Rezoning sought for downtown office building after vet clinic denied

The owner of an office building near Union Station hopes to rezone it after a veterinary clinic couldn’t move into its ground floor.

An affiliate of Invesco Real Estate, which owns the 16 Chestnut building at 1681 Chestnut Place, submitted a rezoning application earlier this month.

CityVet, a Dallas-based chain of vet clinics, previously posted on its website that it planned to open in the building.

But CityVet “was denied their construction permit due to their use not being listed as a permitted use” under the building’s existing zoning of Planned Unit Development, or PUD, according to Jordan Kind of Houston-based Hines, which manages the building. Emails from Kind to neighborhood organizations were included with the rezoning application.

“The City of Denver did not allow a variance to this zoning regulation as they are seeking to replace legacy PUD’s with new, more relevant zoning classifications,” Kind wrote. “With the assistance of a zoning consultant it was determined that the zoning classification of C-MX-20 is the most appropriate to the existing 19 story office building and limited ground floor retail presently on the site.”

The application included letters of support from several neighbors and leaders in Lower Downtown, several of which said downtown is in need of more veterinary services.

Invesco Real Estate bought 16 Chestnut in 2016 as construction began on the building. DaVita leases the majority of the building. The tech firm Slack has 80,000 square feet in the building but has been attempting to sublease the space.