Michael Cooper, one of the largest land developers in the Denver area, has died after a long illness.

Mr. Cooper, who among other things was a partner with the group that developed Southwest Plaza, died Wednesday at Shalom Park in Aurora. He was 67.

Mr. Cooper had been suffering from Pick's disease, a relatively rare degenerative brain disease, for about 10 years.

During a career that spanned more than 40 years, Mr. Cooper and partners, primarily the Alpert family, owned more than 10,000 acres of land in Douglas and Arapahoe counties and Aurora. Various partnerships with the Cooper and Alpert families as well as others still own about 7,000 acres.

"At one time . . . he owned the most land of anybody I knew in the state of Colorado for redevelopment," said developer Jordon Perlmutter, who developed Southwest Plaza, for years the largest mall in the area, with Mr. Cooper and Sam Primack.

Mr. Cooper also sold some of the first building sites to Larry Mizel and David Mandarich for what was then a startup home-building company, MDC, parent of Richmond American Homes. MDC is now one of the nation's largest home-building companies.

Mr. Cooper developed Bowles Crossing with Perlmutter and others, and Tiffany Plaza along East Hampden Avenue.

"He was a very smart fellow," Perl- mutter said. "He knew real estate very well. He came from humble beginnings. He was a very honorable man. Whatever he told you, you could count on it."

"He was a true rags-to-riches story," Mr. Cooper's son Marc said. "He went from a couple of thousand dollars in loans and turned it into what it is. He was very much a believer in America and the free market."

Mr. Cooper entered the real estate business with childhood friend Harvey Alpert.

"Talk about starting with nothing," said Mr. Cooper's wife of 44 years, Bette. "Harvey's dad was a butcher and Mike's dad was a tin man who worked on air conditioning. Harvey's mother and Jake, Mike's father, co-signed a loan on their first project. And each had about $500 from their bar mitzvahs, and that is what they started with."

She said that her husband loved jokes and used humor to break the tension during business meetings.

"He probably knew 2,000 jokes - clean, dirty, inappropriate, he loved them all."

Housing consultant S. Robert August first met Mr. Cooper when August came to Denver almost 30 years ago.

"He was an absolute giant in the real estate industry as a developer, as a home builder, as an outstanding icon," August said. "But he was always very, very low-profile."

Mr. Cooper was born May 14, 1940, in Denver.

His father, Jake, who had fled Poland before coming to the U.S. and Denver, was in the heating, cooling and sheet-metal business.

Mr. Cooper joined the Army, and when he returned home, he enrolled in the University of Denver. But he only lasted about three weeks, his son Marc Cooper said.

"He sort of thought school was for the birds and went after the true American dream," Cooper said.

Bette Cooper said her late husband and Alpert's first project was a small apartment building off West Sixth Avenue in Lakewood. Then they formed Golden Key Homes and built their first house in Hilltop, which at the time was considered the outskirts.

When they built their first homes, Mr. Cooper and Alpert followed their general contractor around to learn the trade.

"It was sort of on-the-job training," Alpert said.

They were partners in Golden Key Homes for about 10 years, before Mr. Cooper bought out the company, which the Cooper family closed about three years ago to concentrate on other holdings, such as land.

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Cooper is survived by a daughter, Kim Hyland; brothers Gary and Richard; and several grandchildren.

A memorial is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Sunday at the BMH/BJ Synagogue, 560 S. Monaco Parkway, with interment at Rose Hill Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that contributions be made to the CU Foundation.

rebchookj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5207

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