Petroleum Building Secures $14M To Help Revitalize Denver’s Downtown Core

By: Bernadette Berdychowski | The Denver Gazette

Another office-to-apartment conversion project secured a loan from the Denver Downtown Development Authority on Wednesday.

The DDDA Board of Directors approved $14 million in funding for a project to convert 12 floors of the historic Petroleum Building into 178 new apartments. The five-sided office tower is located across the street from the Civic Center Station and next to the former Denver Post office building at 101 W. Colfax Ave.

The development is projected to begin construction in mid-2026.

The building at 110 16th St. will feature a range of apartments from studios to three bedrooms. It’s also set to include a yoga and fitness center, spaces for gardening, a penthouse, dog park and lounge.

Upper Downtown has especially struggled since the pandemic, as office workers stayed home for remote or hybrid options and companies left their leases or downsized. Downtown Denver’s office vacancy is nearly at 38%, according to commercial real estate firm CBRE.

City leaders have touted office conversions as a solution to reduce the supply and turn the Central Business District into a “Central Neighborhood District.”

The Denver Downtown Development Authority, which is a tax-increment funding tool that loans money to investments to be paid back with property and sales tax gains made in the future, recently expanded from Union Station restoration to cover the rest of downtown as the city’s core recovers from the pandemic and 16th Street’s construction.

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