10 APRIL 2-8, 2026 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | “Denver was the fi rst major market that really felt like the bottom had fallen out,” Luzzatto says. “That was going to be my starting point.” He’s careful to note that none of Denver’s underlying demand drivers have changed. He’s not betting on distress, he says, he’s bet- ting that distress opened an opportunity to build affordably in a city that will keep attract- ing people. His argument to the DDDA board was simple: At High Fidelity, residents will pay the same rent they would in a four-story building by a highway, but with high-quality construction, a dense walkable environment, child care, a bakery, a park and a bookstore. “A lot of cities don’t have that fortune,” he says. The Pre-Party On the last Saturday in February, hun- dreds of people took the elevator to the thirtieth fl oor of 633 17th Street for a party. Two stories of gutted offi ce space had been transformed into art galleries fi lled with live music and people. Outside, the streets were dead...as usual. Luzzatto had handed the space to musi- cian Julie Davis and her partner, Joseph Pope III, the bassist for Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats. The three had met through a chance breakfast in Taos, and soon Davis and Pope were hauling lamps, screens, paintings and sound gear up to the thirtieth fl oor for the party. Luzzatto uses the phrase “vertical vil- lage” to describe what he’s building, and he does it without apparent irony. Kids getting dropped at daycare. Jazz in the outdoor plaza on Sundays. A bookstore, a bodega, the rooftop pool. His company takes the infusion of public dollars seriously, he says, aiming to create a community that brings activity downtown, including for families with children. At least seventy of the units will be restricted to 60 percent of the area median income, and 10 percent of the $63 million loan is earmarked for the commu- nity-facing spaces. “I really do believe it will have a pro- foundly positive impact on downtown,” he says. “But I also recognize this project is not for everybody. This isn’t a solution to the city’s problems, but I hope it’s a blueprint for additional solutions.” Addressing Vacancies Downtown Bill Mosher has been thinking about downtown Denver for four decades. He led the Downtown Denver Partnership for nearly twenty years, and oversaw the initial trans- formation of Union Station. He was a private developer late in 2024, when Mayor Johnston called and asked Mosher to become the city’s chief projects offi cer, tasked with standing up the newly expanded DDDA and putting its $570 million in bond authority to work. Mosher describes the current downtown as “a tale of two cities.” Past Skyline Park, of- fi ce occupancy is holding at or above average. But going the other direction, in the core historic Central Business District, vacancy approaches 50 percent, Mosher says. Layer in the region’s sluggish job creation and the permanence of hybrid work schedules, and the math gets diffi cult. The city’s own analysis identifi ed roughly seven million square feet of offi ce space above the historic average vacancy, some of which may never be fi lled. According to Mosher, some of these buildings may eventually come down – though he notes that demolition currently costs more than acquisition. The DDDA’s current strategy is to attract new offi ce tenants, convert vi- able buildings to residential housing, and transform the Central Business District into what Mosher calls a “central mixed use neighborhood” with jobs, attractions and residents instead of just commuters. If council approves the gap-fi nancing loan and the project goes as planned, High Fidelity Plaza could eliminate more than a million square feet of that seven-million- square-foot overhang and deliver roughly 700 of the 4,000 new housing units the city’s downtown area plan envisions. Mosher is candid about the unknowns. The DDDA’s gap-fi nancing model, lending at roughly 3 percent in a subordinate posi- tion behind a commercial bank loan, is itself untested. “We’re trying to fi t ourselves into a 20 to 30 percent range of gap fi nancing,” he says. “I would say that’s a little bit of an experiment, too, because the private sector loans have to show up.” One thing Luzzatto’s towers have that most conversion candidates lack is parking. The High Fidelity buildings have under- ground garages, and the Energy Center has some parking of its own. Most of the historic buildings the DDDA is evaluating for conver- sion have none. “That’s the other thing we’re watching,” Mosher says, “how important parking is to the lease-up.” Beyond the bonus of parking, though, Luzzatto faces plenty of challenges. Eyeing the Challenges The conversion won’t be easy. Older offi ce buildings weren’t built for people to sleep in. Floor plates are large and deep, starving the core of natural light. Plumbing systems need to be rebuilt at a scale the buildings weren’t designed for. Luzzatto’s guiding principle is what he calls a fi fty-year standard; he has no patience with cheap construction. “This is concrete, steel and glass,” he says. “I think people will be, frankly, very pleasantly surprised, given everything that’s been built in the last few years.” High Fidelity rents will run roughly $1,400 to $1,700 for affordable units, up to $3,800 for the larger market-rate units. Luzzatto has a practical element to his vi- sion: Other lenders and investors need a data point. If one project demonstrably works at this scale, in this market, the next developer can point to it and say if they did it, we can too. Right now that data point doesn’t exist, but Luzzatto is trying to become it. He thinks about all of his developments through the lens of stewardship, not owner- ship. The buildings will outlast him; he’s just nurturing their evolution. “I was not fi rst to this party,” he says. “I will not be last at this party. But I’m at the party.” On the thirtieth fl oor of 633 17th, amidst the artwork, music and revelers, that vision was realized one night in February. Party on. Email the author at [email protected]. News continued from page 8
