The two tallest buildings in downtown Colorado Springs — the 15-story Wells Fargo Tower and the 14-story FirstBank Building — are scheduled for a foreclosure auction on October 21, 2026, according to El Paso County records. The sale also covers a retail center, a third office building, and a parking garage, all part of the same downtown complex.
Per county records cited by The Colorado Sun, the complex's owners — four Delaware-based limited liability corporations — owe nearly $60 million on a $74 million loan from Wilmington Trust. The foreclosure records did not say when the owners first defaulted on payments. The downtown complex overall is valued at $70 million, with the Wells Fargo Tower itself worth $23 million and the parking garage, the complex's second-most valuable structure, estimated at $22.5 million.
El Paso County Public Trustee filings identify the defaulting entity group as RPalmer LLC, Overland Palmer LLC, and Palmer Center Owner LLC, which are controlled by California- and Canada-based management companies including Unilev Capital, according to The Gazette. The complex was acquired in 2015 under a $74 million commercial mortgage-backed security loan, and special servicers took over debt management after default negotiations stalled, according to Fitch Ratings. That timeline suggests the debt troubles behind next month's auction have been building for years.
Two Landmarks With Very Different Histories
Built in 1990 at 90 S. Cascade Ave., the Wells Fargo Tower comprises 220,830 rentable square feet of Class A office space, with major tenants including defense contractor Bluestaq LLC and DaVita Medical Group, per Fitch Ratings. Standing 247 feet tall, it holds the title of tallest building in Colorado Springs and the tallest structure in Colorado outside the Denver metro area, according to Wikipedia.
The FirstBank Building at 2 N. Cascade Ave. has a longer institutional history. It opened in 1966 as the Holly Sugar Building, serving as headquarters for the Holly Sugar Corporation and holding the record as the city's tallest building from 1966 until the Wells Fargo Tower surpassed it in 1990, according to Construction Reporter. Holly Sugar moved its headquarters out of Colorado Springs in 1989, before the tower was renamed FirstBank.
A New Tower Waits in the Wings
Even as its two tallest buildings head toward auction, Colorado Springs has already approved plans for a new high-rise that would eventually take the crown. The Colorado Springs City Council approved plans in 2025 for the $225 million, 27-story OneVela residential tower, which would become the city's tallest building if constructed. Co-developed by local private equity firm The O'Neil Group and Kansas City-based VeLa Development Partners at Costilla and Sahwatch streets, the tower is planned to reach 295 to 312 feet tall and include more than 400 apartment units, according to The Gazette.
The project faced a City Council appeal from residents concerned about mountain views before it ultimately passed by a 6-1 vote. The Colorado Springs Urban Renewal Authority approved an urban renewal district for OneVela, allowing developers to capture roughly $11 million in tax increment financing to support the more-than-$200 million construction cost — money developers said was necessary to secure private construction loans.
Building Up Was Once Illegal Downtown
The contrast between a struggling legacy office tower and a subsidized new residential high-rise reflects a decades-long shift in how Colorado Springs regulates its skyline. The city strictly capped downtown building heights at 50 feet before 1960, but adopted form-based zoning between 2007 and 2009 that removed height limits in the urban core, according to KRDO. That zoning change opened the door to the kind of 20-plus-story towers now reshaping downtown, though it has also fueled ongoing debate over blocking view corridors toward Pikes Peak.
Colorado Springs ended 2025 with an office vacancy rate between 11.1% and 12.87%, a level that remains comparatively stable next to higher-vacancy national office markets, per NavPoint Real Estate Group. Still, the Palmer Center foreclosure fits a broader pattern of distress across Colorado's commercial real estate sector, where prominent Denver landmarks such as the 56-story Republic Plaza and the 52-story Wells Fargo Center have entered receivership or default, according to the Denver Business Journal.
