Downtown parking garage sells for half of pre- pandemic price

Office buildings aren’t the only asset that have lost value since the pandemic.

A standalone parking garage at 1627 California St. in Denver’s Central Business District sold this month for $ 5.5 million — just more than half the price it fetched the last time it changed hands.

“Workers have changed from working five days a week ( in- person) to working zero to three days,” said Dave Zier, manager of the LLC that sold it.

Zier’s entity bought the nine- story garage for $ 10.65 million in February 2020. The rise of remote work, along with construction along the 16th Street Mall, led to parking revenues dropping by 40%, he said.

“It was just time to get out,” Zier said. The buyer in this month’s deal was the Dikeou family, who own a number of other parking facilities — primarily surface lots — in and around downtown.

Built in 1998 and renovated in 2020, the 81,000- square- foot garage features 325 total parking spaces, 256 of which are available to the public, per its listing on Loopnet.

The remaining 69 spaces are leased to residents of the Denver Dry Goods building, located one block south at 700 16th St.

The sale to the Dikeou family, who did not respond to a request for comment, works out to about $ 68 a square foot or $ 17,000 per parking space.

LAZ Parking manages the property. It costs $ 4 to park for 20 minutes or $ 7 for one hour.

The Dikeous, meanwhile, recently sold a small office building and adjacent parking lot in the 1300 block of Bannock Street to the Denver Art Museum Foundation for $ 13.5 million.