This week, the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) Board announced funding for multiple projects, including $31.5 million to help turn two historic office buildings into affordable housing.
The Symes Building and the University Building, both on the corner of 16th Street and Champa Street in downtown Denver, are more than 100 years old. Bill Mosher, the city’s chief projects officer, said the historic office buildings are mostly vacant today.
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“Between the construction and the pandemic, it’s been a challenge for us, for properties along 16th Street in particular, which is why we’ve been focused on 16th Street,” said Mosher. “Downtown lost all of its workers over a two month time period, and we’ve slowly been getting them back to come downtown. So that hurt retail. It hurt the office market.”
Mosher said the University Building will offer 120 units of affordable housing for low-income residents using low-income housing tax credits from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA). The Symes Building project will open up 116 units of mostly market-rate housing, ground-floor retail space and a patio…