The University of Colorado is under contract to scoop up Independence Plaza, one of downtown Denver’s emptiest office towers, putting a major public institution in control of a full block on the 16th Street Mall while the city is still struggling with stubbornly high vacancy.
Foundation Says It Is Vetting The Deal
According to BusinessDen, the University of Colorado Foundation confirmed it is “doing due diligence on the potential purchase” after the property went under contract. The foundation said it routinely evaluates strategic real estate opportunities that can bolster the university’s long-term success, but it has not shared any details about short-term plans for the building.
What The Tower Is Like
Commercial listings put Independence Plaza at about 567,000 square feet and market it as a Class A office property with ground floor retail along the 16th Street pedestrian mall. CBRE, which is handling leasing and sales, bills the site in its materials as a full block office tower with street-level shops facing the mall. Those marketing documents and commercial databases offer the most detailed public snapshot of the property as brokers work to land a buyer.
Why Denver Is Watching
Downtown Denver is still wrestling with eye-popping office vacancy. CBRE data put the city center vacancy rate in the high 30 percent range this year, a figure that has been repeatedly cited in local reporting and was highlighted by The Colorado Sun. In response, the city has rolled out public loan programs that encourage turning underused office towers into housing or other uses, and Bisnow has tracked several recent Downtown Development Authority loan commitments tied to conversion projects.
How CU Already Fits Downtown
BusinessDen notes that the CU system already has a presence on the edge of downtown, with CU Denver’s Business School and other campus buildings located across Speer and along nearby Lawrence Street. That existing footprint could give the university some flexibility in how it uses Independence Plaza if the deal closes. The same report points out that brokers are marketing the tower as largely empty, which is a big reason an institutional buyer could potentially pick it up at a fraction of what it sold for in the past.
What Comes Next
The foundation says it is still evaluating the opportunity, with no public timeline for closing and no formal reuse plan on the table yet. Local analysts have noted that a university use might bring life back to big floor plates more quickly than some other conversion paths, but turning a 20th-century office tower into active campus space or housing can be costly and will require design work, permitting, and possibly public approvals. Coverage in outlets such as The Denver Gazette has underscored how those conversion and reuse hurdles are shaping decisions across downtown.
