Marquette Completes Renovations on Denver Place Apartments in Chicago

By Jeffrey Steele, Contributing Writer

Chicago—Capping a four-year, $2.7 million endeavor, Marquette Management has completed the renovation, repositioning and sale of The Apartments at Denver Place. The property is situated above downtown Denver’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel in a 37-story building, and features 193 luxury apartment homes

The apartment updates on floors 20 through 37 of the property generated for the owner a 72 percent gain in the net operating income, and 76 percent increase in the appraised value of The Apartments at Denver Place.

Why was the timing right to undertake these renovations? “The rental market continues to be very strong, especially in metro areas like Denver,” Nick Ryan, CEO of Naperville, Ill.-based The Marquette Companies, tells MHN. “This was a very nice property ripe for this type of value-add renovation.”

Four years ago, The Apartments at Denver Place was a property with great bones that was not living up to its potential, Ryan says.

“By making specific and strategic updates physically to the property, and also creating an extraordinary service package that would meet the needs of its discriminating residents, Marquette was able to significantly raise the NOI and the appraised value for the owners and investors of the community,” he reports.

Seminole Investment Advisors retained Marquette to manage the multi-year renovation and property repositioning for The Apartments at Denver Place. The assignment included consulting with a highly qualified design team to update the common spaces and unit interiors. Marquette’s experience in rental concierge services proved invaluable in making over the residents’ amenity and service package to ensure its greater alignment with Ritz-Carlton luxury branding.

Says Ryan: “Marquette is known nationally for its value-add capabilities, both in our ability to implement a physical rehab program and also our ability to customize our Lifestyle Service hospitality programs per project.

“It was also a seamless transition in working with the Ritz-Carlton, which occupies the first 12 floors of the building, because our management styles are very much in sync and focused on ‘5-Star’ service.”

He adds that Marquette was uniquely positioned to succeed with this project for two reasons. First, the company is known for its lifestyle programs, such as the We C.A.T.E.R. resident concierge platform. In addition, Marquette is a national developer with access to the best trades in the country.

“We know what it takes to bring a luxury apartment community to market so it yields high returns,” Ryan says.