1244 N Speer Blvd

1244 N Speer Blvd is a 11-story building in Greater Downtown Denver with 77% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 152 homes and scores it 67 out of 100 for office-to-residential conversion suitability.

CO-1 · Screened 2026-09-19 · Worth a feasibility study

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Where 1244 N Speer Blvd is

Its block in Greater Downtown Denver, drawn from Denver's own building outlines and street centerlines.

Suitability score

0–29

30–49

50–69

70–100

Already housing
Not screened
1244 N Speer Blvd

1244 N Speer Blvd and the 1,000 ft of Greater Downtown Denver around it. The streets are drawn at the width of the right-of-way they run down, sidewalks included, and named, and every building on these blocks is drawn. What is left open and stippled is neither: a surface lot, a plaza or a vacant parcel. The screened buildings are colored by the ramp above, the same one the district map uses, carry their score, and each is a link to its own page. Each casts a shadow as long as its measured height lets it, so towers stand out from the low buildings around them; the unscreened buildings have no measured height and cast none. 1244 N Speer Blvd is outlined in its own score color at the outline it covers at ground level. Dashed inside it is the typical floor, the one the floor-plate figure below draws, because this building steps back as it rises. Its windowless core is hatched. The inset places it among every building the screen covers.

Typical floor plan: 77% of the building’s floor area sits within daylight reach of a facade; the drawing shows its typical floor, where the share is 75%. The shading is daylight, darkest at the windows and gone 35 ft in. The hatched area is windowless core: 5,332 sq ft per typical floor that must be renovated but can never be rented as an apartment. The dimension marks the deepest interior point, 60 ft from the nearest window. A–A is where the section beside it is cut.

Section A–A: cut across the depth of the plate, through the middle of the core. Daylight reaches 35 ft in from every facade, fading as it goes, and the hatched stripe left between the lit edges is floor that gets converted and can never be rented: 5,332 sq ft on the floor the screen scores, and 43,664 sq ft over 10 residential floors. The steps are where the building sets back as it rises. The shaded ground floor is converted like the rest and counted as no homes.

This building does not pencil at default assumptions, even with a modeled RESIDE Act grant.

Across its 10 residential floors this building carries 43,664 sq ft of windowless core — area that must be gutted, re-plumbed and sprinklered but can never be rented as an apartment.

Modeled conversion metrics for 1244 N Speer Blvd, 2026-09-19.

Suitability scoreWorth a feasibility study	67 / 100
Storiesfrom 137 ft aerial-survey height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor	11
Height bandsfloor plate by floor range, from the city's roof outlines	Floors 1–9: 21,076 sq ft · Floors 10–11: 8,942 sq ft
Floor platetypical floor, from the city outlines	21,076 sq ft
Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade	77%
Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft	60 ft
Windowless coretypical floor; the building-wide total is in the text above	5,332 sq ft
Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average	152
Conversion cost$360/sq ft all-in on 186,494 sq ft	$67.1M
Gap before grantshortfall against completed value	$31.3M
Modeled RESIDE grantbelow the statutory cap	$9.1M
BuiltDenver does not publish a construction year with this data	—
ZoningCivic Center	D-GT
Opportunity Zonenot in a 2018 designated tract	No

The plan: window line, shape and floor rhythm

36 ft of exterior wall for each home the screen estimates — enough for two- and three-bedroom homes across the plan.

The typical floor has 585 ft of exterior wall, and across 10 residential floors the building carries 5,466 ft of it in total, divided among the 152 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.78: close to a square or a circle, the most efficient envelope an office can have and the least generous one for apartments: little perimeter to divide among homes. How window line and plate shape are measured.

At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 15.2 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 1244 N Speer Blvd scores 67 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 73, Interior depth 51, Scale 100, Finance 45 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Score components for 1244 N Speer Blvd. Points are the subscore times its weight.

Component	Subscore	Weight	Points
Daylight efficiency77% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%	73	45%	32.9
Interior depthdeepest interior point 60 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft	51	25%	12.8
Scale152 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150	100	15%	15.0
Financeremaining gap is 33% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%	45	15%	6.8

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is finance, at 45 out of 100: remaining gap is 33% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 186,494 sq ft of converted floor, or $67.1M in total — about $442K for each of the 152 homes.

All-in cost per square foot for 1244 N Speer Blvd: base cost plus the code work a change of use triggers.

Base conversion cost	$260/sq ft
Plumbing risers to every unit	$40/sq ft
Operable windows and glazing	$30/sq ft
Additional egress stair	$18/sq ft
Fire sprinklers (NFPA 13R)	$12/sq ft
All-in	$360/sq ft

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 43,664 sq ft of windowless core, which has to be gutted, re-plumbed and sprinklered like the rest of the building and then earns nothing. Against it the model sets a completed value of $236K a home, which for 152 homes is $35.9M.

What would have to be true

A $31.3M gap before any grant, $22.1M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 37% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $31.3M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 152 homes finishing at $442K rather than the $236K the model assumes — 87% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $192 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $9.1M moves that threshold to $382K a home. That is still above the $236K assumed, leaving $22.1M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 1244 N Speer Blvd, one alone would close the gap at:

Single-assumption flip points for 1244 N Speer Blvd, each holding the other three at their defaults.

Average unit sizethe binding constraint — the least this building would need	37% downto 470 sq ft
Conversion cost per square foot	46% downto $141/sq ft
Completed value per home	62% upto $382K

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1244 N Speer Blvd re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Greater Downtown Denver

1244 N Speer Blvd ranks 132nd of the 214 buildings screened here, against a median score of 72.

Its floor plate is better lit than 33% of them, and shallower than 45% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 132nd largest by estimated homes. The full survey of all 214 buildings ranks and maps every one of them, and the list by address links each to its own page.

Within Civic Center and the D-GT zone

11th of 23 in Civic Center, 9th of 15 zoned D-GT — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

Denver places 23 of the screened buildings in Civic Center. 1244 N Speer Blvd ranks 11th of them against a median score of 67. 10 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 62 ft from a facade against this building’s 60 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 5,064 homes. The group’s top scorer is 1314 N Elati St, at 92.

15 of the screened buildings are zoned D-GT. 1244 N Speer Blvd ranks 9th of them against a median score of 76. 8 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 54 ft from a facade against this building’s 60 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 2,397 homes. The group’s top scorer is 1314 N Elati St, at 92.

Its nearest match in size: 1999 Chestnut Pl

The screened building closest to 1244 N Speer Blvd in converted floor area is 1999 Chestnut Pl: 183,942 sq ft over 12 stories, against 186,494 sq ft over 11 here.

1244 N Speer Blvd scores 67 to its 90, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from daylight efficiency: 73 out of 100 here, 100 there (91% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%). On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 7,800 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 1244 N Speer Blvd $9.1M, on the assumption it qualifies. Whether it does, no published dataset can say.

That figure assumes the building meets the Act’s vacant-and-abandoned test, which turns on code-enforcement and receivership records no city publishes.

It does not sit in a 2018 designated Opportunity Zone, so it would not draw that Section 201 priority.

Other buildings screened near 1244 N Speer Blvd

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 340 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

1300 N Fox St
6 stories · 71% daylit · 88 estimated homes · scores 53/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
about 340 ft away
1234 N Elati St
16 stories · 91% daylit · already a condominium building
about 450 ft away
1314 N Elati St
8 stories · 96% daylit · 111 estimated homes · scores 92/100 (Strong candidate)
about 470 ft away
1350 N Speer Blvd
7 stories · 77% daylit · already an apartment building
about 530 ft away

A screen, not a feasibility study, from outlines and heights rather than plans: the method and how to correct a figure. If you know this building’s interior, you know what this model cannot see.