Front Range Office & Medical Brief — week of October 26, 2026
The week in one paragraph
Distressed office pricing kept spreading like a bad flu. Downtown Denver's historic Symes Building sold for about
$28/SF, and the DTC's Terrace Tower sold for under $100/SF. Southeast Denver buyers say the bottom there has passed, with deals now drawing 10–15 bidders. In Colorado Springs, a foreclosure on the two tallest downtown towers shows that distress has reached a market with much lower vacancy. On the medical side it was a quiet week for deals, but health systems keep building: UCHealth started a major expansion in north Colorado Springs, and Boulder Medical Center is moving forward with plans to leave its Broadway campus.
Medical / Dental / Veterinary
UCHealth Memorial Hospital North expansion (Colorado Springs, north): JE Dunn is the builder on a multi-year project of about 365,000 SF, with about 308,000 SF of new construction and 57,000 SF of renovation. It adds a patient tower that opens with 50 beds and can grow to 190, plus more clinical and diagnostic space and a garage of about 302,000 SF. It is a sign of strong hospital-anchored demand in north Springs. (Mile High CRE, Oct 19)
Boulder Medical Center (Boulder, 2750 Broadway): The physician-owned group plans to move "within the Boulder community" and redevelop its 2.5-acre site. An earlier report tied the site to about 223 housing units. The new location has not been announced, and the plan still needs city review. A large independent practice looking for new space in Boulder is worth tracking. (Boulder Reporting Lab, Oct 21)
Office Sales & Investment
Terrace Tower, 5619 DTC Pkwy (Southeast/DTC): Real Capital Solutions and Dunton Commercial paid about $23.75M ($98/SF) for this 243,000 SF, 12-story building. That is about 37% below Sun Life's $37.8M purchase in 2012. The building is 72% leased; tenants include GSA, Holmes Murphy and Vitesse Energy. The buyers plan to add spec suites. (The Real Deal, Oct 21; CRE News, Oct 20)
Raytheon office property, 16430 & 16470 E. Hughes Dr. (Aurora): Rampart Infrastructure Buckley LLC bought it from KW Fund VI for $44.25M. Square footage was not disclosed. (BusinessDen, Oct 23)
Distress & Conversions
Symes Building, 820 16th St. (CBD): A group led by Jake Malman bought the vacant 95,000 SF office building from Thorofare Capital for $2.7M, about $28/SF. It traded for $24.5M in 2018. A planned conversion that had city support fell apart after the lender foreclosed earlier. (BusinessDen, Oct 23; BusinessDen, 2018)
Palmer Center towers (Downtown Colorado Springs): The 15-story Wells Fargo Tower, the 14-story FirstBank Building and several other suites are in foreclosure. About $59M is still owed on the original $74M loan, now held by a trustee for Bank of America. The auction was moved from Oct 21 to Oct 28. (Colorado Springs Gazette, Oct 21)
Market Data
Denver metro (Marcus & Millichap outlook): Overall vacancy is 22.3%, down 30 basis points from a year earlier. Class A vacancy is near 30%, but Class A absorbed nearly 1M SF net. Asking rent is projected to rise 1.5% to $24.35/SF, and vacancy is expected to end the year around 22.2%. (ColoradoBiz, Oct 19)
Colorado Springs vs. Denver: In Q2, downtown Springs office vacancy was 10.4% and citywide vacancy was 12%; downtown Class A rose to 8.2%. For comparison, downtown Denver vacancy hit 40.1% in Q3, per CBRE. (Colorado Springs Gazette, Oct 21)
What it means for CREB's clients
Healthcare tenants/practices: Hospital systems are adding beds and outpatient space in growth corridors like north Springs, and Boulder Medical Center's move will compete for the few medical-ready spaces in Boulder. Practices should look at discounted suburban office space for conversion to medical while landlords are still flexible.
Office owners/sellers: Buildings that are vacant or have debt trouble downtown are trading at land-value prices of about $28/SF. Suburban assets that are partly leased are pricing around $100/SF. Sellers who need to sell should price to the current bid, not to what they paid.
Investors/1031 buyers: Southeast/DTC buyers now report 10–15 bidders per deal, so the cheapest entry there may be gone. Downtown Denver and distressed Springs towers, including the Oct 28 auction, are where the deeper discounts remain.
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