Century-old warehouse in LoDo getting a redo
One of the last of the grand old warehouse buildings in Denver’s Lower Downtown is being renovated for office, retail and living space.
Cable-television entrepreneur Bob Fanch is spending $6.5 million to restore the former Colorado Saddlery building, which has remained largely unchanged since it was built in 1900.
Plans for the building at 15th and Wynkoop streets include constructing two 3,600-square-foot copper-clad penthouses on the roof.
“We’re building a building on top of the building,” said Kevin Koernig, principal of Studio K2 Architecture, who is designing the project.
The project is being reviewed by the city.
Because heavy-wood construction was used to build the original structure, its height is limited to five stories under the International Building Code. The sixth story will be concrete and steel and exceed the fire resistance of the original building.
The design also incorporates parking spaces in the basement of the existing structure. The renovated building will have 8,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space on the first floor and nearly 30,000 square feet of office space on floors two through five.
The last business to occupy the building was the Colorado Saddlery Co., which relocated to Arvada about four years ago.
Colorado Saddlery was founded in 1945 by four young saddlemakers in Denver, according to the company’s website. They had been working for the world-famous, Denver-based HH Heiser Saddle, where they learned the craft.
The last of the original partners, P.R. Van Scoyk, purchased the building in the early 1960s. He retired in 2003 and passed the saddlery on to his son Jeff.
Jim Donahue of American West LoDo LLC purchased the building in 2005. He has since sold the building to Fanch, who also owns the 3,400-acre Devil’s Thumb Ranch in Tabernash. Donahue is now handling operations at Devil’s Thumb.
Fanch made his fortune when he sold cable company Fanch Communications to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for $2 billion in 1999.
Margaret Jackson: 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com