490 W Colfax Ave

490 W Colfax Ave is a 8-story building in Greater Downtown Denver with 56% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 263 homes and scores it 30 out of 100 for office-to-residential conversion suitability.

CO-1 · Screened 2026-09-19 · Marginal

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Where 490 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
490 W Colfax Ave

490 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. 490 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: 56% of the building’s floor area sits within daylight reach of a facade; the drawing shows its typical floor, where the share is 55%. The shading is daylight, darkest at the windows and gone 35 ft in. The hatched area is windowless core: 32,411 sq ft per typical floor that must be renovated but can never be rented as an apartment. The dimension marks the deepest interior point, 89 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: 32,411 sq ft on the floor the screen scores, and 197,493 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 197,493 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 490 W Colfax Ave, 2026-09-19.

Suitability scoreMarginal	30 / 100
Storiesfrom 96 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: 74,823 sq ft · Floors 3–6: 71,795 sq ft · Floors 7–8: 41,196 sq ft
Floor platetypical floor, from the city outlines	71,795 sq ft
Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade	56%
Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft	89 ft
Windowless coretypical floor; the building-wide total is in the text above	32,411 sq ft
Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average	263
Conversion cost$360/sq ft all-in on 444,394 sq ft	$160.0M
Gap before grantshortfall against completed value	$97.9M
Modeled RESIDE grantat the statutory per-award cap	$10.0M
BuiltDenver does not publish a construction year with this data	—
ZoningCivic Center	PUD
Opportunity Zonenot in a 2018 designated tract	No

The plan: window line, shape and floor rhythm

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

The typical floor has 1,300 ft of exterior wall, and across 7 residential floors the building carries 8,289 ft of it in total, divided among the 263 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.53: 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 37.6 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 490 W Colfax Ave scores 30 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 31, Interior depth 0, Scale 100, Finance 8 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Score components for 490 W Colfax Ave. Points are the subscore times its weight.

Component	Subscore	Weight	Points
Daylight efficiency56% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%	31	45%	14.0
Interior depthdeepest interior point 89 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft	0	25%	0.0
Scale263 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150	100	15%	15.0
Financeremaining gap is 55% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%	8	15%	1.3

Most of what it earns comes from scale, and what holds it back most is interior depth, at 0 out of 100: deepest interior point 89 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 444,394 sq ft of converted floor, or $160.0M in total — about $608K for each of the 263 homes.

All-in cost per square foot for 490 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 197,493 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 263 homes is $62.1M.

What would have to be true

A $97.9M gap before any grant, $87.9M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 59% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $97.9M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 263 homes finishing at $608K rather than the $236K the model assumes — 158% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $140 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $570K a home. That is still above the $236K assumed, leaving $87.9M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 490 W Colfax Ave, one alone would close the gap at:

Single-assumption flip points for 490 W Colfax Ave, each holding the other three at their defaults.

Average unit sizethe binding constraint — the least this building would need	59% downto 311 sq ft
Conversion cost per square foot	76% downto $62/sq ft
Completed value per home	142% upto $570K

All four are sliders in the survey, where 490 W Colfax Ave re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Greater Downtown Denver

490 W Colfax Ave ranks 212th of the 214 buildings screened here, against a median score of 72.

Its floor plate is better lit than 1% of them, and shallower than 3% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 78th 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 PUD zone

23rd of 23 in Civic Center, 21st of 21 zoned PUD — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

Denver places 23 of the screened buildings in Civic Center. 490 W Colfax Ave ranks 23rd 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 89 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 5,064 homes. The group’s top scorer is 1314 N Elati St, at 92.

21 of the screened buildings are zoned PUD. 490 W Colfax Ave ranks 21st 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 89 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: 1301 N Broadway

The screened building closest to 490 W Colfax Ave in converted floor area is 1301 N Broadway: 437,965 sq ft over 11 stories, against 444,394 sq ft over 8 here.

490 W Colfax Ave scores 30 to its 35, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from daylight efficiency: 31 out of 100 here, 56 there (68% 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 1,600 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 490 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 490 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.

320 W Colfax Ave
7 stories · 57% daylit · 215 estimated homes · scores 32/100 (Marginal)
about 310 ft away
520 W Colfax Ave
9 stories · 65% daylit · 276 estimated homes · scores 49/100 (Marginal)
about 380 ft away
333 W Colfax Ave
6 stories · 100% daylit · 33 estimated homes · scores 85/100 (Strong candidate)
about 460 ft away
1371 N Cherokee St
6 stories · 88% daylit · 90 estimated homes · scores 78/100 (Strong candidate)
about 510 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.