Frank Campise isn’t sweating about his retail space on Tennyson.
The Chicago apartment developer and investor recently leased out the entirety of his 2,700-square-foot retail space at his new building on the corner of 38th Avenue and Tennyson Street to SweatHouz, a cold plunge and sauna spot.
“They seem to be really popular,” Campise said. “We thought having that type of amenity would be good for the building as well as the neighborhood, because there’s not another place like that in the immediate vicinity.”
Campise is one of two principals at Jab Real Estate, which completed the 44-unit 4345 W. 38th Ave. building at the end of last year. Leasing is expected to wrap up in the coming weeks.
SweatHouz did not return multiple requests for comment. The company has an existing Denver location at 2101 S. Broadway and another planned in the Denver Tech Center.
A typical booking involves an infrared sauna, which is slightly cooler than its traditional counterparts. Afterwards, customers can rinse off with a vitamin-C shower, which SweatHouz says benefits skin health, before finishing with a cold plunge. This process can be repeated two or three times in an $80 session. An unlimited monthly membership costs $289.
“People loved the brand and thought it would be a great and different addition to the street instead of another restaurant,” Campise said.
The developer’s building has been a lone bright spot in an otherwise challenging apartment market, he said.
“The market is really soft and I’m still mystified why anyone would start a new construction building right now,” Campise added.
Citywide apartment vacancy stands at 7%, according to the Apartment Association of Metro Denver’s second-quarter report issued last month. That’s up an entire percentage point from the same time last year, and up nearly two-and-a-half percentage points from the decade low of 4.6% in the third quarter of 2021.
Tennyson’s robust retail and apartment market has helped Campise’s building weather the storm a bit. The stretch between 38th and 46th avenues is nearly fully built out and often crowded with pedestrians and shoppers during afternoons and weekends.
But the other crutch for Campise has been his new app, Aigentless, which allows prospective tenants to do self-guided tours of the building at virtually any time of day. It leased 30% of the units at his Tennyson project, and 70% at one of his buildings in Chicago. He expects it to help at his next project delivering September at 2935 Zuni St. in LoHi.
“Those units would probably be vacant if we didn’t have the software,” he said.
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