450 E 17th Ave

450 E 17th Ave is a 7-story building in Greater Downtown Denver with 84% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 63 homes and scores it 67 out of 100 for office-to-residential conversion suitability.

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

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Where 450 E 17th 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
450 E 17th Ave

450 E 17th 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. 450 E 17th 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: 84% of the building’s floor area sits within daylight reach of a facade; the drawing shows its typical floor, where the share is 83%. The shading is daylight, darkest at the windows and gone 35 ft in. The hatched area is windowless core: 2,537 sq ft per typical floor that must be renovated but can never be rented as an apartment. The dimension marks the deepest interior point, 59 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: 2,537 sq ft on the floor the screen scores, and 11,546 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 11,546 sq ft of windowless core — area that must be gutted, re-plumbed and sprinklered but can never be rented as an apartment.

Part of this building is already homes. Denver's property records list 1 condominium here, alongside 9 non-residential records. The figures here treat the whole building as convertible, so read them as an upper bound and check which floors are already housing.

Modeled conversion metrics for 450 E 17th Ave, 2026-09-19.

Suitability scoreWorth a feasibility study	67 / 100
Storiesfrom 79 ft aerial-survey height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor	7
Height bandsfloor plate by floor range, from the city's roof outlines	Floors 1–5: 14,593 sq ft · Floor 6: 11,926 sq ft · Floor 7: 908 sq ft
Floor platetypical floor, from the city outlines	14,593 sq ft
Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade	84%
Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft	59 ft
Windowless coretypical floor; the building-wide total is in the text above	2,537 sq ft
Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average	63
Conversion cost$360/sq ft all-in on 71,207 sq ft	$25.6M
Gap before grantshortfall against completed value	$10.8M
Modeled RESIDE grantbelow the statutory cap	$3.8M
BuiltDenver does not publish a construction year with this data	—
ZoningNorth Capitol Hill	C-MX-8
Opportunity Zonenot in a 2018 designated tract	No

The plan: window line, shape and floor rhythm

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

The typical floor has 487 ft of exterior wall, and across 6 residential floors the building carries 2,644 ft of it in total, divided among the 63 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.77: 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 10.5 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 450 E 17th Ave scores 67 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 88, Interior depth 54, Scale 42, Finance 55 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Score components for 450 E 17th Ave. Points are the subscore times its weight.

Component	Subscore	Weight	Points
Daylight efficiency84% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%	88	45%	39.4
Interior depthdeepest interior point 59 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft	54	25%	13.4
Scale63 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150	42	15%	6.3
Financeremaining gap is 27% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%	55	15%	8.2

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is scale, at 42 out of 100: 63 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 71,207 sq ft of converted floor, or $25.6M in total — about $407K for each of the 63 homes.

All-in cost per square foot for 450 E 17th 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 11,546 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 63 homes is $14.9M.

What would have to be true

A $10.8M gap before any grant, $7.0M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 27% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $10.8M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 63 homes finishing at $407K rather than the $236K the model assumes — 72% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $209 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $3.8M moves that threshold to $347K a home. That is still above the $236K assumed, leaving $7.0M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 450 E 17th Ave, one alone would close the gap at:

Single-assumption flip points for 450 E 17th Ave, each holding the other three at their defaults.

Average unit sizethe binding constraint — the least this building would need	27% downto 549 sq ft
Conversion cost per square foot	38% downto $162/sq ft
Completed value per home	47% upto $347K

All four are sliders in the survey, where 450 E 17th Ave re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Greater Downtown Denver

450 E 17th Ave ranks 133rd of the 214 buildings screened here, against a median score of 72.

Its floor plate is better lit than 53% of them, and shallower than 49% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 191st 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 North Capitol Hill

34th of 41 in North Capitol Hill — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

Denver places 41 of the screened buildings in North Capitol Hill. 450 E 17th Ave ranks 34th of them against a median score of 85. 32 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 47 ft from a facade against this building’s 59 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 8,820 homes. The group’s top scorer is 1776 N Grant St, at 97.

Its nearest match in size: 400 E 19th Ave

The screened building closest to 450 E 17th Ave in converted floor area is 400 E 19th Ave: 71,670 sq ft over 6 stories, against 71,207 sq ft over 7 here.

450 E 17th Ave scores 67 to its 89, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from interior depth: 54 out of 100 here, 100 there (deepest interior point 34 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 1,000 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 450 E 17th Ave $3.8M, 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 450 E 17th 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.

1615 N Pennsylvania St
7 stories · 98% daylit · already an apartment building
about 310 ft away
1651 N Logan St
9 stories · 100% daylit · 130 estimated homes · scores 95/100 (Strong candidate)
about 370 ft away
1633 N Pearl St
10 stories · 93% daylit · already an apartment building
about 390 ft away
300 E 17th Ave
12 stories · 100% daylit · 224 estimated homes · scores 96/100 (Strong candidate)
about 450 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.