Libeskind-Designed Condos Selling Quickly

Units are priced from almost $350,000 to about $1.2 million. "If we had sold 10, we would have been very pleased," George Thorn, principal of Mile High Development tells GlobeSt.com. Mile High, along with Corporex Colorado, is developing the units. Libeskind also is designing the addition to the Denver Art Museum. The condos are behind the museum, wrapped around a new parking lot.

"These are sales, not reservations, like you would typically find when you're selling condos," Thorn tells GlobeSt.com. "We're selling them all at the asking price. We're not coming down one cent. And we're selling them across the board, not just the lower-priced ones or the higher-priced ones."

He says buyers are coming from Evergreen in the mountains, LoDo in Downtown, and from empty nesters in ritzy areas such as Cherry Hills. Even some singles from the Golden Triangle neighborhood, where the units are located, have bought some of the smaller units. "One guy was jogging with his dog and saw the sign, tied up his dog and came in and bought a unit," Thorn says.

One of the buyers is Rick Ansay, who now lives in a 6,800-sf home inLakewood. He's paying $1.265 million for 2,300-sf units. Ansay tellsGlobeSt.com he doubts he would have bought a unit if Libeskind hadn'tdesigned it.

"Right now, Daniel Libeskind is the most prominent architect in the world," Ansay tells GlobeSt.com. "And this is his first project in America, so you know it will be studied and duplicated. You're really going to be living in a piece of art. They're expensive, but I think people are going to look at them a few years from now and are going to wish they bought one. They're going to look like bargains."

Edie Marks, a broker with the Kentwood Co., has two clients looking atthe Museum Residences. For one, Libeskind's design is driving his interest, she says.

The Museum Residences marks the first time ever that an architect's design has brought such cachet to a project in the Denver area, says Marks, who has almost 30 years of experience selling homes and is consistently one of the top brokers in the metro area.

"Daniel Libeskind's name makes a difference in this case, because he is who he is," Marks tells GlobeSt.com "And we have a sophistication in Denver that we have not had before."