1601 Blake St

1601 Blake St is a 8-story building in Greater Downtown Denver with 90% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 66 homes and scores it 81 out of 100 for office-to-residential conversion suitability.

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

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Also addressed as 1621 Blake St: Denver’s address records place both on this one footprint.

Where 1601 Blake 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
1601 Blake St

1601 Blake 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. 1601 Blake 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: 90% of the building’s floor area sits within daylight reach of a facade; the drawing shows its typical floor, where the share is 89%. The shading is daylight, darkest at the windows and gone 35 ft in. The hatched area is windowless core: 1,133 sq ft per typical floor that must be renovated but can never be rented as an apartment. The dimension marks the deepest interior point, 48 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: 1,133 sq ft on the floor the screen scores, and 6,733 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 6,733 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 1601 Blake St, 2026-09-19.

Suitability scoreStrong candidate	81 / 100
Storiesfrom 93 ft aerial-survey height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor	8
Height bandsfloor plate by floor range, from the city's roof outlines	Floors 1–2: 16,318 sq ft · Floor 3: 12,024 sq ft · Floors 4–6: 10,615 sq ft · Floors 7–8: 4,581 sq ft
Floor platetypical floor, from the city outlines	10,615 sq ft
Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade	90%
Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft	48 ft
Windowless coretypical floor; the building-wide total is in the text above	1,133 sq ft
Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average	66
Conversion cost$360/sq ft all-in on 69,349 sq ft	$25.0M
Gap before grantshortfall against completed value	$9.4M
Modeled RESIDE grantbelow the statutory cap	$4.0M
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

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

The typical floor has 406 ft of exterior wall, and across 7 residential floors the building carries 2,814 ft of it in total, divided among the 66 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.81: 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 9.4 homes per floor. Its floors are not alike, though: the typical floor's deepest interior point is 48 ft from a facade, while its worst floor reaches 53 ft. The score follows the typical floor, so a podium that could not hold a bedroom does not by itself sink a slim tower above it — but it is there, and it is part of what would have to be drawn around.

Why 1601 Blake St scores 81 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 79, Scale 44, Finance 64 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Score components for 1601 Blake St. Points are the subscore times its weight.

Component	Subscore	Weight	Points
Daylight efficiency90% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%	100	45%	45.0
Interior depthdeepest interior point 48 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft	79	25%	19.8
Scale66 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150	44	15%	6.6
Financeremaining gap is 22% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%	64	15%	9.6

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is scale, at 44 out of 100: 66 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 69,349 sq ft of converted floor, or $25.0M in total — about $378K for each of the 66 homes.

All-in cost per square foot for 1601 Blake 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 6,733 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 66 homes is $15.6M.

What would have to be true

A $9.4M gap before any grant, $5.4M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 21% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $9.4M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 66 homes finishing at $378K rather than the $236K the model assumes — 60% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $225 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $4.0M moves that threshold to $318K a home. That is still above the $236K assumed, leaving $5.4M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 1601 Blake St, one alone would close the gap at:

Single-assumption flip points for 1601 Blake St, each holding the other three at their defaults.

Average unit sizethe binding constraint — the least this building would need	21% downto 589 sq ft
Conversion cost per square foot	30% downto $182/sq ft
Completed value per home	35% upto $318K

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1601 Blake St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Greater Downtown Denver

1601 Blake St ranks 73rd of the 214 buildings screened here, against a median score of 72.

Its floor plate is better lit than 76% of them, and shallower than 69% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 190th 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

13th of 55 in Union Station, 3rd of 29 zoned D-LD — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

Denver places 55 of the screened buildings in Union Station. 1601 Blake St ranks 13th 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 48 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. 1601 Blake St ranks 3rd 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 48 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: 450 E 17th Ave

The screened building closest to 1601 Blake St in converted floor area is 450 E 17th Ave: 71,207 sq ft over 7 stories, against 69,349 sq ft over 8 here.

1601 Blake St scores 81 to its 67, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from interior depth: 79 out of 100 here, 54 there (deepest interior point 59 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 5,700 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 1601 Blake St $4.0M, 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 1601 Blake 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.

1550 17th St
8 stories · 73% daylit · 147 estimated homes · scores 61/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
about 210 ft away
1510 16th St
11 stories · 85% daylit · 125 estimated homes · scores 73/100 (Strong candidate)
about 230 ft away
1660 Blake St
6 stories · 100% daylit · 71 estimated homes · scores 89/100 (Strong candidate)
about 240 ft away
1510 17th St
6 stories · 100% daylit · already an apartment building
about 300 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.