Low-Profile Denver Developer Eyes May Start for 11-Story Luxury Condo Project

DENVER-Bill Pauls, one of Denver’s most low-profile and most respected developers,is making plans for a May start of an 11-story, 49-unit luxury condominium project and adjacent 200,000-sf office building at 1800 Market St. in Lower Downtown.

The projects are positioned about a block from Coors Field. It’s highly possible, Pauls tells GlobeSt.com, that some business executives might rent space in his office tower and buy one of the next-door condo units. “I know if I was in that situation, that’s exactly what I would do,” he adds.

Prices are still being set in the condo project, but they likely will range from $375,000 to $1.8 million, says Kerry Endsley, Pauls Corp.’s residential development director. Units will range from 1,100 sf to 2,300 sf.

There will be ground-floor retail, but no restaurants, emphasizes Pauls. “They’re noisy and smelly. And, when people walk out their doors, there’s nothing but restaurants around them,” he immediately adds, noting there are 200 eateries within walking distance. “So why would I include restaurants. I like mixed-use projects, but I don’t like mixed-use buildings,” he says. Rather, he envisions interior designers or other service retail uses for the ground floor. The project will include a 24-hour concierge and likely will sport a health club in the basement for tenants.

Endsley says he expects buyers to come from throughout the metro area. “Interestingly, 30% of the high-end units in LoDo and the Central Platte Valley have been coming from people whose main home is in the mountains,” Endsley says. “They keep a second home in Denver for entertainment and business. And if the weather is bad, they just stay there overnight.”

Endsley says that their equity partner has yet to be chosen. “That’s not a problem,” he says. “We have people lining up who want to lend us money.”

Pauls also is planning to construct similar projects Downtown, as long as he can find the ground. “Our only constraints are finding sites that make sense, which is extremely difficult, and what happens with the market,” he says. “We have no limits on the capital we can raise.”

This is Pauls’ first condo project in Denver, but he is working on others in the region, including a 350-unit project in Calgary. It is priced $100 per sf higher than other Calgary developments and, says Endsley, “we’re selling them as fast as we can.”

Endsley tells GlobeSt.com that the company also is in the early stages of a high-end housing project in Downtown Austin. Preliminary plans are looking at 100 to 150 units.

Pauls is the former president of the Denver Technological Center and developer of the 1,200-acre, mixed-use Gateway project at the doorstep of the Denver International Airport.