2150 East 49th Avenue

The Viña Senior Residences are rising in Elyria Swansea, offering 152 apartments for older adults earning between 30 and 60 percent of the area median income.

The six story building will include a senior center, a raised garden deck, and ground floor services meant to support aging residents in a neighborhood that has long carried the weight of industry and change.

Across the street, a massive data center is being built at 4900 Race Street.

One of Denver’s most polluted and underserved neighborhoods will soon hold hundreds of thousands of square feet of server space using more power than the airport. The contrast is striking, a project built for technology beside one built for people.

On paper, Viña Senior looks like progress. Affordable housing with community space and access to care, but history lingers.

The same developer opened the Viña Apartments nearby in 2022. A year later, tenants there formed a union after reporting maintenance issues, surprise fees, and rent hikes of more than ten percent. Residents filed a lawsuit claiming management retaliated against those organizing for better conditions.

That history makes people watch closely now. Will Viña Senior live up to its promise, or repeat the same struggles behind a new façade?

The project arrives as Elyria Swansea faces another round of investment and disruption. The data center next door will bring high energy use, heavy water demand, and the kind of growth that can raise costs across the grid.

Together, the new senior building and the digital campus mark two versions of progress standing side by side.

One hopes to shelter people who have endured decades of industrial neglect. The other powers a global tech network that few nearby will ever access.

The real measure of success will be whether Elyria Swansea’s residents finally see the benefit of what is being built around them.