A growing Hindu community last week purchased 4 1/4 acres in Centennial and plans to build a 12,000- square-foot temple there.
“Our desire is to build a spanking new temple,” said Satish V. Kumar, who represents more than 1,200 families who attend the Hindu Temple of Colorado.
The group paid $500,000 in cash for the land, located at 7200 S. Potomac St., next to the Broncos training camp, said Kumar, owner of a telecommunications firm who is in charge of fundraising.
He said the community was represented in the purchase by Stephanie Bryant of Huntington Properties.
Now plans will move into high gear to raise $2 million to construct the temple, which is expected to be well over 50 feet high and accommodate hundreds of worshippers every week. Crowds could swell to 800 to 1,000 worshippers on Hindu festival days.
The expansion mirrors Denver’s growing Hindu community, who hail mostly from India, Kumar said. He said the wave of immigration began some 25 years ago as the U.S. demand for engineers grew.
The location is ideal because there is a “serious concentration” of Hindus around Parker and Arapahoe roads, Kumar said.
Kumar said the only other large free-standing Hindu temple in the metro area is run by the Hare Krishna community at 1400 Cherry St. in Denver.
For a number of years, Kumar’s community has worshipped in a former church at 8375 S. Wadsworth Blvd. in Littleton.
That site has become too crowded, however. Kumar said the parking lot already has been sold for $65,000 and the rest of the property will be sold when the new temple is built.