An Uptown office complex once eyed for conversion to apartments is hitting the auction block.
Capitol Center, at 1600 Sherman St. and 225 E. 16th Ave. in Denver, will be auctioned off between Aug. 17 and 19, according to a listing on LoopNet. Bidding starts at $1.5 million.
Capitol Center consists of two buildings totaling about 155,000 square feet. The larger of the two is Capitol Life Tower, at 12 stories and nearly 135,000 square feet — just 18% of which is occupied. The second is the Colorado Trust building, with 22,000 square feet across two stories.
An attached two-story parking garage generates $350,000 in net revenue annually, according to the listing.
“The surrounding tenant base of government agencies, legal firms, and professional services represents the same demand profile that has historically supported this submarket, and the parking revenue provides a durable income floor while that lease-up occurs,” the listing states.
But that tenant base has eroded somewhat. Office space in Uptown was 46.4% vacant at the end of the first quarter, compared with 38.9% for downtown as a whole, according to CBRE.
Capitol Center was previously owned by Southern California-based Harbor Associates, which bought it in 2018 for $29 million. In mid-2022, the firm proposed that Capitol Life Tower be turned into apartments and that additional units be built where the parking garage sits.
In October 2024, property ownership transferred to LOTW Capitol Center LLC, which lists a Chicago address. Harbor Associates principal Joon Choi subsequently told BusinessDen “there was a note sale involved.”
Harbor Associates went through a similar situation at the Symes building, at 820 16th St. downtown. The firm proposed a residential conversion there and was even awarded a $17 million loan from the Denver Downtown Development Authority to help make it happen.
But the firm’s lender there foreclosed on the building in February. A lawsuit between the two parties is ongoing.
