1401 17th St

1401 17th St is a 17-story building in Greater Downtown Denver with 79% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 266 homes and scores it 69 out of 100 for office-to-residential conversion suitability.

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

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Where 1401 17th 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
1401 17th St

1401 17th 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. 1401 17th 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. Its windowless core is hatched. The inset places it among every building the screen covers.

Typical floor plan: 79% of the building’s floor area sits within daylight reach of a facade; the drawing shows its typical floor, where the share is 82%. The shading is daylight, darkest at the windows and gone 35 ft in. The hatched area is windowless core: 2,564 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: 2,564 sq ft on the floor the screen scores, and 65,635 sq ft over 16 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 16 residential floors this building carries 65,635 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 1401 17th St, 2026-09-19.

Suitability scoreWorth a feasibility study	69 / 100
Storiesfrom 199 ft aerial-survey height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor	17
Height bandsfloor plate by floor range, from the city's roof outlines	Floors 1–3: 44,312 sq ft · Floor 4: 41,545 sq ft · Floors 5–17: 14,263 sq ft
Floor platetypical floor, from the city outlines	14,263 sq ft
Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade	79%
Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft	60 ft
Windowless coretypical floor; the building-wide total is in the text above	2,564 sq ft
Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average	266
Conversion cost$360/sq ft all-in on 315,586 sq ft	$113.6M
Gap before grantshortfall against completed value	$50.8M
Modeled RESIDE grantat the statutory per-award cap	$10.0M
BuiltDenver does not publish a construction year with this data	—
ZoningUnion Station	D-LD
Opportunity Zonenot in a 2018 designated tract	No

The plan: window line, shape and floor rhythm

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

The typical floor has 459 ft of exterior wall, and across 16 residential floors the building carries 9,359 ft of it in total, divided among the 266 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.85: 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 16.6 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 1401 17th St scores 69 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 78, Interior depth 50, Scale 100, Finance 40 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Score components for 1401 17th St. Points are the subscore times its weight.

Component	Subscore	Weight	Points
Daylight efficiency79% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%	78	45%	35.3
Interior depthdeepest interior point 60 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft	50	25%	12.6
Scale266 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150	100	15%	15.0
Financeremaining gap is 36% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%	40	15%	6.0

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is finance, at 40 out of 100: remaining gap is 36% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 315,586 sq ft of converted floor, or $113.6M in total — about $427K for each of the 266 homes.

All-in cost per square foot for 1401 17th 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 65,635 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 266 homes is $62.8M.

What would have to be true

A $50.8M gap before any grant, $40.8M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 39% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $50.8M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 266 homes finishing at $427K rather than the $236K the model assumes — 81% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $199 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $390K a home. That is still above the $236K assumed, leaving $40.8M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 1401 17th St, one alone would close the gap at:

Single-assumption flip points for 1401 17th St, each holding the other three at their defaults.

Average unit sizethe binding constraint — the least this building would need	39% downto 454 sq ft
Conversion cost per square foot	50% downto $131/sq ft
Completed value per home	65% upto $390K

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1401 17th St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Greater Downtown Denver

1401 17th St ranks 122nd of the 214 buildings screened here, against a median score of 72.

Its floor plate is better lit than 40% of them, and shallower than 43% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 77th 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 Union Station and the D-LD zone

27th of 55 in Union Station, 14th of 29 zoned D-LD — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

Denver places 55 of the screened buildings in Union Station. 1401 17th St ranks 27th of them against a median score of 69. 23 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 61 ft from a facade against this building’s 60 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 13,167 homes. The group’s top scorer is 1600 17th St, at 95.

29 of the screened buildings are zoned D-LD. 1401 17th St ranks 14th of them against a median score of 68. 10 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 61 ft from a facade against this building’s 60 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 5,069 homes. The group’s top scorer is 1600 17th St, at 95.

Its nearest match in size: 550 15th St

The screened building closest to 1401 17th St in converted floor area is 550 15th St: 306,386 sq ft over 17 stories, against 315,586 sq ft over 17 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 69 here, 70 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 3,300 ft apart.

The city's own study picked this building too

In August 2023 Denver and the architecture firm Gensler rated 21 downtown office buildings good candidates for conversion to housing and published the top 16 by address. One of them resolves to this building: “1401 17th St”.

That is an outside opinion reached by different means — architects reading plans, not a model reading outlines — and this screen partly agrees: 1401 17th St scores 69 here, worth a feasibility study but not in this screen’s strongest tier. The difference is the money rather than the geometry: at default assumptions the gap here is $50.8M, which no modeled RESIDE grant closes. A study asking whether a building can be converted and a model asking whether it would pencil are answering different questions.

Mile High CRE, Study Identifies 21 Downtown Denver Office Buildings as Good Candidates for Conversion. The full comparison across all 16 is on the Greater Downtown Denver page.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 1401 17th St $10.0M, 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 1401 17th St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 200 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

1331 17th St
15 stories · 75% daylit · 318 estimated homes · scores 64/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
about 200 ft away
1777 Larimer St
20 stories · 90% daylit · already a condominium building
about 350 ft away
1755 Blake St
5 stories · 75% daylit · 85 estimated homes · scores 58/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
about 350 ft away
1510 17th St
6 stories · 100% daylit · already an apartment building
about 460 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.