Downtown Denver’s long-quiet Barth Hotel is finally in line for a serious rescue. On Tuesday, the Denver Downtown Development Authority voted to approve a $6 million loan to overhaul the vacant building at 1514 17th Street and bring it back as affordable housing for older adults.
Under the plan, the Barths’ old-school setup of small rooms with shared bathrooms would be reworked into roughly 50 studio apartments, each with its own kitchen and private bath, targeted to households earning 30%–50% of the area's median income. Urban Ventures Inc. and Lakewood-based Eaton Senior Services are slated to lead the redevelopment, which planners say will be all-electric and will add new elevators along with upgraded utilities. The red-brick landmark has been empty since Senior Housing Options moved residents out amid safety concerns and a long list of deferred maintenance problems.
Vacancy and repair needs
Senior Housing Options moved residents out in January after an elevator failure and other safety issues, and brokers put the Barth on the market last spring with a $2.5 million asking price. They estimated it would take between $10 million and $12 million to modernize the interior, according to BusinessDen. Built in 1882, the property is a designated city landmark and carries a 60-year affordable-housing covenant that tightly restricts how it can be used. That backlog of capital needs is a key reason developers said they needed public subsidy to make the project pencil out.
DDDA signs on with $6M
The Downtown Development Authority’s board voted 5–2 to grant the $6 million loan at its meeting Tuesday, according to the Denver Gazette. City staff told the board the money could cover up to roughly 27% of the estimated $22 million project cost.
As part of the deal, the DDDA required that any future sale of the property would trigger repayment of the loan. Developers told the board they plan to pursue federal and state historic tax credits to bring down the authority’s exposure on the project.
What the renovation would change
Urban Ventures president Sue Powers told the DDDA that the Barth “was more like a room and board operation,” describing its prior assisted-living-style layout and the need to move to self-contained units with private bathrooms, according to the Denver Gazette. The revamped building would offer about 50 independent-living units for residents 62 and older, with rents still targeted to households earning 30%–50% of the area median income.
The project is also slated to convert the property to all-electric systems, add modern elevators, and overhaul aging utilities. City staff estimated construction could start in spring 2027 and wrap up by early 2028, though they cautioned the DDDA loan might take decades to be repaid and, depending on how tax credits and other financing shake out, might not be fully paid back.
Legal and political hurdles
The Barths’ financial story is not the only complicated piece. The building is bound by a long-term affordability covenant and a right-of-first-refusal claim tied to an entity associated with Union Station developer Walter Isenberg, which has previously signaled interest in returning the property to hotel use, reporting shows, per Denverite.
City housing staff told council members there is no established process to move or transfer the covenant, a point that has drawn pushback from affordable-housing advocates and some council members. That legal tangle means any buyer looking to flip the building back into a hotel would face a steep political and legal climb unless the city agreed to a first-of-its-kind covenant swap or some other workaround.
What comes next
For now, the development team still has to lock in the rest of the financing, secure tax credits and finalize a purchase agreement with Senior Housing Options before any construction can start. City staff and the DDDA said they plan to keep tabs on the project and return to the board with updates as the funding stack and permitting process move forward.
