1550 17th St

1550 17th St is a 8-story building in Greater Downtown Denver with 73% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 147 homes and scores it 61 out of 100 for office-to-residential conversion suitability.

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

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

Also addressed as 1612 Wazee St, 1620 Wazee St and 1626 Wazee St: Denver’s address records place all 4 on this one footprint.

Where 1550 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
1550 17th St

1550 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. 1550 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: 73% of the building’s floor area sits within daylight reach of a facade; the drawing shows its typical floor, where the share is 73%. The shading is daylight, darkest at the windows and gone 35 ft in. The hatched area is windowless core: 9,107 sq ft per typical floor that must be renovated but can never be rented as an apartment. The dimension marks the deepest interior point, 62 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: 9,107 sq ft on the floor the screen scores, and 51,822 sq ft over 7 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 7 residential floors this building carries 51,822 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 1550 17th St, 2026-09-19.

Suitability scoreWorth a feasibility study	61 / 100
Storiesfrom 99 ft aerial-survey height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor	8
Height bandsfloor plate by floor range, from the city's roof outlines	Floor 1: 42,862 sq ft · Floor 2: 35,751 sq ft · Floors 3–4: 34,022 sq ft · Floors 5–6: 30,711 sq ft · Floor 7: 24,259 sq ft · Floor 8: 771 sq ft
Floor platetypical floor, from the city outlines	34,022 sq ft
Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade	73%
Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft	62 ft
Windowless coretypical floor; the building-wide total is in the text above	9,107 sq ft
Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average	147
Conversion cost$360/sq ft all-in on 190,246 sq ft	$68.5M
Gap before grantshortfall against completed value	$33.8M
Modeled RESIDE grantbelow the statutory cap	$8.8M
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

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

The typical floor has 1,021 ft of exterior wall, and across 7 residential floors the building carries 5,569 ft of it in total, divided among the 147 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is elongated at 0.41: a slab or an L, which is why so much of the floor lies within reach of a window: the outline buys daylight that a square plan of the same area would not. How window line and plate shape are measured.

At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 21.0 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 1550 17th St scores 61 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 66, Interior depth 45, Scale 98, Finance 39 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Score components for 1550 17th St. Points are the subscore times its weight.

Component	Subscore	Weight	Points
Daylight efficiency73% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%	66	45%	29.5
Interior depthdeepest interior point 62 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft	45	25%	11.3
Scale147 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150	98	15%	14.7
Financeremaining gap is 36% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%	39	15%	5.9

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is finance, at 39 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 190,246 sq ft of converted floor, or $68.5M in total — about $466K for each of the 147 homes.

All-in cost per square foot for 1550 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 51,822 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 147 homes is $34.7M.

What would have to be true

A $33.8M gap before any grant, $25.0M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 40% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $33.8M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 147 homes finishing at $466K rather than the $236K the model assumes — 97% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $182 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $8.8M moves that threshold to $406K a home. That is still above the $236K assumed, leaving $25.0M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 1550 17th St, one alone would close the gap at:

Single-assumption flip points for 1550 17th St, each holding the other three at their defaults.

Average unit sizethe binding constraint — the least this building would need	40% downto 447 sq ft
Conversion cost per square foot	50% downto $129/sq ft
Completed value per home	72% upto $406K

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1550 17th St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Greater Downtown Denver

1550 17th St ranks 161st of the 214 buildings screened here, against a median score of 72.

Its floor plate is better lit than 21% of them, and shallower than 31% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 135th 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

40th of 55 in Union Station, 23rd of 29 zoned D-LD — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

Denver places 55 of the screened buildings in Union Station. 1550 17th St ranks 40th 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 62 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. 1550 17th St ranks 23rd 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 62 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: 480 E 20th Ave

The screened building closest to 1550 17th St in converted floor area is 480 E 20th Ave: 187,566 sq ft over 6 stories, against 190,246 sq ft over 8 here.

1550 17th St scores 61 to its 93, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from daylight efficiency: 66 out of 100 here, 100 there (95% 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 5,200 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 1550 17th St $8.8M, 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 1550 17th St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 210 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

1601 Blake St
8 stories · 90% daylit · 66 estimated homes · scores 81/100 (Strong candidate)
about 210 ft away
1510 17th St
6 stories · 100% daylit · already an apartment building
about 210 ft away
1600 17th St
7 stories · 92% daylit · 180 estimated homes · scores 95/100 (Strong candidate)
about 250 ft away
1660 Blake St
6 stories · 100% daylit · 71 estimated homes · scores 89/100 (Strong candidate)
about 340 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.