DENVER — The push for more housing in Denver couldn't be more dire as apartments within the city are upwards of 90 percent full. City officials are willing to put just about any feasible solution on the table, including a new initiative that aims to convert downtown office buildings into apartments and condos.
Denver's planning department is close to launching a study that will examine between 10 and 15 downtown buildings to see if they would be suitable residential properties, if converted.
Jenny Buddenborg, senior project development administrator for Denver Community Planning and Development, said if Denver City Council approves the $75,000 in funding they've requested, an outside consultant would help the city, property owners and developers navigate the project.
"We're hoping that this will be a catalyst for greater conversion downtown and other locations throughout the city," Buddenborg said. "The study will consider things like the square footage of a building, the way the space is currently structured, a combination of factors to really understand if it will make for a good residential building."
A blueprint for the city can be found off 12th Ave. and Lincoln Street, where the building that once housed the Art Institute of Colorado is being converted to a 10-story residential building, featuring 194 studio apartments.
Tobias Strohe, a partner at JNS Architecture + Design, which is managing the project, expects construction to finish in 2023.
"There's additional interest in this and understanding that this can be successful, both from a development standpoint as well as providing something that's much needed in the community," Strohe said.
While Strohe acknowledges the city's growing interest to convert existing buildings into residential units, he explained there are several barriers in the process that may deter developers from taking on similar projects.
The project itself can be very costly, but receiving zoning and building permits for this type of construction can be a challenge.
"Getting the approvals is not an easy process with the City of Denver," Strohe said.
Buddenborg admits the process has several obstacles, especially with permitting, but said she will be working with city officials to address them.
"This adaptive reuse program that we're pushing is to create more of a streamlined process through application review to actually getting these projects underway," Buddenborg said, adding that developers could also receive financial incentives.
Even so, the project has some critics.
David Shirazi, senior vice president of JLL, a real estate services company, said converting downtown buildings into residential units may be a bigger undertaking than some may think.
In a statement to Denver7, Shirazi said he doesn't see this type of project happening on a large scale anytime soon.
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"I know a lot of people are guessing that vacant office buildings will convert to residential uses but I just don’t see that happening on a large scale anytime soon. For a lot of reasons a) most of the big office buildings are owned by huge institutional funds with patient money and they aren’t ready give up on the office sector yet, also most all office buildings have at least some long term leases in them that would prohibit them from repositioning the building b) the cost to convert office to residential is astronomical and isn’t going to pencil with where construction prices are right now c) most office buildings have large floorplates with deep “bay depths” so if you did convert to residential you would have units that had very little window line and those units wouldn’t be competitive with purpose built apartment buildings.
Will there be a couple conversions, maybe… but I don’t see a wave of it coming anytime soon…"
Buddenborg said this initiative has been in the making for the last several years — one that Downtown Denver Partnership president and CEO Kourtny Garrett said has to succeed.