178 new apartments for only $14 million? Why doesn’t Lakewood do something like this to make housing more affordable?
Lakewood also has an office vacancy rate which was in excess of 22% in 2024 according to: https://www.commercialcafe.com/office-market-trends/us/co/lakewood/
Example: The Academy Park Plaza building appears to be vacant with over 54,000 square feet on offer. https://www.denvergazette.com/2025/11/19/downtown-denvers-petroleum-building-gets-14m-for-office-conversion-from-ddda/
Yet Lakewood has a plan to upzone the entire city to allow increased housing density supposedly to make housing more affordable. Research has already proven increasing density makes housing more expensive; not more affordable.
News Flash to Lakewood City Council – The housing affordability crisis needs realistic solutions. Denver is actually doing something now.
We assume there may be additional costs, but the fact remains that converting unused office buildings to housing could be a near-term solution to increasing the amount of housing available. Exactly how much, if any, will ultimately be affordable is still unclear. But we would not have to wait 10 to 20 years to find out.
Lakewood’s housing authority DBA Metro West Housing Solutions is funded through a combination of public and private partnerships, including tax credit equity from FirstBank, tax credits awarded by the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA), and additional funding from local government entities such as the City of Lakewood and Jefferson County. Lakewood, are you listening?
