DENVER — This week, the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) Board announced funding for multiple projects, including $31.5 million to help turn two historic office buildings into affordable housing.
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The Symes Building and the University Building, both on the corner of 16th Street and Champa Street in downtown Denver, are more than 100 years old. Bill Mosher, the city's chief projects officer, said the historic office buildings are mostly vacant today.
"Between the construction and the pandemic, it's been a challenge for us, for properties along 16th Street in particular, which is why we've been focused on 16th Street," Mosher. said "Downtown lost all of its workers over a two month time period, and we've slowly been getting them back to come downtown. So that hurt retail. It hurt the office market."
Mosher said the University Building will offer 120 units of affordable housing for low-income residents using low-income housing tax credits from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA). The Symes Building project will open up 116 units of mostly market-rate housing, ground-floor retail space and a patio.
Kate Barton with the Downtown Denver Partnership said as local leaders look to revitalize the downtown area, it's important to create a range of housing affordable for different income levels.
"As we think about our downtown population, we want to ensure that people who are working downtown can live downtown. That adds to the vibrancy of our city," Barton said. "We really know that to have a complete and vibrant neighborhood, you need to have families there. So thinking about housing stock that is attainable for families and appropriate for families is really important."
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) says Denver residents making $29,450 to $72,950 are considered low-income while people making between $72,950 and $117,720 are considered middle-income. Data from HUD shows about 19% of households, or 60,000 households, in Denver County fall into the middle-income range.
Barton said leaders are also working to get more families to live downtown. She said only 4% of households downtown have children, compared to about 23% across the rest of the city.
"We really know that to have a complete and vibrant neighborhood, you need to have families there. So thinking about housing stock that is attainable for families and appropriate for families is really important," Barton said.
Mosher said it will take a few more months to put project financing together for the two office-to-residential conversions. He said construction on the Symes and University Buildings should start sometime next year, with the first residents expected to move in beginning in 2027.
