3501 Blake St

3501 Blake St is a 5-story building in Greater Downtown Denver with 98% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 54 homes and scores it 86 out of 100 for office-to-residential conversion suitability.

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

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Where 3501 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
3501 Blake St

3501 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. 3501 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: 98% of the building’s floor area sits within daylight reach of a facade; the drawing shows its typical floor, where the share is 97%. The shading is daylight, darkest at the windows and gone 35 ft in. The hatched area is windowless core: 428 sq ft per typical floor that must be renovated but can never be rented as an apartment. The dimension marks the deepest interior point, 40 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: 428 sq ft on the floor the screen scores, and 1,282 sq ft over 4 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 4 residential floors this building carries 1,282 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 3501 Blake St, 2026-09-19.

Suitability scoreStrong candidate	86 / 100
Storiesfrom 64 ft aerial-survey height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor	5
Height bandsfloor plate by floor range, from the city's roof outlines	Floors 1–3: 17,038 sq ft · Floor 4: 16,393 sq ft · Floor 5: 1,757 sq ft
Floor platetypical floor, from the city outlines	17,038 sq ft
Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade	98%
Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft	40 ft
Windowless coretypical floor; the building-wide total is in the text above	428 sq ft
Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average	54
Conversion cost$360/sq ft all-in on 52,227 sq ft	$18.8M
Gap before grantshortfall against completed value	$6.1M
Modeled RESIDE grantbelow the statutory cap	$3.2M
BuiltDenver does not publish a construction year with this data	—
ZoningFive Points	C-MX-12
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 716 ft of exterior wall, and across 4 residential floors the building carries 2,348 ft of it in total, divided among the 54 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is elongated at 0.42: 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 13.5 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 3501 Blake St scores 86 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 99, Scale 36, Finance 75 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Score components for 3501 Blake St. Points are the subscore times its weight.

Component	Subscore	Weight	Points
Daylight efficiency98% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%	100	45%	45.0
Interior depthdeepest interior point 40 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft	99	25%	24.7
Scale54 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150	36	15%	5.4
Financeremaining gap is 15% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%	75	15%	11.3

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is scale, at 36 out of 100: 54 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 52,227 sq ft of converted floor, or $18.8M in total — about $348K for each of the 54 homes.

All-in cost per square foot for 3501 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 1,282 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 54 homes is $12.7M.

What would have to be true

A $6.1M gap before any grant, $2.8M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 15% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $6.1M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 54 homes finishing at $348K rather than the $236K the model assumes — 48% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $244 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $3.2M moves that threshold to $288K a home. That is still above the $236K assumed, leaving $2.8M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 3501 Blake St, one alone would close the gap at:

Single-assumption flip points for 3501 Blake St, each holding the other three at their defaults.

Average unit sizethe binding constraint — the least this building would need	15% downto 637 sq ft
Circulation efficiency	18% upto 94%
Conversion cost per square foot	21% downto $206/sq ft
Completed value per home	22% upto $288K

All four are sliders in the survey, where 3501 Blake St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Greater Downtown Denver

3501 Blake St ranks 44th of the 214 buildings screened here, against a median score of 72.

Its floor plate is better lit than 88% of them, and shallower than 84% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 198th 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 Five Points and the C-MX-12 zone

2nd of 20 in Five Points, 6th of 16 zoned C-MX-12 — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

Denver places 20 of the screened buildings in Five Points. 3501 Blake St ranks 2nd of them against a median score of 68. 9 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 61 ft from a facade against this building’s 40 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 5,122 homes. The group’s top scorer is 3355 Denargo St, at 90.

16 of the screened buildings are zoned C-MX-12. 3501 Blake St ranks 6th of them against a median score of 85. 13 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 44 ft from a facade against this building’s 40 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 2,011 homes. The group’s top scorer is 1776 N Grant St, at 97.

Its nearest match in size: 1595 N Pearl St

The screened building closest to 3501 Blake St in converted floor area is 1595 N Pearl St: 50,740 sq ft over 5 stories, against 52,227 sq ft over 5 here.

3501 Blake St scores 86 to its 77, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from interior depth: 99 out of 100 here, 77 there (deepest interior point 49 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 10,000 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 3501 Blake St $3.2M, 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 3501 Blake St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 450 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

3463 Walnut St
13 stories · 88% daylit · already an apartment building
about 450 ft away
3600 Blake St
10 stories · 69% daylit · 362 estimated homes · scores 56/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
about 580 ft away
1831 35th St
10 stories · 81% daylit · 177 estimated homes · scores 77/100 (Strong candidate)
about 1,070 ft away
3773 Walnut St
6 stories · 95% daylit · already an apartment building
about 1,100 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.