1510 16th St

1510 16th St is a 11-story building in Greater Downtown Denver with 85% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 125 homes and scores it 73 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.

Also addressed as 1520 16th St and 1555 Blake St: Denver’s address records place all 3 on this one footprint.

Where 1510 16th 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
1510 16th St

1510 16th 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. 1510 16th 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: 85% of the building’s floor area sits within daylight reach of a facade; the drawing shows its typical floor, where the share is 79%. The shading is daylight, darkest at the windows and gone 35 ft in. The hatched area is windowless core: 3,721 sq ft per typical floor that must be renovated but can never be rented as an apartment. The dimension marks the deepest interior point, 61 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: 3,721 sq ft on the floor the screen scores, and 21,281 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 21,281 sq ft of windowless core — area that must be gutted, re-plumbed and sprinklered but can never be rented as an apartment.

Part of this building is already homes. Denver's property records list 37 apartments here, alongside 1 non-residential record. The figures here treat the whole building as convertible, so read them as an upper bound and check which floors are already housing.

Modeled conversion metrics for 1510 16th St, 2026-09-19.

Suitability scoreStrong candidate	73 / 100
Storiesfrom 136 ft aerial-survey height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor	11
Height bandsfloor plate by floor range, from the city's roof outlines	Floor 1: 18,547 sq ft · Floors 2–4: 17,949 sq ft · Floor 5: 17,750 sq ft · Floors 6–7: 12,657 sq ft · Floors 8–11: 10,529 sq ft
Floor platetypical floor, from the city outlines	17,949 sq ft
Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade	85%
Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft	61 ft
Windowless coretypical floor; the building-wide total is in the text above	3,721 sq ft
Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average	125
Conversion cost$360/sq ft all-in on 139,025 sq ft	$50.0M
Gap before grantshortfall against completed value	$20.5M
Modeled RESIDE grantbelow the statutory cap	$7.5M
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

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

The typical floor has 571 ft of exterior wall, and across 10 residential floors the building carries 4,953 ft of it in total, divided among the 125 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.69: 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 12.5 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 1510 16th St scores 73 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 89, Interior depth 48, Scale 83, Finance 57 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Score components for 1510 16th St. Points are the subscore times its weight.

Component	Subscore	Weight	Points
Daylight efficiency85% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%	89	45%	40.2
Interior depthdeepest interior point 61 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft	48	25%	12.0
Scale125 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150	83	15%	12.5
Financeremaining gap is 26% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%	57	15%	8.5

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is interior depth, at 48 out of 100: deepest interior point 61 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 139,025 sq ft of converted floor, or $50.0M in total — about $400K for each of the 125 homes.

All-in cost per square foot for 1510 16th 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 21,281 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 125 homes is $29.5M.

What would have to be true

A $20.5M gap before any grant, $13.0M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 26% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $20.5M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 125 homes finishing at $400K rather than the $236K the model assumes — 70% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $212 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $7.5M moves that threshold to $340K a home. That is still above the $236K assumed, leaving $13.0M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 1510 16th St, one alone would close the gap at:

Single-assumption flip points for 1510 16th St, each holding the other three at their defaults.

Average unit sizethe binding constraint — the least this building would need	26% downto 554 sq ft
Conversion cost per square foot	36% downto $166/sq ft
Completed value per home	44% upto $340K

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1510 16th St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Greater Downtown Denver

1510 16th St ranks 105th of the 214 buildings screened here, against a median score of 72.

Its floor plate is better lit than 57% of them, and shallower than 38% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 148th 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

21st of 55 in Union Station, 8th of 29 zoned D-LD — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

Denver places 55 of the screened buildings in Union Station. 1510 16th St ranks 21st 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 61 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. 1510 16th St ranks 8th 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 61 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: 1525 N Sherman St

The screened building closest to 1510 16th St in converted floor area is 1525 N Sherman St: 140,944 sq ft over 10 stories, against 139,025 sq ft over 11 here.

1510 16th St scores 73 to its 86, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from interior depth: 48 out of 100 here, 86 there (deepest interior point 45 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 5,400 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 1510 16th St $7.5M, 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 1510 16th St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 190 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

1521 15th St
9 stories · 82% daylit · 132 estimated homes · scores 70/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
about 190 ft away
1601 Blake St
8 stories · 90% daylit · 66 estimated homes · scores 81/100 (Strong candidate)
about 230 ft away
1431 15th St
10 stories · 79% daylit · 311 estimated homes · scores 62/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
about 260 ft away
1550 17th St
8 stories · 73% daylit · 147 estimated homes · scores 61/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
about 410 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.