Developers are looking to old office spaces for apartments, and Colorado Springs is next
Celeste Springer
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — The old Parkside Office Suites building off East Bijou Street has arguably seen better days. Mother Nature has begun to reclaim the parking lot, with green sprouts popping up through its cracked pavement. The large red-paneled building has plenty of street-facing windows, but a closer look reveals that many are shattered and boarded.
Photo: Pikes Peak Regional Building Department
A sign on the building also points to a bygone era: “Office space from $350.”
Photo: Pikes Peak Regional Building Department
But the building will soon bring in revenue again, though this time from clients of a different sort.
The old Parkside Office Suites, located at 125 N Parkside Dr., will be converted into 32 “micro apartments.”
“It will be a nice infill project to clean up an old building that appears to be in rough shape,” wrote a spokesperson for the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department on Facebook. “We haven’t permitted a lot of renovations like this, but it’s a growing trend nationwide.”
In the 2024 Colorado legislative session, lawmakers looked to create a tax credit program for those converting commercial buildings to residential ones. The bill, House Bill 24-1125, ultimately failed, but it didn’t stop developers in Colorado from pursuing this latest style of development.
In Denver, one converted office space is now used as affordable housing, our partners at 9News report. As of 2023, residents at 655 Broadway pay anywhere from $650 to $1,700 a month in rent.
While the conversion trend is growing in cities like Colorado Springs and Denver, it’s not a new phenomenon elsewhere. According to reporting from ABC News, New York City property owners began converting office space in the Financial District in the fallout of 9-11, rebranding the area as “FiDi” for residents. However, development conversion plans really only started to gain major momentum following the pandemic, right as office spaces emptied.
As for Colorado Springs’ Parkside Office Suites building, the PPRBD calls it a “unique project” for the area.