Lower Downtown District, Inc.

LDDI's New President of the Board

Apr 12, 2000

The Two Sides of Jim Roberts
LDDI Personal Profile by Laurie Rachkus Uttich
Like everyone, perhaps, there are two sides to Jim Roberts. One is the button-down, private, straightforward general counsel of Colorado Housing Finance Authority (CHFA). Along the shelves in his office are rows and rows and rows of thick black books that hold thousands of pages
of tax laws. He speaks politely and somewhat formally and you have no problem imagining him leading a board meeting or signing contracts over power lunches-and when he says he's been with the company since 1974, it doesn't surprise you.
But there is another side of Jim, one who recently read "the third Harry Potter book" and liked it. It's the same guy who travels so much he can't list a favorite place-I've made several trips to Asia and I sound Vietnam to be the most exotic"-and walks and bikes and putters in
his yard. He's the Jim that shows you a framed photo of his dogs ("People who are not dog people don't get why anyone would be, but I am?…in all of the embarrassing definitions of the term") and calls them only half-joking his "kids"
These two sides of Jim may be most apparent in how he did-and now does-view Lower Downtown. "When CHFA bought this building over ten years ago," Him says of the 18th and Blake St. location, "there were broken bottles all over the streets and, sometimes, the consumers of those
bottles. I wasn't impressed until the shock wore off."
But then, Jim slowly came to appreciate "the warmth of the brick, the scale of the buildings and all of its historical significance." With this appreciation came involvement. Jim began by serving on various local boards-including LDDI as well as the Design Review and the Senior Housing Options-and "as a punishment for my nearly perfect attendance
record as a board member," Jim was elected and officer in LDDI.
Today, he is the new president of the LDDI Board and says, "I don't have a vision-and I told them that when I was nominated-but I see my job as working with Dan and the executive committee and ensuring the Board's agenda is carried out."