1245 Champa St

1245 Champa St is a 6-story building in Greater Downtown Denver with 100% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 44 homes and scores it 86 out of 100 for office-to-residential conversion suitability.

CO-1 · Screened 2026-09-19 · Strong candidate

Build a conversion planCheck its numbers, lay out its homes and get a two-page PDF. Free.

No address point in Denver’s records falls inside this footprint, so it is named by the closest one that no other screened building claims — usually a site entrance, but check the outline on the plan below before relying on the street number.

Where 1245 Champa St 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
1245 Champa St

1245 Champa St 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. 1245 Champa St 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. The inset places it among every building the screen covers.

Typical floor plan: 100% of the building’s floor area sits within daylight reach of a facade; the drawing shows its typical floor, where the share is 100%, with no dead core at all. The shading is daylight, darkest at the windows and gone 35 ft in. The dimension marks the deepest interior point, 34 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, and here it meets in the middle: the plate is thin enough that no floor is left windowless. 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.

This footprint has no windowless core at all: every point on the floor plate is within 35 ft of a facade, which is unusual and is the main reason it scores as well as it does.

Modeled conversion metrics for 1245 Champa St, 2026-09-19.

Suitability scoreStrong candidate	86 / 100
Storiesfrom 78 ft aerial-survey height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor	6
Height bandsfloor plate by floor range, from the city's roof outlines	Floors 1–4: 10,535 sq ft · Floor 5: 5,904 sq ft · Floor 6: 3,982 sq ft
Floor platetypical floor, from the city outlines	10,535 sq ft
Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade	100%
Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft	34 ft
Windowless coretypical floor; the building-wide total is in the text above	0 sq ft
Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average	44
Conversion cost$360/sq ft all-in on 41,491 sq ft	$14.9M
Gap before grantshortfall against completed value	$4.6M
Modeled RESIDE grantbelow the statutory cap	$2.6M
BuiltDenver does not publish a construction year with this data	—
ZoningCBD	D-TD
Opportunity Zonenot in a 2018 designated tract	No

The plan: window line, shape and floor rhythm

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

The typical floor has 447 ft of exterior wall, and across 5 residential floors the building carries 1,960 ft of it in total, divided among the 44 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.66: a squarish plan, with enough perimeter for a conventional double-loaded corridor. How window line and plate shape are measured.

At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 8.8 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 1245 Champa St scores 86 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 100, Scale 29, Finance 79 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Score components for 1245 Champa St. Points are the subscore times its weight.

Component	Subscore	Weight	Points
Daylight efficiency100% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%	100	45%	45.0
Interior depthdeepest interior point 34 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft	100	25%	25.0
Scale44 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150	29	15%	4.4
Financeremaining gap is 13% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%	79	15%	11.8

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is scale, at 29 out of 100: 44 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 41,491 sq ft of converted floor, or $14.9M in total — about $339K for each of the 44 homes.

All-in cost per square foot for 1245 Champa St: 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 circulation and service area that earns nothing directly. Against it the model sets a completed value of $236K a home, which for 44 homes is $10.4M.

What would have to be true

A $4.6M gap before any grant, $1.9M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 13% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $4.6M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 44 homes finishing at $339K rather than the $236K the model assumes — 44% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $250 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $2.6M moves that threshold to $279K a home. That is still above the $236K assumed, leaving $1.9M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 1245 Champa St, one alone would close the gap at:

Single-assumption flip points for 1245 Champa St, each holding the other three at their defaults.

Average unit sizethe binding constraint — the least this building would need	13% downto 651 sq ft
Circulation efficiency	15% upto 92%
Conversion cost per square foot	18% downto $214/sq ft
Completed value per home	18% upto $279K

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1245 Champa St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Greater Downtown Denver

1245 Champa St ranks 45th of the 214 buildings screened here, against a median score of 72.

Its floor plate is better lit than 100% of them, and shallower than 92% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 205th 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 CBD and the D-TD zone

16th of 75 in CBD, 6th of 20 zoned D-TD — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

Denver places 75 of the screened buildings in CBD. 1245 Champa St ranks 16th of them against a median score of 71. 40 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 56 ft from a facade against this building’s 34 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 33,698 homes. The group’s top scorer is 918 17th St, at 97.

20 of the screened buildings are zoned D-TD. 1245 Champa St ranks 6th of them against a median score of 69. 10 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 57 ft from a facade against this building’s 34 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 8,599 homes. The group’s top scorer is 918 17th St, at 97.

Its nearest match in size: 1673 N Sherman St

The screened building closest to 1245 Champa St in converted floor area is 1673 N Sherman St: 41,481 sq ft over 7 stories, against 41,491 sq ft over 6 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 86 here, 84 there — so at this size the screen reads them as much the same prospect. On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 3,600 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 1245 Champa St $2.6M, 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 1245 Champa St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 380 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

950 13th St
12 stories · 38% daylit · 890 estimated homes · scores 15/100 (Unlikely)
about 380 ft away
700 14th St
10 stories · 20% daylit · 1,710 estimated homes · scores 15/100 (Unlikely)
about 620 ft away
891 14th St
39 stories · 70% daylit · already a condominium building
about 830 ft away
1101 13th St
12 stories · 83% daylit · 305 estimated homes · scores 71/100 (Strong candidate)
about 840 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.