Renovation of the historic Guaranty Bank Building into affordable and market-rate rental units and ground floor retail space.
The Guaranty Bank Building was built in 1921 and designed by renowned Denver architects Fisher & Fisher in a reserved Chicago Commercial style. Originally constructed as the then home of US National Bank, by the mid-1980s the historic building sat vacant and was almost demolished. The structure was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 and fully rehabilitated in 1995.
Part of Denver’s ongoing effort in the 1990s to create residential housing opportunities in downtown Denver, NP Bank Lofts Associates, L.P. and NP Bank Lofts Partners, LLC (both affiliates of National Properties) purchased the Guaranty Bank building in 1995 and renovated the building into 46 affordable and 79 market-rate rental apartments, along with 11,293 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. The complex financing structure for the $10.9 million project included historic rehabilitation and low-income housing tax credits and a grant from the Colorado Historical Society, along with TIF assistance from DURA. DURA’s contribution assisted with asbestos and lead paint remediation, life-safety upgrades, and ADA accessibility improvements.
The project opened in April 1997. The renovated building was added to the Downtown Denver Historic District in 2000, and in 2014, further renovations added eight new premier units.