A 16-story Denver office tower is heading to an online auction with a $750,000 starting bid
A massive 16-story office tower in the heart of downtown Denver is being sold through an online marketplace, signaling a deepening struggle for commercial real estate in the city’s central business district. The property, located at 475 17th Street, is currently listed on Ten-X, a platform used for selling distressed commercial assets. While the $750,000 starting bid is designed to trigger buyer interest, it represents only a tiny fraction of the building’s historical value. The tower was purchased for $26 million in 2015.
The gap between the building’s past and present value is stark. While the 2015 purchase price was $26 million, the Denver County assessor currently estimates the property’s value at $7.6 million. This decline reflects a trend hitting Denver’s urban core, where landlords are increasingly looking to offload empty, outdated office spaces to avoid the mounting costs of taxes, maintenance, and basic operations.
The auction, which began on Monday, is scheduled to conclude this Wednesday. The building, which was constructed in 1975, sits directly across from the Brown Palace Hotel and near the Colorado Convention Center. For the current owners—a German pension fund managed by Civicap Partners—the priority appears to be speed rather than maximizing profit. When properties face significant vacancy, sellers often prioritize getting the asset out of their portfolio over negotiating for top dollar.
Conversion plans stalled by funding gaps and high costs
The tower’s journey toward a new use as residential housing has hit significant roadblocks. The building was previously a candidate for a major conversion project. In 2024, the developer Revesco Properties proposed transforming the 160,000-square-foot space into approximately 200 apartment units. However, by October 2025, that plan had been scaled back to just 140 units.
A primary obstacle to this transformation was the denial of support from the Downtown Denver Development Authority (DDDA). While the DDDA has subsidized other downtown conversion projects, it declined to fund the 475 17th Street project. Bill Mosher, then the city’s chief projects officer, explained to BusinessDen that the requested loan amount was disproportionately high, averaging roughly $207,000 per unit. This significantly exceeded the $78,000 to $150,000 per unit range seen in other successful DDDA deals.
Revesco Properties explored other avenues to bridge this financial gap, including low-income housing tax credits, but ultimately decided against it. Rhys Duggan, CEO of Revesco, told BusinessDen that the firm felt they had exhausted their expertise in that specialized area of tax credits.
The difficulties facing this specific tower are not isolated incidents in Denver. The city has seen several large-scale office properties hit the auction block this year, including Columbine Place, Capitol Center, and 1630 Welton St. Even projects that received initial support have faced setbacks; the Symes building was foreclosed on by its lender, and the Petroleum building is currently dealing with a tenant that does not intend to vacate.
The economic stakes for Denver are high. As office vacancies remain elevated, the city faces a complex puzzle: how to repurpose massive, aging structures into housing without relying on subsidies that may be too costly for the public to bear. The outcome of this Wednesday auction will provide another data point in the ongoing attempt to stabilize the downtown economy.
