In 2021, a development team filed plans for an eight-story, 80-unit apartment building on the 200 block of Detroit Street in Cherry Creek. Early this year, records showed the same block heading somewhere else. Stillwater Capital and Wexford Real Estate Investors now plan a 42-unit condo building under the Four Seasons Private Residences name, with a sales center planned across the street at 280 Detroit St., according to The Denver Post. Stillwater's affiliate paid $29 million for the land in 2022, which works out to $925 a square foot.
On this block, a site bought at that price is now planned as condos. Elsewhere in Cherry Creek, developers keep choosing rentals. Taken together, those decisions explain the neighborhood's condo market better than any median does. Cherry Creek is building for-sale homes only at the very top and rentals for everyone else. If you're shopping for a condo here, you're in one of two markets, and they behave in opposite ways.
What the Pipeline Is Actually Building
The Cherry Creek North Business Improvement District's State of Cherry Creek 2025/2026 report lists every major residential project underway or announced. Two of them are condos.
| Project | Address | For sale or for rent | Homes | Status in latest reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modera Cook Street | 195 Cook St. | Rent | 110 | Under construction, 2026 |
| 299 Milwaukee St. | 299 Milwaukee St. | Rent | 177 | Under construction, 2027 |
| Cherry Lane | 2375 E. 1st Ave. | Rent | 380 | Under construction, 2028 |
| 50 S. Steele St. | 50 S. Steele St. | Rent | 416 | Announced, 2028 |
| Cherry Creek West, phase one | 2500 E. 1st Ave. | Rent | 400 | Demolition underway, 2029 |
| Cherry Creek West, phase two | 2500 E. 1st Ave. | Rent | 430 | Announced, 2033 |
| Waldorf Astoria Residences | 185 Steele St. | Sale | 37 | Under construction, 2028 |
| Four Seasons Private Residences | 219–255 Detroit St. | Sale | 42 | Announced, completion TBD |
Add up the projects with unit counts and you get more than 1,900 rental apartments against 79 condos. The BID lists another apartment project at 3865 Cherry Creek North Dr. by square footage, so the rental total runs higher still. Cherry Creek West has moved past the planning stage. Mortenson reported that demolition began in March 2026 on the west side of Cherry Creek Shopping Center. The developer's timeline calls for a formal groundbreaking in December 2026 and first move-ins in late 2029, and both buildings in phase one are for rent.
Developers decide between condos and rentals based on what they expect each buyer or tenant to pay. The pipeline shows where they think for-sale demand is deep enough to justify the risk. They found it at the luxury level and nowhere below it.
At the Top, There Isn't Much to Buy
The luxury tier backs up that bet. The Denver Metro Association of Realtors' September 2026 market trends report found that through September, closed sales of attached homes at $1 million and up were 6.35% higher than a year earlier across the metro, with a median of 23 days in the MLS. Sales rose in all three luxury attached price bands DMAR tracks, and the $2 million-plus band grew fastest, up 11.11% year to date. The highest-priced attached sale in the whole metro in September was in Cherry Creek North, at 500 Adams St., for $4.3 million in cash.
The new luxury supply is selling well before it exists. The Waldorf Astoria Residences at 185 Steele St. broke ground in November 2025, with residences starting just above $2 million and penthouses above $10 million, The Denver Post reported. By June 2026, about 10 of its 37 homes were still available, with delivery targeted for the first quarter of 2028, according to the Denver Business Journal.
For a buyer at this level, the scarcity is the main thing to understand. Two buildings with 79 homes between them, one of them mostly presold, won't add much to the choices available over the next few years. A resale in an established Cherry Creek North boutique building competes with very little new product. That's a big part of why luxury attached homes are selling quickly in a year when the broader condo market isn't.
In the Middle, a Condo Competes With a Lease
Below $1 million, the numbers move the other way. DMAR reported that metro attached homes had 7.21 months of inventory in September 2026, with a median close price of $365,500, down 6.28% from a year earlier. Inside the city limits it's steeper. An analysis cited by Denverite in August 2026 found Denver condos 14.3% below their 2022 peak median of $370,000. The same piece reported that metro condos and townhomes were taking a median 40 days to sell, compared with 17 days for single-family homes.
The rental pipeline helps explain those numbers. Anyone weighing a Cherry Creek condo at an everyday price can also look at a brand-new apartment a few blocks away, and those buildings are trying to fill units. The Denver Post reported that in the first quarter of 2026, concessions across metro Denver equaled 10% of advertised rent, effective rents were down 8.6% from a year earlier, and units delivered this decade averaged $2,289 a month. At a Cherry Creek Alliance breakfast in May, Walker & Dunlop chairman and CEO Willy Walker said domestic outmigration had left the region with a temporary oversupply of apartments and that metro Denver saw the second-biggest drop in apartment rents in the country last year, according to The Denver Post.
The Cherry Creek apartments listed in the table will arrive over the next several years, from Modera Cook Street's projected 2026 completion through Cherry Creek West's second phase, targeted for 2033. A seller listing an older Cherry Creek condo is competing with other condos and also with leasing offices offering incentives. The luxury buyer at 500 Adams isn't weighing a lease. A buyer looking at a smaller unit in an older building often is.
The neighborhood's own success adds pressure for anyone living close to it. The same Denver Post story counted eight large projects underway and another eight coming, with tighter parking, construction dust and barrier mazes around some storefronts. It also noted a bus rapid transit project planned for Colorado Boulevard. For a resale condo next to an active site, the timeline on a construction fence matters as much as the comps.
Why Mid-Tier Deals Stall
In the middle tier, the friction usually comes from the building. Condo HOA fees in Colorado have climbed sharply, driven in large part by property insurance, and many associations buy their master policies in the surplus lines market, where policies aren't reviewed by the state's Division of Insurance, The Denver Post's editorial board wrote in January. Higher dues reduce what a buyer can borrow, so they push prices down.
A building's finances can also limit the loans available to a buyer. The Colorado Sun reported in 2025 that Fannie Mae's project requirements include completed critical maintenance, reserves of at least 10% of the annual HOA budget, replacement-cost insurance and a deductible of no more than 5%, and that projects falling short can create financing problems for buyers. Financing also got more expensive this fall. DMAR noted that the 30-year fixed rate climbed to about 7.5% by the end of September and that the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate mid-month.
DMAR's September report concluded that the attached segment "favors prepared buyers and sellers who price with HOA fees and insurance costs in mind," and listed rate buydowns, seller-paid concessions and adjustable-rate loans among the terms being negotiated. That leverage is real in the middle tier, and much harder to find at 23 days on market in the luxury tier. All of this is general information, not legal, lending or insurance advice, so confirm how any building's finances affect your own loan with your lender and the right professionals.
The Questions Depend on the Tier
For an everyday-priced Cherry Creek condo, these questions shape the deal:
- How much have the HOA dues gone up over the last few years, and how much of that increase was insurance?
- What does the master policy cover, what is the deductible, and who placed it?
- Does the association's reserve balance and maintenance record line up with your lender's project requirements?
- Is a large construction project or the Colorado Boulevard corridor going to sit next to this building for years?
- What would a comparable new apartment nearby cost each month after concessions, and is the seller pricing with that in mind?
At the luxury level, the questions are about supply. How many comparable units exist in established Cherry Creek North buildings? Is the Four Seasons project likely to add competing inventory, or will it stay on paper for a while? How quickly do resales in the building you want usually sell? With so little new for-sale product coming, the existing buildings set the prices at the top.
A Few Quick Answers
Is Cherry Creek West adding any condos? Mortenson describes phase one as two for-rent residential buildings, and the developer's timeline points to move-ins in late 2029.
When will the Four Seasons Private Residences open? The BID's latest pipeline lists it as announced with completion to be determined.
Is September's data the latest available? Yes. DMAR published its September 2026 report on October 3. Most September closings went under contract in August, before the rate increase, and DMAR expects the full effect to show up in October and November closings.
If you're weighing a Cherry Creek condo, I can help you figure out which of the two markets your unit sits in, and pull the dues history, insurance details and nearby rental competition before you set a price or make an offer. Reach out to Stacy Connelly and let's connect.
