1777 Chestnut Pl

1777 Chestnut Pl is a 23-story building in Greater Downtown Denver with 90% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 486 homes and scores it 91 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 1789 Chestnut Pl: Denver’s address records place both on this one footprint.

Where 1777 Chestnut Pl 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
1777 Chestnut Pl

1777 Chestnut Pl 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. 1777 Chestnut Pl 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 94%. The shading is daylight, darkest at the windows and gone 35 ft in. The hatched area is windowless core: 1,518 sq ft per typical floor that must be renovated but can never be rented as an apartment. The dimension marks the deepest interior point, 42 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: 1,518 sq ft on the floor the screen scores, and 51,182 sq ft over 22 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 22 residential floors this building carries 51,182 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 1777 Chestnut Pl, 2026-09-19.

Suitability scoreStrong candidate	91 / 100
Storiesfrom 279 ft aerial-survey height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor	23
Height bandsfloor plate by floor range, from the city's roof outlines	Floors 1–2: 32,792 sq ft · Floors 3–4: 32,174 sq ft · Floors 5–7: 24,931 sq ft · Floors 8–20: 23,892 sq ft · Floor 21: 20,930 sq ft · Floor 22: 2,726 sq ft · Floor 23: 1,545 sq ft
Floor platetypical floor, from the city outlines	23,892 sq ft
Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade	90%
Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft	42 ft
Windowless coretypical floor; the building-wide total is in the text above	1,518 sq ft
Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average	486
Conversion cost$360/sq ft all-in on 507,725 sq ft	$182.8M
Gap before grantshortfall against completed value	$68.1M
Modeled RESIDE grantat the statutory per-award cap	$10.0M
BuiltDenver does not publish a construction year with this data	—
ZoningUnion Station	PUD
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 816 ft of exterior wall, and across 22 residential floors the building carries 17,152 ft of it in total, divided among the 486 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.45: 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 22.1 homes per floor. Its floors are not alike, though: the typical floor's deepest interior point is 42 ft from a facade, while its worst floor reaches 65 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 1777 Chestnut Pl scores 91 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 95, Scale 100, Finance 47 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Score components for 1777 Chestnut Pl. 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%	44.9
Interior depthdeepest interior point 42 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft	95	25%	23.7
Scale486 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150	100	15%	15.0
Financeremaining gap is 32% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%	47	15%	7.1

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is finance, at 47 out of 100: remaining gap is 32% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 507,725 sq ft of converted floor, or $182.8M in total — about $376K for each of the 486 homes.

All-in cost per square foot for 1777 Chestnut Pl: 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 51,182 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 486 homes is $114.7M.

What would have to be true

A $68.1M gap before any grant, $58.1M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 34% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $68.1M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 486 homes finishing at $376K rather than the $236K the model assumes — 59% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $226 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $356K a home. That is still above the $236K assumed, leaving $58.1M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 1777 Chestnut Pl, one alone would close the gap at:

Single-assumption flip points for 1777 Chestnut Pl, each holding the other three at their defaults.

Average unit sizethe binding constraint — the least this building would need	34% downto 498 sq ft
Conversion cost per square foot	44% downto $146/sq ft
Completed value per home	51% upto $356K

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1777 Chestnut Pl re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Greater Downtown Denver

1777 Chestnut Pl ranks 20th of the 214 buildings screened here, against a median score of 72.

Its floor plate is better lit than 74% of them, and shallower than 80% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 42nd 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 PUD zone

4th of 55 in Union Station, 5th of 21 zoned PUD — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

Denver places 55 of the screened buildings in Union Station. 1777 Chestnut Pl ranks 4th 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 42 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 13,167 homes. The group’s top scorer is 1600 17th St, at 95.

21 of the screened buildings are zoned PUD. 1777 Chestnut Pl ranks 5th of them against a median score of 77. 12 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 49 ft from a facade against this building’s 42 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 5,808 homes. The group’s top scorer is 300 E 17th Ave, at 96.

Its nearest match in size: 1900 16th St

The screened building closest to 1777 Chestnut Pl in converted floor area is 1900 16th St: 526,817 sq ft over 23 stories, against 507,725 sq ft over 23 here.

1777 Chestnut Pl scores 91 to its 62, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from daylight efficiency: 100 out of 100 here, 69 there (74% 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 1,000 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 1777 Chestnut Pl $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 1777 Chestnut Pl

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.

2005 17th St
12 stories · 86% daylit · 144 estimated homes · scores 87/100 (Strong candidate)
about 200 ft away
1801 Chestnut Pl
6 stories · 83% daylit · already an apartment building
about 360 ft away
1850 Chestnut Pl
6 stories · 95% daylit · already an apartment building
about 420 ft away
1801 Wewatta St
13 stories · 86% daylit · 287 estimated homes · scores 87/100 (Strong candidate)
about 500 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.