Coming into a new year when Denver’s downtown reads like a good-news, bad-news story, homebuyers can tour a 3-bedroom loft this Sunday that’s in an iconic building, in a place that was all the rage during a decade when the Rockies kept winning, and winning.

Three blocks from Coors Field where the team would later capture a pennant, pioneering preservationist Charlie Woolley of the St. Charles Town Company converted the Benjamin Moore Paint Factory at Broadway and Walnut Street into 40 lofts. That was 35 years into LoDo’s transformation into a hot residential area, and the factory and its big sign on Broadway were already a rarity.

Lower Downtown had come into popularity after as much as 80% of its historic buildings had been bulldozed for a few blah-looking apartments and for parking lots. People buying into loft projects in 2005 were generally getting faux-type lofts, with designs created in exposed concrete that suggested the vanishing character of downtown’s past, rather than the genuine article.

BRICK AND TIMBER

But this unit at 2500 Walnut Street is the real deal, said Kentwood broker Stock Jonekos, who has it listed at $1.19 million.

It shows 1933 construction in brick and timber, with five factory-style windows facing southwest toward Coors. He adds that the glass expanse speaks to an unusually large unit, where an original owner had purchased two lofts, then had them fabricated into a 3-bedroom configuration, keeping a huge primary suite and bath, two additional bedrooms plus a second full bath, along with an entry alcove that is unique for loft-type properties.

Back when the Rockies were headed for heights that seem mythological in retrospect, this area was called Ballpark — now the south end of RiNo, with many of its early successes close by. Clocktower Lofts are across the street; Migas Coffee, Stowaway Kitchen and Pon Pon cocktail bar are in the same block; and Yardbird, F1 Arcade, Lustre Pear, the Ramble Hotel, and Denver Central Market are all quick walks.

Jonekos said his seller, for whom he’d done the purchase 12 years back, loved the entertaining aspects of the wide-open kitchen-family area created by the extra wide floorplate.  Visitors Sunday will see her fun, funky taste in furnishings that were a counterpoint to the unit’s factory origins; and said some of those could be discussed along with a purchase.

There’s also a $930 monthly HOA fee — famously a caution sign with condo-type properties these days. However, Jonekos notes that includes two parking spaces, one in the garage and one in a carport.

“They’re a huge plus,” he said. “Back in the 90s when they were first selling parking places for $20,000, nobody could believe they were that much. Now a parking place downtown can run $100,000 plus.”

DOWNTOWN POSSIBILITES

The building, he adds, provides security doors and has bike storage, but has no 24-hour staff, concierge services or expensive amenities that drive HOAs through the roof.

Jonekos thinks the timing is right to get back involved in downtown’s neighborhood possibilities. 

“I know it’s had a hard time, but I’ve always had faith in it as a workable downtown that’s not so big it feels oppressive.”

He’ll have Unit 202 on view this Sunday, from noon until 2 p.m.

OPEN THIS SUNDAY:

WHERE:  2500 Walnut St., #202, Denver; from Park Avenue West near Coors Field, continue southeast two blocks to one-way Walnut Street and turn left; proceed three blocks, just past Broadway.

SIZE: 3 bedrooms/2 baths. 2,048 square feet. 

PRICE: $1.19 million 

WEB: 2500WalnutSt202.com 

OPEN: noon until 2 p.m. Sunday   

AGENT:  Stock Jonekos  720-201-6800