Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
CU Denver just bought that same building for
Do the math on that. It is roughly a fifth of what the last owner shelled out. A full city block, 25 stories, and the University of Colorado's Board of Regents walked away with it for the price of a decent stretch of infill townhomes in Sloan's Lake. So right there at 1050 17th Street, downtown just changed hands in a way that tells you exactly where the office market sits in 2026.
The regents closed on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. Here is the part people miss. Back in June they had agreed to
And look at what they actually got. Independence Plaza is 567,287 square feet sitting on 2.45 acres, bordered by Curtis, Arapahoe, 16th and 17th. A connected lobby, two annex buildings, and three underground parking levels good for 690 spaces. That parking alone is worth a hard look given where it sits.
The building went up in 1972 out of a partnership between Del E. Webb and Prudential Insurance, and for a long time everybody knew it as Prudential Plaza. Fifty-plus years later it is a public university's newest campus address.
CU Denver started touring downtown properties in 2025 and landed on this one, calling it a "once in a generation opportunity." And honestly, given historically low prices and the fact that it sits steps from the Auraria campus, that framing holds up.
Chancellor Kenneth T. Christensen laid out the plan at a news conference inside the building on Wednesday, Aug. 12. He tied it back to the school's "urban-serving" mission, which is the language CU keeps coming back to on this. The centerpiece is a roughly 30,000-square-foot regional innovation and entrepreneurship hub, built with Denver Economic Development & Opportunity, DEDO for short. The idea is to incubate regional startups and wire students directly into employers. Steps from the 16th Street Mall.
That is the bet. Take Denver's post-pandemic office glut, the thing everybody has been wringing their hands over, and turn a nearly empty tower into a jobs-and-startup engine.
Here is the thing about the money, because this is where it gets interesting.
The building will run as an auxiliary enterprise managed by CU Denver. In plain terms, it leases space to third-party tenants and pays for itself. It is not supposed to draw on campus, school, or unit budgets. So the tower carries its own weight.
The Denver Downtown Development Authority, the DDDA, approved $4.5 million toward the hub on June 24, and has signaled it could go up to
The full cost to launch the hub runs up to an estimated $70 million. Big number. But the acquisition itself came in cheap, and that is the whole strategy.
CU Denver is not a small player here. In fiscal year 2024-25 the school generated $665 million in total economic impact, including $339.6 million in labor impact, and it employed roughly 2,000 people across the region. That is the muscle behind the pitch.
And the room at the announcement backed it. Mayor Mike Johnston was there. So were DEDO executive director Adeeb Khan, Downtown Denver Partnership CEO Kourtny Garrett, CU Regent Nolbert Chavez, and City Council member Chris Hinds. When the mayor, the downtown partnership, and the regents all show up to the same podium, you know the city is treating this as a downtown recovery story, not just a real estate transaction.
A couple of things.
A student move-in date is not set yet. So the building is basically empty right now, and the timeline on when it fills up is still open.
And the bigger question is whether this actually works. Buying cheap is the easy part when office towers are trading at a fifth of their peak. Filling 567,000 square feet with startups, students, employers, and enough foot traffic to make that 16th Street plaza feel alive, that is the hard part. That is the part that plays out over years, not headlines.
But if you ask me, this is the most interesting downtown move of the year. A public university looked at the thing everybody calls a problem, an emptying office core, and treated it as inventory on sale. Worth your attention because how this one goes will tell you a lot about what comes next for the rest of those quiet towers on 17th Street.