320 W Colfax Ave

320 W Colfax Ave is a 7-story building in Greater Downtown Denver with 57% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 215 homes and scores it 32 out of 100 for office-to-residential conversion suitability.

CO-1 · Screened 2026-09-19 · Marginal

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Where 320 W Colfax Ave 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
320 W Colfax Ave

320 W Colfax Ave 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. 320 W Colfax Ave 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: 57% of the building’s floor area sits within daylight reach of a facade; the drawing shows its typical floor, where the share is 46%. The shading is daylight, darkest at the windows and gone 35 ft in. The hatched area is windowless core: 49,707 sq ft per typical floor that must be renovated but can never be rented as an apartment. The dimension marks the deepest interior point, 119 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: 49,707 sq ft on the floor the screen scores, and 152,944 sq ft over 6 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 6 residential floors this building carries 152,944 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 320 W Colfax Ave, 2026-09-19.

Suitability scoreMarginal	32 / 100
Storiesfrom 84 ft aerial-survey height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor	7
Height bandsfloor plate by floor range, from the city's roof outlines	Floors 1–3: 92,809 sq ft · Floor 4: 85,559 sq ft · Floors 5–6: 41,302 sq ft · Floor 7: 1,395 sq ft
Floor platetypical floor, from the city outlines	92,809 sq ft
Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade	57%
Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft	119 ft
Windowless coretypical floor; the building-wide total is in the text above	49,707 sq ft
Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average	215
Conversion cost$360/sq ft all-in on 355,176 sq ft	$127.9M
Gap before grantshortfall against completed value	$77.1M
Modeled RESIDE grantat the statutory per-award cap	$10.0M
BuiltDenver does not publish a construction year with this data	—
ZoningCivic Center	D-CV
Opportunity Zonenot in a 2018 designated tract	No

The plan: window line, shape and floor rhythm

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

The typical floor has 1,557 ft of exterior wall, and across 6 residential floors the building carries 7,130 ft of it in total, divided among the 215 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.48: 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 35.8 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 320 W Colfax Ave scores 32 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 34, Interior depth 0, Scale 100, Finance 13 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Score components for 320 W Colfax Ave. Points are the subscore times its weight.

Component	Subscore	Weight	Points
Daylight efficiency57% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%	34	45%	15.2
Interior depthdeepest interior point 119 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft	0	25%	0.0
Scale215 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150	100	15%	15.0
Financeremaining gap is 52% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%	13	15%	1.9

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is interior depth, at 0 out of 100: deepest interior point 119 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 355,176 sq ft of converted floor, or $127.9M in total — about $595K for each of the 215 homes.

All-in cost per square foot for 320 W Colfax Ave: 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 152,944 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 215 homes is $50.7M.

What would have to be true

A $77.1M gap before any grant, $67.1M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 57% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $77.1M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 215 homes finishing at $595K rather than the $236K the model assumes — 152% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $143 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $548K a home. That is still above the $236K assumed, leaving $67.1M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 320 W Colfax Ave, one alone would close the gap at:

Single-assumption flip points for 320 W Colfax Ave, each holding the other three at their defaults.

Average unit sizethe binding constraint — the least this building would need	57% downto 324 sq ft
Conversion cost per square foot	73% downto $71/sq ft
Completed value per home	132% upto $548K

All four are sliders in the survey, where 320 W Colfax Ave re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Greater Downtown Denver

320 W Colfax Ave ranks 210th of the 214 buildings screened here, against a median score of 72.

Its floor plate is better lit than 2% of them, and shallower than 2% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 104th 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 Civic Center and the D-CV zone

22nd of 23 in Civic Center, 4th of 4 zoned D-CV — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

Denver places 23 of the screened buildings in Civic Center. 320 W Colfax Ave ranks 22nd of them against a median score of 67. 10 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 62 ft from a facade against this building’s 119 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 5,064 homes. The group’s top scorer is 1314 N Elati St, at 92.

4 of the screened buildings are zoned D-CV. 320 W Colfax Ave ranks 4th of them against a median score of 56. 2 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 74 ft from a facade against this building’s 119 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 1,085 homes. The group’s top scorer is 144 W Colfax Ave, at 85.

Its nearest match in size: 1606 16th St

The screened building closest to 320 W Colfax Ave in converted floor area is 1606 16th St: 367,190 sq ft over 8 stories, against 355,176 sq ft over 7 here.

1606 16th St scores 62 and 320 W Colfax Ave only 32, and the difference is a hard fail rather than a matter of degree: the lower one is capped at 35 because its deepest interior point is 119 ft from a facade, past the 80 ft threshold beyond which conversion requires carving a light well. On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 4,900 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 320 W Colfax Ave $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 320 W Colfax Ave

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 310 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

490 W Colfax Ave
8 stories · 56% daylit · 263 estimated homes · scores 30/100 (Marginal)
about 310 ft away
1437 N Bannock St
16 stories · 89% daylit · 496 estimated homes · scores 78/100 (Strong candidate)
about 370 ft away
333 W Colfax Ave
6 stories · 100% daylit · 33 estimated homes · scores 85/100 (Strong candidate)
about 410 ft away
1371 N Cherokee St
6 stories · 88% daylit · 90 estimated homes · scores 78/100 (Strong candidate)
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.