Three decades after helping transform the Denver Dry Goods Building from a shuttered department store into a mix of retail, office and affordable housing, Jonathan Rose Cos. is back with a $67M plan to reimagine the property for a postpandemic downtown.
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The firm’s Denver-based affiliate, Perry Rose LLC, will preserve 51 existing affordable units and convert 75K SF of vacant commercial space into 55 new income-restricted apartments at 700 16th St. on what was formerly known as the 16th Street Mall.
All 106 units will be reserved for households earning between 30% and 80% of the area median income.
It’s a return to a building Jonathan F.P. Rose first redeveloped in the mid-1990s with partner Chuck Perry and the Denver Urban Renewal Authority using a capital stack that blended low-income housing tax credits, historic tax credits and tax increment financing.
Downtown was then struggling to lure back national retailers from suburban malls — a problem the Denver Dry helped solve when it landed TJ Maxx in 1994.
Today, with total downtown office vacancy at 36.8%, according to CBRE’s second-quarter office market report, and retail vacancy reaching 9% in some submarkets like RiNo, the city faces a different but equally urgent fight to keep its core vibrant.
“DURA has been the anchor of the Denver Dry Building since the May Company closed its store,” Rose told Bisnow in an email. “And when downtown faced another challenging period in the wake of COVID, DURA, led by Tracey Huggins and its board, remained a stalwart partner in reimagining what a greener, more vibrant, and inclusive downtown with affordable housing could be.”
The financing package includes a $3.2M loan assignment from DURA, $5.5M from the city of Denver’s affordable housing fund, a separate $3.2M loan assignment from the city and $1.3M from the city’s Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency Department to support a full electrification of the building’s heating and cooling.
The project also has backing from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, The Richman Group, the Colorado Division of Housing and the nonprofit Community Opportunity Fund, which contributed $8.6M in grants and financing.
Jonathan Rose Cos. did not provide details about its own investment by press time.
Plans call for updating kitchens and appliances in existing units, restoring historic windows, repairing the brick façade and converting 19K SF of basement space into amenities such as a fitness center, leasing office and flexible space for resident services.
Groundbreaking is slated for late summer 2025, with completion expected in early 2027.
Editor’s note: Bisnow reporter Jonathan Rose and the founder of Jonathan Rose Cos. are not related.
