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Vacant office buildings find new life as affordable apartments
Cbsnews ^ | 06/23/2023 | RICK SALLINGER

Posted on 06/26/2023 7:15:46 PM PDT by ChicagoConservative27

The Denver metro area is a study in real estate contrasts. Many office buildings now sit with high vacancy rates, but cranes mark where new apartments are rapidly being built.

At the corner of 6th Avenue in Simms Street in Lakewood used to be an office building. For a dozen years, it sat empty and now it's been turned into something unique.

It is now an apartment building that has struck the right note.

(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; US: Colorado
KEYWORDS: apartments; buildings; colorado; commercial; denver; office; vacant
I feel an epic fail coming on
1 posted on 06/26/2023 7:15:46 PM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Free is affordable to me, but I’d have to have at least one off-street parking spot.


2 posted on 06/26/2023 7:19:42 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: ChicagoConservative27; george76

The headline should read: “taxpayers get raped again”


3 posted on 06/26/2023 7:20:15 PM PDT by dynachrome (“We cannot save Ukraine by dooming the US economy.” Rand Paul)
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To: Paladin2

“Free is affordable to me, but I’d have to have at least one off-street parking spot.”
I worked in downtown Denver in the late 70’s. It cost $30.00/ month to park in the parking garage.


4 posted on 06/26/2023 7:33:25 PM PDT by wjcsux (On 3/14/1883 Karl Marx gave humanity his best gift, he died. )
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To: ChicagoConservative27

And so close to the job market.
Oh wait...


5 posted on 06/26/2023 7:34:14 PM PDT by jcon40 (The same Lefties who used to lecture us on bullying are now bullying our kids (innocents) on LBGTQ+ )
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To: ChicagoConservative27

If there are no businesses, there are no jobs, thus no need for apartments.


6 posted on 06/26/2023 7:34:48 PM PDT by Fai Mao (Starve the beast and steal its food!)
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To: wjcsux

In the 70s, I worked in a lab just east of Stapleton where we could watch the planes coming and going.

The whole metro/mountain complex was totally fun to be around.


7 posted on 06/26/2023 7:38:37 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Fai Mao

“If there are no businesses, there are no jobs, thus no need for apartments.”

I beg to differ. These suckers can spend their money to turn these white elephants into apartments. In less than a year the City Council will force them to house the homeless.

L


8 posted on 06/26/2023 7:40:22 PM PDT by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: Paladin2

“The whole metro/mountain complex was totally fun to be around.”

It used to be such a great place to live, I enjoyed every minute living there.


9 posted on 06/26/2023 7:48:48 PM PDT by wjcsux (On 3/14/1883 Karl Marx gave humanity his best gift, he died. )
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To: wjcsux

The perfect storm. Homeless encampments. Empty office buildings. The left is the solution party.


10 posted on 06/26/2023 7:52:44 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (e allowed )
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To: DIRTYSECRET

When I lived there, the looney’s were pretty much located in Boulder. Apparently, they control the whole state now.


11 posted on 06/26/2023 7:58:30 PM PDT by wjcsux (On 3/14/1883 Karl Marx gave humanity his best gift, he died. )
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To: DIRTYSECRET

I had this very popular bumper sticker on my truck back in the day.

“Colorado sucks! Go back to California and tell your friends. “


12 posted on 06/26/2023 8:08:05 PM PDT by wjcsux (On 3/14/1883 Karl Marx gave humanity his best gift, he died. )
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To: Lurker

—” In less than a year the City Council will force them to house the homeless.”

If any Federal money is involved, and there always is, there will be a slew of rules about who will be allowed to live in the project.

But first, they will have to add the needed plumbing, electrical, vent...

Buildings are seldom designed for future ‘possible’ use.

Office buildings have ~2 toilets for every thirty employees, apartments 2 toilets for every three bedrooms.

Unless they are packing 15 to a bedroom they need many more toilets and everything else...

But the plumbing pipes are concealed above the ceiling and usually do not have much space for additional services.

Possible but very expensive.

The building is owned by the mayor’s brother-in-law?
They will be grant money for all the union labor...


13 posted on 06/26/2023 8:47:43 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT ( "The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last messa)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Having done some commercial real estate I can tell you conversion of office space to residential would cost a bundle to bring to code for plumbing alone.


14 posted on 06/26/2023 9:08:25 PM PDT by DaxtonBrown (away.)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

This is BS. Office buildings do not have the number of bathrooms, showers, kitchens, etc to be converted to apartments. They simply do not have the plumbing and exhaust ventilation to be converted to apartments. Yes, in theory it can be done, but at a hell of a cost.


15 posted on 06/27/2023 12:24:23 AM PDT by Robert357
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Not new.

Grand Rapids was turning derelict furniture factories into apartments and condos of varying “affordability” 20 years ago.

Repurposing commercial real estate into housing (not to say “warehousing”, though I see that possibility, depending on whether government or the private profit-driven owners are driving the boat) is a sensible reaction to changing economic conditions.


16 posted on 06/27/2023 12:57:51 AM PDT by ExGeeEye (For dark is the suede that mows like a harvest.)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Such a moronic headline. “Affordable” to the renters, but not to the landlords or builders, who will go bankrupt leading to more homelessness.


17 posted on 06/27/2023 6:18:44 AM PDT by LS ("Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually" (Hendrix) )
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To: dynachrome; MileHi; backspace; Balata; bboop; Ben Dover; Benito Cereno; BigEdLB; bluejean; ...

Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list


18 posted on 06/27/2023 8:20:50 AM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: Paladin2
Stapleton

Now there's a lost historical reference.

19 posted on 06/27/2023 8:23:26 AM PDT by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic... )
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To: george76

I wouldn’t call $1300.00 - $1600.00 monthly rent “affordable”. More touchy-feely, feel good bull crap.

Thanks for the ping, george.


20 posted on 06/27/2023 8:27:17 AM PDT by laplata (They want each crisis to take the greatest toll possible.)
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