Micro apartments planned at former home of Art Institute in downtown Denver

The head of Denver-based Nichols Partnership, which turned a former hotel north of Mile High Stadium into microunit building Turntable Studios, plans to do the same with its newest buy — the former Art Institute building at 1200 Lincoln St.

“This building just happens to work out perfectly in the depth of the floorplate, so that we can get small units in there and they’re not super long and thin,” Randy Nichols said in an interview. “They can be more square.”

Nichols Partnership paid $15.25 million Friday for the 10-story building, which has been vacant since the Art Institute of Colorado closed in late 2018. Parent company Dream Center Education Holdings closed other campuses within the chain around the same time.

The building was sold by Store SPE 1200 Lincoln LLC, which had leased the building to the Art Institute. The firm paid $14.1 million for the property in November 2012, according to public records.

The project will be the third microunit conversion for Nichols. In addition to the 180-unit Turntable Studios, the company also fashioned Cruise out of a former medical office building near City Park.