Tamara Chuang
Business/Technology Reporter
Akin Golden Triangle apartments, located near the Denver Art Museum, promote the neighborhood as a core amenity. The 97-unit complex opened in 2025. Developer Revesco Properties is behind the akin brand, with another property in Denver’s Tennyson neighborhood and one under construction in the city’s Bonnie Brae neighborhood. (Handout)Quick links: Denver housing market stats | Sports betting tax records | Tariff refunds info | Tobacco job fair |
What would you do with an extra $2,175 a month for a year?
“Out of nowhere, this award popped up. It really threw me off balance,” said Lisa Cordova, who in an interview laughed, cried but was still a bit in disbelief that she’d won free rent for a year from her landlord. “It makes you stop and think that we have all these things that we need to be grateful and fortunate for.”
Cordova, who plans to use some rent savings on a “creative project” to impact her community, had moved into the new Akin Golden Triangle apartments along Speer Boulevard last fall at a particularly hospitable time for renters.
An oversupply of new apartments in recent years led to Denver’s highest vacancy rate in 16 years last quarter. In desperate attempts to attract tenants for the past year, apartment buildings in the metro area have been offering multiple months of free rent, gift cards, parking discounts, or in Cordova’s case, a sweepstakes dreamt up by developer Revesco Properties. There were 364 current and prospective tenants vying for a prize (another person won $50,000).
According to the latest data from Zillow, Denver-area rents continued to fall in January, down 1.1% from a year earlier to an average asking rent of $1,838 a month, or about $57 less than the U.S. average. Even so, 39% of the nation’s rentals offered a concession, compared with 68% in Denver — the highest rate in the nation. Zillow’s report is similar to Apartment Association of Metro Denver data showing declining rents further reduced by 9.5% worth of concessions.
But that also means the city is becoming a little more affordable, according to Zillow. Median-income households in Denver spent 19% of their income on rent, the lowest since early 2018 when Zillow began tracking the data point.
While a year of free rent was one of the more extreme concessions in the Denver market, developers felt it made sense in a neighborhood that has had more than its fair share of new apartments. At one point, nine projects to add 2,000 apartment units were in the works in the Golden Triangle area after the Denver City Council had rezoned the area to allow for higher density, the Denver Business Journal reported.
About a block from Cordova’s complex, the 323-unit Modera Golden Triangle opened in 2024, and the 16-story AMLI Residential, with 366 spots, is now preleasing. The 97-unit apartment complex where Cordova lives is still promoting three months of free rent. The building is about 65% occupied, said Rhys Duggan, president and CEO of Revesco Properties.
But not every Denver market is like Golden Triangle, Duggan said. Another Akin project that opened at the same time in the city’s northwestern Tennyson-Berkeley neighborhood has a similar aesthetic of high-style boutique apartments — “We have a pretty solid anti-stucco ethos,” Duggan said — where the amenity is the walkable, urban neighborhood with shops, restaurants and entertainment. The complex with 76 units is 90% occupied.
“It’s really a tale about different markets,” Duggan said. “Obviously, Cherry Creek is a world unto its own. Then you have Tennyson (with) really strong demand. Then you flip down to the Golden Triangle and it’s kind of the opposite. I’d lump Golden Triangle in with maybe Rino where we saw a lot of deliveries all come online within a year of each other. … As a result, you see a lot of concessions and a lot of discounted rents. That’s where akin Golden Triangle sits and it’s been a struggle. Hence, the idea for the sweepstakes.”
Lisa Cordova, left, and Claire Scobee, take a publicity photo with Rhys Duggan, president and CEO of Revesco Properties. Revesco developed the 97-unit Akin Golden Triangle apartments. To attract tenants, the company held a sweepstakes for current and prospective renters. Scobee won $50,000 cash while Cordova won a year of free rent. (Handout)Cordova, who moved into the Akin Golden Triangle apartment community last fall, doesn’t feel like she is the most deserving of the prize. But as a single mother who put her daughter through college and changed her career midlife by earning two degrees from Regis University, the recently retired Colorado native worked hard to get where she is.
She now rents in an amenity-rich urban neighborhood near the Denver Art Museum that’s about a six-minute drive to her daughter’s home.
“I think it’s just kind of one of those weird things where if you hang in there long enough and if you do the right things, I don’t know,” Cordova said. “Maybe it was just my turn.”
Related:
For Rent signs in Denver’s Baker neighborhood on May 14, 2025. (Eric Lubbers, The Colorado Sun)➔ Denver’s a Gen Z hot spot for renters, ranks 5th in US. These under-30-year-old tenants find Denver more appealing than many other metro areas, according to an analysis by Rent Cafe of humans born between 1997 and 2012.
The rate of Denver Gen Z renters grew 913% between 2018 and 2023, which ranked fifth nationwide and nearly double the U.S. growth rate. With 75,665 Gen Z-aged renters, the city also ranked 14th by numbers, placing Denver higher than the more populated metros of San Francisco, San Antonio and Miami.
The alleged attraction? Gen Z incomes have tripled, though there’s also been a 22% increase in the cost of living. “Colorado’s most populous city checks many boxes for the digital native lifestyle, including a dynamic social scene; access to nature; active and health-focused living; and a strong job market,” says the report.
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➔ Prices of state’s for-sale homes are flat or falling but more under contract. In the seven-county Denver region, the number of single-family homebuyers under contract in February jumped 18.9% to 3,730 contracts from a year ago, even as actual homes sales remained flat and the median sales price dropped 2.3% in the same period. Denver Realtor Cooper Thayer called it “an early sign of stronger demand building beneath the surface.”
The condo-townhouse market is still in pain, with a 12.2% drop in sold listings, but a 4.4% increase in pending sales. The condo market’s median sale price fell 5% to $380,000, according to data from the Colorado Association of Realtors.
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A DraftKings.com billboard is pictured through the overpasses of the 6th Avenue Freeway near Osage Street in Denver in the spring of 2020. (Andy Colwell, Special to The Colorado Sun)➔ Colorado’s gamble on sports betting hits $5 million monthly record. In January, the state collected $5,022,182.11 in sports betting tax revenue, a 13% increase from a year ago. It also set a monthly record, besting the old one set in October for $4.8 million. That money will be used for state water projects to “protect future reserves from droughts exacerbated by climate change,” according to the Department of Revenue.
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People process through security at Denver International Airport on April 27, 2022. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)➔ Flying this spring break? DEN shares what to expect. Spring break season kicked off March 11, according to Denver International Airport. And before it ends March 29, an estimated 1.3 million passengers are predicted to go through the airport’s security checkpoints. More factoids:
Busiest travel day? Yesterday, Friday the 13th. The next three busiest? Sunday, the 15th; Friday, the 20th; and Sunday, 22nd. Expect extra long lines and waits, partly because about 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers have been working without pay since the partial federal government shutdown began Feb. 14. Republicans blame the Democrats and vice versa. Any questions? Check the DEN website.> Details
➔ DMV fraud alert. Colorado’s Division of Motor Vehicles is trying to get the word out that scammers are sending out texts impersonating the DMV. If you get a text about your unpaid tickets, suspended vehicle registration or loss of driving privileges, it’s not from the DMV. Don’t click anything, don’t respond and don’t share any personal information. Agency spokesperson Elizabeth Kosar said the only time the DMV may text is “if we need to reschedule appointments.” Unsure about the text? Call the DMV to verify at 303-205-5600 or visit dmv.colorado.gov. The DMV also suggests reporting scammers to reportfraud.ftc.gov or the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.
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Imposter-scam complaints decline in Colorado, but consumer complaints hit record How an Estes Park workforce housing program is rewarding renters Denver prices grew faster than US in January How Denver’s Art Gym went from private passion project to artist co-op This 73-year-old Puebloan fixes planes for clients like a Saudi prince. Become an airplane mechanic and write your own ticket too. So many new Colorado businesses filed to start up in 2025, but renewals declined The fees Colorado consumers still face after “junk fee” law has taken effectWhat’s Working is a Colorado Sun column about surviving in today’s economy. Email tamara@coloradosun.com with stories, tips or questions. Read the archive, ask a question at cosun.co/heyww and don’t miss the next one by signing up at coloradosun.com/getww.
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