Residents of SkyHouse Denver, the 25-story high-rise at 1776 Broadway, say all three of the building's elevators have repeatedly gone out of service at the same time, forcing tenants to haul groceries, luggage and other belongings up dozens of flights of stairs. Sherrie Lawson said she and her husband once carried their luggage up 19 flights after returning from a trip because they were told they had no other choice.
The complaints, first reported by CBS Colorado, describe a building where outages have become more frequent in 2026, alongside uncollected trash and recycling, package thefts, and the loss of concierge service. Resident David Wreschner told the station he personally took the stairs four to five times earlier this year because all three elevators were down, recalling occasions when every elevator in the tower was simultaneously out of commission.
Tenants Say Communication Has Been the Bigger Problem
Beyond the outages themselves, SkyHouse residents say they've struggled to get straight answers from management about when repairs will be finished or why problems keep recurring. That frustration led resident Andrew Dennis to create the Residents Against Equity Residential forum, which now includes more than 35 residents and has collected over 100 emails of detailed complaints, according to Dennis. The forum has become a clearinghouse for tenants documenting elevator failures, trash issues and other maintenance breakdowns at the property.
A Reddit post from a SkyHouse resident, shared three days before the CBS Colorado report, described all three building elevators as out of service at once, with residents on upper floors locked out of stairwell access points while trying to reach their units. SkyHouse Denver markets itself as a luxury apartment community, with monthly rents at the tower ranging from roughly $1,500 to $2,500, according to CBS Colorado's reporting — a price point tenants say clashes with the building's repeated utility and access failures.
Landlord Has Not Responded to Questions
SkyHouse Denver is managed by Chicago-based Equity Residential, an S&P 500 real estate investment trust that oversees more than 310 rental properties and roughly 85,000 apartment units nationwide, according to the company's SEC filings. Equity Residential acquired the tower — built in 2017 by Atlanta-based developers Novare Group and Batson-Cook Development Company on a former downtown parking lot — in 2018, per the Colorado Real Estate Journal. CBS Colorado said it attempted to contact multiple Equity Residential representatives by phone and email, and that the company had not responded to its inquiries as of August 4.
Colorado's Warranty of Habitability statute, updated in 2024 under Senate Bill 24-094, requires landlords to begin remedial action within 24 hours of an emergency habitability complaint and generally complete repairs within seven to 14 days, according to the Colorado Lawyer. State law also requires landlords to provide alternative accommodations, such as a comparable rental or hotel room, when an inoperable elevator prevents a tenant with a disability from accessing their dwelling, per the Colorado General Assembly's Legislative Council Staff.
What Legal Options Tenants Actually Have
Zach Neumann, executive director of the Community Economic Defense Project, said tenants have legal options when landlords fail to address ongoing problems. According to Neumann, tenants or groups of tenants have in some cases withheld rent until elevator issues were fixed, though he cautioned that rent withholding can create legal risks for tenants who pursue it without following proper procedures. Neumann said SkyHouse tenants could instead demand a working elevator through formal channels, or hire a lawyer collectively or individually to take on the landlord.
Under Colorado law, tenants facing unremedied habitability breaches can seek judicial rent reductions, lease terminations without penalty, or court-ordered attorney fees if a landlord fails to cure reported defects after formal notice, according to Volpe Law LLC. Denver also requires all multi-family apartment complexes to hold a Residential Rental Property License, which includes a third-party physical safety inspection every four years under the city's Healthy Residential Rentals for All initiative, per the City and County of Denver's Excise and Licenses office. The city has said it enforces compliance through an initial warning followed by escalating fines of $150, $500, and up to $999 for unlicensed or non-compliant properties.
Part of a Broader Pattern in Denver High-Rises
SkyHouse's elevator troubles echo other recent complaints in Denver's high-density housing stock. Hoodline reported in January that residents at Francis Heights faced their own building crisis, with tenants there describing recurring maintenance failures of their own. Whether Denver Excise and Licenses has received formal code complaints about 1776 Broadway, and whether Equity Residential currently holds an active rental license for the tower, remain open questions. It's also unclear what timeline elevator contractors have given for a permanent fix at SkyHouse Denver.
