwhelming amount of support from the local communities where we have had projects. The neighbors, many of whom we get to know and develop a close relationship with, almost always express how grateful they are that we’re not scraping the home. These are often people who have lived in the community for many years, some of them growing up there. That has been hands down the most rewarding outcome of my work.