In the 1970s, when Lower Downtown suddenly morphed from skid row into a place everyone wanted to be, there weren’t that many historic buildings left to transform into trendy lofts and brewpubs — maybe 20% of the original stock. The best of those remnants became projects like Edbrooke and Ice House Lofts; but when those were gone, LoDo developers had to get creative.
Broker Jenny Usaj can show you such a project on Mother’s Day — a “faux loft” that mimics the genuine lofts with their high window walls and exposed ductwork, but that has a bona fide Old West location. Palace Lofts by developer Ray Suppa, completed in 1998, was named for the Palace Variety Theatre at 15th and Blake — a “box house” with theater, casino and saloon that reportedly lured the likes of Bat Masterson and Doc Holliday.
Sports centric
Usaj says the Palace is now a place to get a lot of nicely finished space for the money, in a walkable location that splits the difference between Larimer Square, Union Station, Coors Field and Ball Arena, all within two-to-four blocks. Unit 4A is a single-bedroom/2-bath unit priced at $645,000, but delivers 1,373 finished feet, much of it rendered as entertaining area with floor-to-ceiling glass that overlooks Blake from a perch right above the corner.
“You can see the whole city skyline,” said Usaj, who has built a 40-person agency, a rarity of its size that hasn’t been absorbed by one of the mega-realty companies, by specializing in core city areas. She’s marketing this unit with its sports-centric setting as a spot to host pregame parties from an open kitchen and a sizable island-bar, all with LoDo views. Two parking spaces in the heated garage, she added, are the best situation in that district for someone with an F-150 or other high-top vehicle needing an unusually high door and bay.
Like many properties downtown, the Palace has a number of units on the market now at a moment the city and the Downtown Denver Partnership are working to further a resurgence of the restaurant scene following the pandemic shutdown, and when insurance costs have driven up HOA dues. Condos are a rare part of the housing market that saw a drop in median price over the last two years, and the unpredictability of HOA fees is a reason why…