Developers celebrated the grand opening of 35-story, 287 unit Confluence building this week. You may know it better as the skyscraper changing your view as you drive into Denver on Speer Boulevard.
The significance of the development's location doesn't end there. The Confluence sits on Denver's founding site, where the South Platte River and Cherry Creek converge.
Developer Bryant Nail said all those things meant that the exterior of the building had to be "iconic."
"Changing the skyline was part of our M.O. going into this thing," he said. "We wanted something that mimicked the flowing water, and [what we came up with] is contemporary and fits in there."
The location of the development also means that there are some great views. Those come for a price.
"People pay to be higher up in the building for better views and if you take some of those small units and put them in the top of the building, you can't achieve those premiums because that demographic can't affording that unit in the top of the building," Nail said.
Rents in the building start at $1,418 per month for a 482 square foot studio and go above $4,000 per month for some bigger units, the biggest of which measure 3,500 square feet. The average rent in the building is $3,341. Nail says these translate to the highest price per square foot in the market, and "justifiably so."
But that doesn't mean that they're facing leasing challenges related to Denver's excess of luxury units.
"We're not having some of the problems that other buildings are having in the marketplace. Our concessions are very low, they're based just on the fact that we still have construction in the building," Nail said.
Those concessions are $1,000 off your first month's rent if you start a 12-month or longer lease on one-bedroom apartment and $2,000 off if you start a 12 month lease or longer lease for a two-bedroom.
The concessions also reflect the fact that not all of the amenities are available for use yet. Those eventually will include things like a professional chef's kitchen, a heated outdoor pool and more.
Another feature of The Confluence Denver is that there is a broad array of unit layouts. There's 26 different floor plans and approximately 18 different finishings.
But really, a lot of the building's appeal seems to come down to its size and location.
"I think it was really innovative for the city to allow the type of zoning that we have there to create a building like this. I mean, it's the tallest residential structure outside the CBD," Nail said.
