REAL ESTATE
Denver Permitting Office
In the five months since Mayor Mike Johnston signed Executive Order 151 to create the Denver Permitting Office (DPO), Director Jill Jennings Golich and her team have been working diligently to develop systems that improve customer service, break down barriers for residents and developers trying to build housing or open businesses in the city, and deliver on the commitment to get submittals completed within 180 days of time in the city’s hands.
https://denvergov.org/My-Property/Remodeling-and-Construction/Permit-Office
Big Tech’s AI spending is accelerating (again)
Four of the tech industry’s wealthiest companies made it clear last week that their spending on artificial intelligence was not about to slow down. But the outlays from Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon — which all raised their spending by billions of dollars, saying they needed to meet demand for AI — are increasingly feeding concerns that the tech industry is heading toward a dangerous bubble. AI remains an unproven and expensive technology that could take years to fully develop. How much companies will ultimately get back in return from AI products like chatbots is unclear. And smaller companies pursuing AI gold, financial analysts pointed out, are not nearly as wealthy. Last month, the Bank of England wrote that while the building of data centers, which provide computing power for AI, had so far largely come from the cash produced by the biggest companies, it would increasingly involve more debt. If AI underwhelms — or the systems ultimately require far less computing — there could be growing risk. “This is a fast-evolving topic, and the future is highly uncertain,” the bank wrote.
https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx
We’re obviously still adjusting’: Denver landlords react to Sonder’s liquidation
Sonder operates apartment-style hotels that feature kitchens, so its landlords do have one advantage: their building could take on a new life as apartment buildings with seemingly minimal changes. “It’s a good location. If we have the ability to do that, I think we could lease them up as apartments,” Huml said, noting that Sonder’s lease remains in place for now. Sonder ceased operations after Maryland-based Marriott International on Sunday terminated a licensing agreement with the company, citing an unspecified default by Sonder. Those staying in Sonder hotels were told Sunday to vacate by Monday morning.
https://businessden.com/2025/11/11/were-obviously-still-adjusting-denver-landlords-react-to-sonders-liquidation/
$10M Cherry Creek penthouse tops local home sales in October
A Cherry Creek penthouse that sold for $350,000 over its list price topped October’s home sales in the Denver metro. The penthouse property at Laurel Cherry Creek, 155 Steele St., listed for $9.8 million on Sept. 15. After a bidding war, it went under contract, and the sale closed Oct. 8 for $10.1 million. [$2,121/SF for 4,761 SF]
https://businessden.com/2025/11/11/10m-cherry-creek-penthouse-tops-local-home-sales-in-october/
Denver Post misses 4th month of rent for building bought by city
The feud between the city and its most well-known newspaper revolves around 101 W. Colfax Ave., an 11-story office building built in 2006 for the Post and its rival The Rocky Mountain News, the latter of which went out of business in 2009.
Amid revenue declines, the Post, which never owned the building, moved its newsroom to a printing facility in Adams County in 2017. Its other departments moved out by 2020. The Post, however, remained locked into a lease for the entire building that runs through October 2029. The newspaper attempted to sublease the space and struck several deals — principally with the city, which subleased multiple floors. Then, in April 2024, Denver bought the building for $88.5 million from an affiliate of New York-based American Properties, planning to eventually expand the city’s court system into the building. The Post’s lease — which calls for it to pay about $650,000 a month — remained in place after the sale, making Denver both a landlord and subtenant of the newspaper.
https://businessden.com/2025/11/11/denver-post-misses-4th-month-of-rent-for-building-bought-by-city/
How Denver is trying to rescue its development permitting
The new processes seem to be working. In the year before the DPO opened, major residential projects in Denver averaged 297 days from plan submittal to approval, according to CPD statistics. Major commercial projects averaged 261 days. As of September, 81% of permit reviews had been completed on time this year compared to just 54% of the time in 2024, according to CPD data. Concept and site plan reviews have been on time 53% compared to 44% last year. More recent statistics show greater improvement. Buchanan said CPD’s on-time rate was 91% during the week of Oct. 20-26. He said the successes are giving both staff and developers optimism, creating a better culture in the department.
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2025/11/07/denver-permitting-system-problems-solutions.html
The New Arena: How Sports-Anchored Districts Are Reshaping Cities
No longer content to build standalone stadiums with acres of parking that may be vacant or underutilized for long periods—and may have little or no direct benefit to the surrounding neighborhoods—city planners instead are leaning into a new model of large sports facility, one that puts a busy year-round complex at the center of a larger, thriving community. In the United States alone, the pipeline for these types of so-called sports districts over the next decade is projected to be tens of billions of dollars—and quickly gaining traction as an engine of major urban revitalization.
https://urbanland.uli.org/design-planning/the-new-arena-how-sports-anchored-districts-are-reshaping-cities
Major Apartment Owners Turn Bearish On Rents As Economy Falters
Renewed leases remain steadier as people stay put in uncertain economic conditions, but a dearth of new leases is stifling rent growth, according to third-quarter results released by five multifamily landlords this week. “Blends began the quarter ahead of our expectations but over the last 45 days have decelerated beyond typical seasonality, which we largely attribute to the economic uncertainty,” said UDR CEO Michael Lacy, describing combined rent growth for new and renewed leases. “This led to our third-quarter blends being below our prior expectations of 2%.” The slowdown in new leases and correlated softness in rent growth come as the multifamily market tries to work through a record wave of new construction delivered last year. This year, economic woes including inflation, elevated interest rates and slower job growth — now combined with fallout from the federal government shutdown — have landlords further concerned. The differential between what landlords are getting for new versus renewed leases can be substantial.
https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/multifamily/avalonbay-equity-residential-multifamily-reit-earnings-131657
Denver-based Ownli looking to reprogram home purchasing by using AI
MyOwnli.com offers consumers a way to bypass real estate commissions that typically run between 5% to 6% on a home sale. In July, the platform launched with a focus on self-directed buyers, charging a flat $999 to help them find and purchase a home. In two weeks, MyOwnli.com plans to launch a service that charges a flat $1,999 for FSBO or for-sale-by-owner listings. The median price for a single-family home sold in metro Denver in August was just under $650,000, according to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors. At a 6% combined commission, a seller would pay $39,000, or $32,500 with a 5% commission. Going FSBO could cut that amount by close to half, generating savings of $14,250 to $17,500 after paying Ownli’s listing fee.
https://www.denverpost.com/2025/11/06/ownli-real-estate-ai-home-buying/
Petroleum Building Announces Adaptive Reuse Conversion
The Denver Downtown Development Authority (DDA) has announced that the Petroleum Building was awarded a loan commitment to assist with funding the conversion of the vintage 1950s office building into residential apartments. This adaptive reuse project will help provide critical housing in downtown Denver through the creation of 178 market-rate rental apartments with studio, one, two, and three-bedroom options. Located at the corner of 16th Street and Broadway, the Petroleum Building is a 200,000-square-foot, 14-story office building that has seen an increase in vacancies following the pandemic, along with a number of other buildings downtown. The conversion is being led by developer Tim Borst on behalf of the ownership group, which includes Borst & Company and DellaCava Holdings, who purchased the building in 2005. The owners engaged the architecture firm Gensler and PCL Construction, who bring a depth of expertise in office-to-residential conversions to help navigate the challenges of design, engineering, and constructability for this type of project.
https://milehighcre.com/petroleum-building-announces-adaptive-reuse-conversion/
Denver Pavilions was once worth $100 million. Is the city getting a deal or a dead mall?
“Our goal is to get Pavilions back into private sector hands,” Mosher said. “The DDA and this mayor have felt some urgency to deal with downtown, now that 16th Street is open. How do we put a spark back and some confidence back into the private sector and spur redevelopment in downtown?” But the authority would take on a different risk in purchasing Pavilions, said Glenn Mueller, a former University of Denver real estate professor who tracks commercial properties in the nation’s 54 largest cities. The question is whether the DDA can actually sell the property as it hopes. “I understand the Denver development authority wanting to keep something from going dark, because then the city loses property taxes,” he said. “The question is, within one year, is there a retail owner and or developer who would be interested in taking this over?”
https://denverite.com/2025/10/24/city-buying-denver-pavilions-explained/
‘Breach of trust’: New soccer stadium could leave bondholders hurting
Propheter notes that Denver has a simple, if costly, option for pleasing bondholders. “If it’s a concern to city lawmakers, the council and mayor could just buy them out,” Propheter said. “Where a project has an existing debt burden, you pay off those investors as part of the bond issuance for the new project. That’s pretty typical.” He believes it is a bad look to sell bonds for one development and then switch to a second. “Even if you get your money back, the fact is, that’s not what you bought. That’s not what you agreed to buy; that wasn’t the plan when you sold me your debt. So, this makes Denver and the Broadway Station Metro Districts look bad to say, ‘Joke’s on you, thanks for buying our debt, we’re going to change our plans,’” Propheter said, referring to developers’ metro district. “It is a moot point if the city steps in and satisfies bondholders, though,” he added.
https://businessden.com/2025/10/27/bond-concerns-denver-womens-soccer-summit-broadway-station-santa-fe-yards/
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Denver ramps up efforts to increase affordable housing
Over the past five years, the city has adopted strategies to try and attract developers to invest in the Mile High City and build more housing. Whether the strategies deliver — the ultimate goal is more affordable housing units — remains to be seen. Among the city’s most notable moves are the recent blanket zoning changes and fast-track permitting. Additionally, Johnston brought back a development leader to streamline the city’s Community Planning Development and developers — for the most part — have applauded the moves.
https://www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/11/01/denver-ramps-up-efforts-to-increase-affordable-housing/
LA City Council Sets Strict Limits on Rent Hikes for 650,000 Apartments
By narrowing the allowable increase to 1%–4% annually based on inflation and removing additional surcharges, the city aims to address affordability pressures while sparking new debate among landlords and investors over the future of rental housing in the region. After years of debate, Los Angeles leaders approved sweeping changes to the Rent Stabilization Ordinance. The new formula calculates increases at 90% of the Consumer Price Index and cuts longstanding add-ons for utilities and additional tenants, which previously pushed some annual hikes as high as 10%. With the reforms, roughly three-quarters of the city’s rental units—about 650,000 apartments built before October 1978—fall under the revised caps, which also bar extra charges for dependents or roommates.
https://www.globest.com/2025/11/13/la-city-council-sets-strict-limits-on-rent-hikes-for-650000-apartments/
Opportunity Zones: Billionaire Handout or Housing Booster?
First launched in 2017 in the Trump administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the core idea behind the program is granting investors a substantial tax break if they commit a capital gain (a profit from selling assets like stocks or real estate) to projects in OZs. Dreamt up by Napster founder Sean Parker, the program was pitched as a low-cost, low-effort, market-driven experiment to spur private investment in low-income communities. Eight years on—and recently revamped and made permanent—supporters say the program has worked as intended, fueling projects that otherwise wouldn’t have happened. Critics counter that it’s a tax handout to billionaires, subsidizing deals that would have happened anyway while requiring no affordability restrictions, tenant protections, or local hiring by the developers. By design, detractors argue, OZs favor appreciation in already-valuable markets over equitable investment in places that need it most.
https://shelterforce.org/2025/11/14/opportunity-zones-billionaire-handout-or-housing-booster/
Millennials are ‘carpooling for homes’ by teaming up with non-romantic co-buyers because of the disastrous state of the housing market
Opendoor Technologies, an online company that buys and sells residential real estate, found first-time homeownership in co-buying is becoming more common among first-time homebuyers, particularly millennials. Jennifer Patchen, an Opendoor real estate broker, says this should come as no surprise, given it’s millennials who introduced crowdfunding and are also notorious for wanting to generate passive income and work side hustles. “Millennials are often the ones looking for alternative strategies for funding a home and are really leading the charge for redefining traditional homeownership,” Patchen tells Fortune. “The primary drive of co-ownership is cost saving. Co-buying allows millennials to buy now, securing an affordable place to live in the present, while setting up a solid investment for the future.” Another report by JW Surety Bonds shows nearly 15% of Americans have co-purchased a home with a person other than their romantic partner—and another 48% would consider it.
https://fortune.com/2025/11/14/millennials-cobuying-homes-carpooling-for-buying-a-house-housing-market/
How Affordable Housing Fared at the Ballot Box
In Denver, residents voted to increase municipal bond debt by $59.3 million to pay for new housing, including affordable housing in shared structures with libraries, and making housing and homeless shelters accessible for people with disabilities. Denver Ballot Measure 2E received 65% of the vote. It was part of a slate of five successful ballot measures that will cumulatively issue $1 billion in debt for infrastructure, and, according to Axios, repayment costs of $2 billion over time, all of which will be paid back by property taxes. If enough new properties are developed as a result of the ballot measures, the newly generated property taxes could theoretically help pay for the significant bond debt.
https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/the-weekly-wrap-how-affordable-housing-fared-at-the-ballot-box
Sacred Space: Churches Turn Surplus Land into Housing
As congregations across North America grapple with shrinking membership and aging facilities, a new opportunity is emerging: transforming faith-owned land into affordable housing and community-serving spaces. At the 2025 ULI Fall Meeting in San Francisco, panelists in the session “Spiritual Brownfields: Declining Congregations and Opportunities for Housing on Faith-Owned Land” explored how churches and developers are partnering to bring mission-driven housing to underused sacred sites.
https://urbanland.uli.org/sacred-space-churches-turn-surplus-land-into-housing
Four Myths About Affordable Housing, Debunked
At the 2025 ULI Fall Meeting at San Francisco’s Moscone West Convention Center, in a session titled “Getting Creative: Unlocking Affordable and Mixed-Income Housing through Innovative Financing Solutions and Public/Private Partnerships,” housing experts, developers, and investors set the record straight. Panelists challenged some of the most common misconceptions about the crisis and available solutions, shedding light on what’s really possible in today’s market.
https://urbanland.uli.org/four-myths-about-affordable-housing-debunked
Would You Give Up $200K To Keep Your Neighborhood Affordable? These DC Homeowners Did
Through the Douglass Community Land Trust’s Pay It Forward program, sellers are parting with their homes at as much as 25% below market value to ensure their houses remain affordable in perpetuity. But it’s more than an act of goodwill. It’s a deliberate stand against displacement and a reimagining of what homeownership, and equity itself, can mean.
https://www.realtor.com/advice/sell/dc-homeowners-pay-it-forward-affordable-housing/
Making Affordable Housing Add Up
In Massachusetts, public agencies normally support new housing by providing mortgage financing and direct subsidies to affordable housing developments. The state boasts one of the most robust financing systems for building new affordable homes in the United States but reaches only one segment of the market. MassHousing’s Momentum Equity creates an entrepreneurial approach to partnering with private sponsors of mixed-income, market-oriented housing. The program invests public dollars directly into mixed-income housing, as preferred equity in the project. Equity investments are underwritten to generate a financial return, but MassHousing places equity with concessionary pricing and patient terms.
https://urbanland.uli.org/capital-markets-and-finance/making-affordable-housing-add-up
Renters Have the Upper Hand. And They Are Probably Keeping It.
Multifamily owners and analysts anticipated that 2025 would be the year that surplus supply balanced out and they regained their pricing power. Instead, landlords are now betting on the ability to raise rents by the end of 2026, or at least sometime in 2027. Even that might be wishful thinking. Analysts at data company Yardi Matrix recently lowered their projections for 2027 rent growth. They expect “more tepid” growth that year because of more new apartments coming online than originally expected. Previously reliable demand drivers are starting to fizzle. Hiring for entry-level jobs is tightening. Employment growth is decelerating in cities like Denver and Las Vegas.
https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/renters-have-the-upper-hand-and-they-are-probably-keeping-it-cc2eb760
REAL ESTATE AND MOBILITY
Denver’s 16th Street Revival: The city’s iconic landmark reawakens the art of public life and sets a new standard for green infrastructure
In cities around the world, streets are being reimagined not just as ways to get from point A to point B but also as places to gather, linger, and connect. They’re becoming platforms for public life, rather than just infrastructure for vehicles. In essence, cities are turning streets into places where people want to be. Denver’s 16th Street is a strong example of that shift. This iconic mile-long pedestrian and transit corridor in the heart of the city’s downtown underwent a full transformation to update its aging infrastructure, strengthen its green ecosystems, and re-establish it as somewhere people want to spend time. The result is an ambitious pedestrian infrastructure project that can serve as a blueprint for what great downtown streets might become.
https://urbanland.uli.org/issues-trends/denvers-16th-street-revival-the-citys-iconic-landmark-reawakens-the-art-of-public-life-and-sets-a-new-standard-for-green-infrastructure
No car? No problem. Building apartments near public transit could help address the housing crisis
The Santa Monica and Vermont Apartments where Smith lives is part of an ambitious plan by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build 10,000 housing units near transit sites by 2031 — offering developers land discounts in exchange for affordable housing development and other community benefits. In Washington D.C., the transit authority has completed eight projects since 2022 that provided nearly 1,500 apartments and a million square feet of office space. About half were in partnership with Amazon, which committed $3.6 billion in low-cost loans and grants for affordable housing projects in Washington, as well as Nashville, Tennessee, and the Puget Sound area in Washington state. Almost all are within a half-mile of public transit.
https://apnews.com/article/housing-shortage-public-transit-massachusetts-california-b2a727ab4c570fff1e549e726ea801e0
DART Light Rail Stations Delivering Rent Premiums, Development Wins
While only a part of the regional public transit network, Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s (DART) light rail system has had a multi-billion-dollar economic impact over the past couple of decades and now runs roughly 93 miles in and around the Big D. Part of that, although in an indirect manner, is the increased revenues landlords can apparently realize, according to the University of North Texas Economic Research Group, which periodically assesses the economics surrounding DART light rail stations. Looking at rents within a mile of several light rail stations, researchers found a 10% and 12.6% differential in residential and commercial rents, respectively, between properties within 0.5 miles of a station and properties 0.5-1.0 miles away from a station.
https://candysdirt.com/2025/11/16/dart-light-rail-stations-delivering-rent-premiums-development-wins/
Can a Waterfront Park Wake Up Downtown Seattle?
Transforming this 1.2-mile stretch along Elliott Bay took 15 years and required the replacement of a crumbling seawall and the demolition of an earthquake-damaged highway viaduct. It cost more than $800 million, not counting the $3.3 billion it took to dig a two-mile highway tunnel for the traffic the viaduct once carried. Thousands of trees, native flowering plants, grasses and shrubs have been planted, but the word park is not really an adequate descriptor. It’s a combination of public esplanade and multimodal neighborhood connector that’s at once a cultural destination, a stage for Indigenous art and an exercise in habitat restoration. Sited in front of the the city’s commercial core, which rises steeply from the water’s edge, the development also accommodates a set of very urban elements, including a busy new ferry terminal, a 1970s aquarium and an assortment of other tourist attractions.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-11-07/seattle-replaces-a-highway-with-a-800-million-waterfront-park
MOBILITY
Voters approve $11.7B in local ballot measures to fund public transit
The big winner was Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, which includes the city of Charlotte. Voters approved a one-cent increase in sales taxes that is expected to generate $11.6 billion for rail and bus transit and on-demand microtransit over the next 30 years. “That’s a big deal,” Grennan said, adding that “North Carolina is a state that’s been consistently a swing state.”
https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/local-transit-ballot-measures-november-2025/802398/
Colorado has no regulatory oversight
Big Tech’s self-driving vehicles — a fleet of white Jaguars and powder-blue Zeekrs topped with rotating black cameras and radar — have been rolling around Denver for two months, ingesting data into their artificial-intelligence computers before public activation next year. The Waymo expansion here, part of a push into as many as a dozen cities, for which the California-based company secured $5.6 billion from investors, accelerates the spread of machine-learning technology and may help robotaxis overcome a technical problem: navigating thick, sensor-obscuring snow. But no government agency in Colorado provides independent regulatory oversight, despite hundreds of collisions in other cities.
https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx
Why Trump Couldn’t Stop the Electric Vehicle Dream
Biden didn’t get to campaign on the success of shiny new chargers at highway exits. But by insisting that EV drivers get the same plug-in and payment experience regardless of where they go, his administration did lay the groundwork for the EV revolution of tomorrow — even if he won’t get credit for it. NEVI “forced the entire industry to raise its game around reliability, redundancy and performance that will be remembered as an important legacy,” said Nick Nigro, the founder of Atlas Public Policy, which studies the EV charging network. It’s a political failure that morphed into a policy success.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/11/14/electric-vehicle-ev-charging-stations-biden-00641188
Finishing FasTracks
RTD released its 2025 Finishing FasTracks Report to provide a common set of facts outlining what is needed to complete the FasTracks projects. The draft report details the $1.6 billion capital and operating costs needed to complete the 2004 voter-approved transit expansion program, and the revenue and ridership projections for the four unfinished corridors. Since 2004, RTD has completed approximately 75% of the FasTracks projects.
https://www.rtd-denver.com/fastracks
