Along downtown’s eastern edge, developers are taking a new look at the prospects of Denver’s Uptown — the 2-mile-long neighborhood lining East 17th Avenue east from the financial district, long a “restaurant row” for downtown and increasingly a site that beckons apartment and condo developers.
In addition to its proximity to downtown and LoDo, part of the appeal of Upper Downtown is in its vintage homes dating from the 1880s that give the restaurant district a historic quality thatap vanished from many other areas around downtown’s perimeter. But no such quality protects the Denver Square brownstone at 1751 Franklin St., on the market now for $2.099 million.
Built in 1898, the home was on the plain side of the Denver Square architectural genre — and, like many homes of its era, was converted into offices in the 1980s with a commercial extension that reaches back to the alley, leaving virtually nothing of its original interior.
Its future as a property, says owner Roger Moore, is as a site for multifamily residential — something in growing demand as Denver lures more employment growth.
The property is actually three original city lots, one on its southern side thatap been a parking lot for the offices. Itap zoned GRO-5 — general urban residential office, five-story maximum height. (You’ll see a similar property on a like-sized site across the street that already went to multifamily residential.) Moore adds that it has no historic protections.
Residents of newly redeveloped properties here find themselves just a half-block south of the St. Joseph/Presbyterian St. Luke’s medical campus north of 18th Avenue, and a half-block from the dining district along 17th. With venerable Avenue Grill at 17th and Washington, Steuben’s, Ace, Marczyk Fine Foods and other destinations, Uptown is seen by planners as becoming a center attraction connecting downtown and popular neighborhoods east.
“Denver is envisioning 17th as being a main street,” says senior broker Justin Herman of Unique Properties, a specialist in Uptown and surrounding commercial offerings. Properties within a block of the dining strip take on added development appeal, he notes.
Within 2 blocks of the property on Franklin Street are a half-dozen tavern arrivals: Jack’s Uptown Grille, Sushi Bay, Humboldt Farm, Patxi’s Pizza, Kenji Sushi and Thai Basil, with Stoney’s, Atelier by Radex and others a little farther west or east.
Moore, a subrogation law attorney who maintained his law offices in the building for two decades, is ready to sell the property now as he heads for retirement.
The property, described as lots 7,8 and 9 of Park Avenue Addition, has a 9,375-square-foot total possible construction footprint, for a total five-story buildout at 46,875 square feet.
Moore will show his property by appointment. Contact him at 303-378-6657 or email rmoore@rmoorelaw.com.
The news and editorial staffs of The Denver Post had no role in this postap preparation.