Carl Bourgeois, a developer and businessman largely credited with the restoration of the historic Five Points neighborhood in Denver, died Sunday after a lengthy battle with heart disease, according to his family. He was 71.

The fourth of seven children born to Alfred Bourgeois and Bobbie Stroud, Carl was born and raised in a small house in Colorado Springs. He helped raise his younger siblings after his mother died at age 47, and in the 1970s he moved with his then-wife and family to Denver, where he worked as a banker.

When he arrived in Denver, Bourgeois was disheartened to see that the historically Black Five Points neighborhood, whose cultural significance was on par with Harlem’s in New York City, had fallen on hard times.

“By the time I got there, it was in that downward spiral,” Bourgeois told The Gazette last year. “But I was still really impressed there were so many remnants of Black business people, and I wanted to be one.”

“When he came to Denver, he saw that the Five Points neighborhood was going economically downhill,” said Wellington Webb, Denver’s first Black mayor and a longtime friend. “He looked at it and saw something worth investing in.”

With the skills of an experienced banker and the impassioned heart of a community advocate, Bourgeois began to invest in and help revitalize a once-proud neighborhood that appeared destined for the wrecking ball, Webb said. In 1983, he and two partners bought their first property in the neighborhood — the Triangle Building on Washington Street. They bought and renovated a second building three years later, and the rebirth of the Five Points had begun, according to Webb.

“He had a sense of history and wanted to provide opportunities by saving part of that history that might be torn down,” Webb said.

In 1989, Bourgeois founded Civil Technology, a firm specializing in construction management and real estate development. The company has lent its management and development expertise to many Denver projects, including Denver International Airport, Stapleton Redevelopment Project, the Webb Municipal Office Building, Denver Art Museum and downtown Denver’s 14th Street Streetscape, according to the firm’s website.

Where other people might have seen a community in disrepair, Bourgeois saw opportunity, said April Nelson, Bourgeois’ sister.

“He could look at a property that no one else wanted to take on, and he would turn it into something that was beneficial to the community,” she said.

Bourgeois also had a passion for African history, Webb said. He visited the continent several times, bought a farm in South Africa and developed a friendship with South African musician Hugh Masekela.

“He thought it was important for Black Americans to maintain a connection with the Motherland,” Webb said.

After more than three decades in Denver, Bourgeois returned to the Colorado Springs neighborhood where he was raised and saw another property he could revitalize. He purchased a condemned home at 944 N. Walnut St. and began to restore the historic building to its former glory.

He decorated it with South African art and artifacts from his family’s history, and breathed life into the crumbling acreage surrounding the home.

Bourgeois began throwing an annual July 3 party at the Walnut Street home, inviting hundreds of people to eat and listen to live music. Webb and his wife went to this year’s party and sat with Bourgeois, whose once-robust frame had been weakened by cardiac amyloidosis, a condition that reduces the heart’s ability to pump blood. Bourgeois watched most of the festivities from a window inside the home, but remained in good spirits, Webb said.

“I was struck by the fact that even in his unhealthy condition, even though he was in palliative care, he still thought it was important to carry through with this annual event — even though he knew it was the last one he would see.”

Bee Harris, a Denver publisher who knew Bourgeois for more than 30 years, said he was a rare entity — a kindhearted man with the grit to succeed in the business world.

“He was a successful businessman, but he used his success to help people,” Harris said. “You’d have a hard time finding anyone with anything negative to say about Carl Bourgeois.”

“He loved his family, and he really cared about Denver and Colorado Springs, and the people who lived in those communities,” Nelson said. “He was a truly good man.”