Ballpark resident Matthew Van Sistine stands inside 2100 Larimer St. in Denver. He bought the two-story building this week. (Courtesy Andrew Bydlon)
A pair of Denver developers have unloaded a vacant building near Coors Field at a 50% loss after holding it for six years.
Kenneth Monfort of Monfort Cos. and Dan Huml of Magnetic Capital sold the two-story building at 2100 Larimer St. this week for $1.45 million. The pair bought the property in May 2019 for $2.9 million.
The buyer this week was Matthew Van Sistine, a Ballpark resident and businessman who sits on the board of the local neighborhood association.
The 11,600-square-foot structure has sat empty since late 2018, when the bar El Charrito closed.
When Huml and Monfort bought the property, they intended to renovate the building and hoped to add third and fourth stories. They expected to have a retail or restaurant user on the first floor and office space above.
The 2100 Larimer St. building in July 2024. (BusinessDen file)
The building is in a city-designated historic district. The pair ultimately got approval from Denver’s Landmark Preservation Commission for a third story but not a fourth.
Monfort and Huml did find an interested retail tenant: Howl at the Moon, the piano bar chain that closed a nearby location when the pandemic began. But work to fix up the structure and build out the piano bar’s space never began, largely because demand for office space plummeted due to COVID.
“We determined that business plan was no longer viable,” Monfort told BusinessDen this week, noting that the retail landscape was also changing.
Monfort said he explored a couple paths that might have yielded financial success. He asked Howl at the Moon if it would take more space, and thus pay more rent, to make financing more feasible. But the business said that wouldn’t work. And he explored assembling several adjacent parcels so a larger multifamily project could be built, but zoning and the historic district nixed that attempt.
By the summer of 2024, the structure had degraded to the point that Denver added 2100 Larimer to its list of neglected and derelict buildings.
The building stood in contrast to Monfort’s holdings in the 1900 block of Market Street, just blocks away. In 2021, he redeveloped two buildings there into Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row, finding a buyer in early 2022. Later that year, he began work on a second bar and restaurant, Riot House, and bought the former El Chapultepec building to turn into a third concept. Work there is targeted to begin this summer.
Huml has also been active. His current projects include an office building in Cherry Creek and a Formula One race simulator bar in RiNo.
Kenneth Monfort speaks at a 2022 groundbreaking for the company’s Riot House project at 1920 Market St. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
Monfort, whose father and uncle are majority owners of the Colorado Rockies, has talked for years about the area around Coors Field becoming an entertainment district that can “play on a national stage.”
Asked if he considered holding 2100 Larimer for a project down the road, Monfort responded: “Leaving it vacant and fenced is not doing the neighborhood any good, ultimately.”
Van Sistine, the buyer, can easily keep tabs on his new building. He can see it from the loft where he lives a half-block down, on the other side of the street.
Van Sistine fixed up that building, which includes residential and commercial space, more than a decade ago. He runs MTR LLC, a government contracting firm, and serves as board chair of Ballpark Collective, a registered neighborhood organization for the area.
Van Sistine said he’s known Monfort since even before the 2019 sale of 2100 Larimer, and he advocated for allowing a fourth story at the building. He’s stayed in touch to let Monfort know about issues at the building, and both men advocated for creating the Ballpark general improvement district.
A rendering of 2100 Larimer St. with the added third story. (Courtesy Monfort Cos.)
Last year, Van Sistine reached out to note the sale of the nearby building at 2162 Lawrence St. He originally just wanted to alert Monfort to a “comp” that would help him value 2100 Larimer. But by the end of last summer, the conversation veered into discussions of a sale.
Around Denver, other properties have also been selling at a loss, from downtown office towers to mixed-use buildings along Colfax Avenue. The general hope is that the discounts will allow buyers to invest in the properties.
The 2100 Larimer deal included the full design and schematic plans that Monfort and Huml had drawn up. Van Sistine said he originally was interested in pursuing the same project but, when lenders balked at the office component, he switched.
Van Sistine now wants to add the third story but have multiple bar and restaurant tenants across the floors. He said they would be “multigenerational.”
“I have a local group that’s interested in activating a good portion of the building for a music community-created theater concept,” he said. “It’s not fully done, so not really ready to talk specifics at this time.”
Van Sistine noted that Ballpark has a lot of small lots and said the area’s future depends on what happens on those lots.
“The previous development boom was really around these big apartment buildings,” he said. “The reality is that these small projects and these small infill properties are really going to redefine this neighborhood.”
Correction: The sale price has been updated.
Ballpark resident Matthew Van Sistine stands inside 2100 Larimer St. in Denver. He bought the two-story building this week. (Courtesy Andrew Bydlon)
A pair of Denver developers have unloaded a vacant building near Coors Field at a 50% loss after holding it for six years.
Kenneth Monfort of Monfort Cos. and Dan Huml of Magnetic Capital sold the two-story building at 2100 Larimer St. this week for $1.45 million. The pair bought the property in May 2019 for $2.9 million.
The buyer this week was Matthew Van Sistine, a Ballpark resident and businessman who sits on the board of the local neighborhood association.
The 11,600-square-foot structure has sat empty since late 2018, when the bar El Charrito closed.
When Huml and Monfort bought the property, they intended to renovate the building and hoped to add third and fourth stories. They expected to have a retail or restaurant user on the first floor and office space above.
The 2100 Larimer St. building in July 2024. (BusinessDen file)
The building is in a city-designated historic district. The pair ultimately got approval from Denver’s Landmark Preservation Commission for a third story but not a fourth.
Monfort and Huml did find an interested retail tenant: Howl at the Moon, the piano bar chain that closed a nearby location when the pandemic began. But work to fix up the structure and build out the piano bar’s space never began, largely because demand for office space plummeted due to COVID.
“We determined that business plan was no longer viable,” Monfort told BusinessDen this week, noting that the retail landscape was also changing.
Monfort said he explored a couple paths that might have yielded financial success. He asked Howl at the Moon if it would take more space, and thus pay more rent, to make financing more feasible. But the business said that wouldn’t work. And he explored assembling several adjacent parcels so a larger multifamily project could be built, but zoning and the historic district nixed that attempt.
By the summer of 2024, the structure had degraded to the point that Denver added 2100 Larimer to its list of neglected and derelict buildings.
The building stood in contrast to Monfort’s holdings in the 1900 block of Market Street, just blocks away. In 2021, he redeveloped two buildings there into Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row, finding a buyer in early 2022. Later that year, he began work on a second bar and restaurant, Riot House, and bought the former El Chapultepec building to turn into a third concept. Work there is targeted to begin this summer.
Huml has also been active. His current projects include an office building in Cherry Creek and a Formula One race simulator bar in RiNo.
Kenneth Monfort speaks at a 2022 groundbreaking for the company’s Riot House project at 1920 Market St. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
Monfort, whose father and uncle are majority owners of the Colorado Rockies, has talked for years about the area around Coors Field becoming an entertainment district that can “play on a national stage.”
Asked if he considered holding 2100 Larimer for a project down the road, Monfort responded: “Leaving it vacant and fenced is not doing the neighborhood any good, ultimately.”
Van Sistine, the buyer, can easily keep tabs on his new building. He can see it from the loft where he lives a half-block down, on the other side of the street.
Van Sistine fixed up that building, which includes residential and commercial space, more than a decade ago. He runs MTR LLC, a government contracting firm, and serves as board chair of Ballpark Collective, a registered neighborhood organization for the area.
Van Sistine said he’s known Monfort since even before the 2019 sale of 2100 Larimer, and he advocated for allowing a fourth story at the building. He’s stayed in touch to let Monfort know about issues at the building, and both men advocated for creating the Ballpark general improvement district.
A rendering of 2100 Larimer St. with the added third story. (Courtesy Monfort Cos.)
Last year, Van Sistine reached out to note the sale of the nearby building at 2162 Lawrence St. He originally just wanted to alert Monfort to a “comp” that would help him value 2100 Larimer. But by the end of last summer, the conversation veered into discussions of a sale.
Around Denver, other properties have also been selling at a loss, from downtown office towers to mixed-use buildings along Colfax Avenue. The general hope is that the discounts will allow buyers to invest in the properties.
The 2100 Larimer deal included the full design and schematic plans that Monfort and Huml had drawn up. Van Sistine said he originally was interested in pursuing the same project but, when lenders balked at the office component, he switched.
Van Sistine now wants to add the third story but have multiple bar and restaurant tenants across the floors. He said they would be “multigenerational.”
“I have a local group that’s interested in activating a good portion of the building for a music community-created theater concept,” he said. “It’s not fully done, so not really ready to talk specifics at this time.”
Van Sistine noted that Ballpark has a lot of small lots and said the area’s future depends on what happens on those lots.
“The previous development boom was really around these big apartment buildings,” he said. “The reality is that these small projects and these small infill properties are really going to redefine this neighborhood.”
Correction: The sale price has been updated.
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