Sky's the limit: downtown developers pin hopes on high-rise dwellings.

• Author: Titus, Stephen
• Position: Who owns Colorado

THE UBIQUITOUS LOFT MAY SOON TAKE A BACK SEAT TO THE LUXURY SKYSCRAPER AS DENVER'S MOST NOTABLE RESIDENTIAL DOWNTOWN PROPERTY.

Two developers are putting their money on new high-rise residences, with one operation pegging square-foot prices in the $700-per-square-foot range for Trump-style luxury services and accommodations, making them some of the most expensive homesteads in Denver. The other is shooting for a broader market with prices about half of that. And a third development team is planning a major remodel on an existing building that has been declining for several years.

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All three towers are a short walk from the newly expanded Colorado Convention Center, the new Hyatt Regency Denver at the Convention Center and 14th Street in Downtown Denver, an area where property values have skyrocketed as development plans have been announced.

Michael Brenneman and Jeff Selby, owners of the posh Hotel Teatro, are proposing a 50-story building that, at 752 feet, would be Denver's tallest. The lower 14 floors of the Teatro Tower are slated to house a luxury Four Seasons Hotel with 230 rooms, a fitness center, swimming pools, restaurants and every other amenity your average king, queen or reality TV star comes to expect from $600 per night rooms.

The upper floors of the building, however, would be reserved for 140 private residences ranging from 800-square-foot, one-bedroom flats to 7,500-square-foot penthouse mansions that would blow back even The Donald's hair. If the structure gets out of the ground, the $350 million project also would be the most expensive privately financed high-rise ever built in Denver.

Brenneman and Selby declined to comment for this story, but a representative of the Teatro Tower sales team said interest in the building has been strong, though the sales office is not yet open and potential buyers are not yet able to negotiate contracts.

Selby and Brenneman are no strangers to creating luxury accommodations. Their Hotel Teatro (Italian for theater) is full of the stuff you never thought you needed and now can't live without. Profiled in Forbes, the boutique hangout offers guests everything from a menu of pillow choices to five-star pet treatment. And the per care includes gourmet dog biscuits, bottled water and complimentary chew toys, all arranged on a bone-shaped placemat.

The tower's Four Seasons Hotel would be a first for Denver. The chain is not only considered to offer some of the finest accommodations in the world, but it is also known for occupying landmark structures. It shares space in Miami's tallest building, for example, and it is the tallest hotel in New York City at 52 floors and 682 feet.

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Peter Park, head of the city of Denver's long-range planning department, would not say specifically if the city was in favor of the skyline-changing Selby/Brenneman building, but, in an interview, Park pointed out that more residential property...