Denver Rents Soaring Mile-High

Apartment dwellers in New York, San Francisco and Boston often pay more in rent than average Americans spend on monthly home-mortgage payments.

Is it time to add Denver to that list?

Perhaps, if you are talking about the 34-story glass luxury apartment tower near downtown Denver that is a venture of PM Realty Group and partner National Real Estate Advisors LLC.

If all goes as planned, the new building, called the Confluence, would be Denver's tallest apartment building with some of its most expensive apartments.

The developers are aiming for an average rent of $2,800 on their 288 units in a city where the average apartment rents for $1,110 a month and the average home mortgage also is in that range, based on current rates. The units in the new building will range from $1,500-a-month studios to two 3,500-square-foot three-bedroom penthouses that will go for $12,000 a month.

"We're looking for people who want to live in a highly amenitized building with tremendous views, close to all the action and an ultraluxury lifestyle," says Roger Gregory, president of PMRG Investments, a unit of PM Realty Group.

PMRG says it studied Denver's economy to determine whether there are enough well-heeled residents who could afford rents the company plans to charge at the Confluence--so-named for its location at the intersection of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek.

"When you look at Denver, you got a highly educated workforce," says Mr. Gregory, who points out that the city has a disproportionate share of white-collar jobs.

In the greater Denver area, professional-services jobs comprise 21.1% of its total employment, 4.7 percentage points higher than the national average, according to a recent report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Petroleum engineers, who earn $72.84 an hour, are Denver's highest wage-earners, and employment in the energy sector, which includes mining, logging and construction, has grown 3.8% in the 12 months ending in October, according to the BLS.

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Denver Rents Soaring Mile-High