Denver businessman bets on continued growth downtown with new 'premium performance club'
Revitalizing downtown Denver has been a major focus for Mayor Mike Johnston over the past few years, and during a press conference on Thursday announcing the proposed city budget for 2027, he said that focus has paid off.
Because of investments in the area, business owners are now betting on downtown's continued growth.
Omar Romero is just weeks away from beginning construction on a business that will take up three floors in one of the Denver Energy Center towers. HUMN, a premium performance club, is set to open in spring of 2027 and feature one floor dedicated to a co-working space, another to a state-of-the-art gym, and a third floor as a longevity space, all under one membership.
"When we started thinking about the business model and how we structured out our square footage, we wanted to have floor one be specific to an actual professional co-working space that included a variety of different seating, meeting rooms, phone booths and private areas where they can actually conduct business," explained Romero.
"You can think of contrast therapy, cold plunges, red light therapy, and then we will have spaces for licensed professionals that will rent out," Romero said regarding the longevity floor.
It's safe to say the concept wouldn't be coming to life if business owners didn't feel the area was taking a turn for the better, something Romero felt he could put his money behind.
"A lot of it was not so much like just one person betting on it, but a multitude of companies," Romero said.
Romero has lived downtown for six years, and said the idea came to him from his own experience as a remote worker.
"What I found was that every single thing that I wanted to do was either a new location and another membership. And so, the problem that we are solving for is time, money, and motivation," he explained.
The problem that's been solved for him is a renewed interest and investment in downtown.
"I do love that it's happening because it's not only happening in Denver, and part of our roadmap are tier two cities," Romero said. "So, we're avoiding L.A., Chicago, New York, and we're focusing on cities like Denver, Kansas City, Raleigh, Tampa, who all have similar programs like the Downtown Denver Partnerships, because every city was hit during COVID, but they're also the cities that are the fastest to bounce back after pandemics."
The building that this new concept will be in paints a picture of just how bad things became downtown. The Denver Energy Center, sold in 2013 for about $176 million, underwent bankruptcy in 2022 and was bought at an auction last year for just over $5 million. Many hope conditions will only improve from here.
