Developers Unveil Mixed-Use Plan for Downtown Site

DENVER-Despite the slow office market, veteran developer Stephen Owen and business partner Amy Harmon are planning a mixed-use building Downtown with an office component. The 450 17th building will be the first new office condo building Downtown, Owen tells GlobeSt.com.

The $14 million, five-story building will include three floors of offices. It’s expected that professional companies such as law firms, will decide it makes more sense to own class A space than to rent it.

The office condos will sell for $215 per sf, with a $32-per-sf tenant improvement allowance, says Tom Lee, who is selling the office space with fellow Frederick Ross broker Darrin Revious.

With the current low interest rates, the price compares favorably to leasing space for $22 per sf, but it does much better after the tax costs of depreciation and appreciation, says Harmon, of Urban Market Development.

The ground floor will have 9,700 sf of retail, most of it to be leased by a bank lobby and drive-through bank area. They’re also negotiating to bring a magnetic resonance imaging center on the first floor, Tryba says.

Well-known Denver architect is designing the building, that also will include two 4,000-sf residential penthouses. Indeed, the site at East 14th Avenue and Pennsylvania Street is next to his office and home.

“Having a David Tryba-designed building brings a certain cachet to it,” Lee tells GlobeSt.com.

Charlie Woolley, who turned the historic Equitable Building in Downtown into office condos, tells GlobeSt.com that he thinks that Owens will have a winner with his new building.