In 1916, the building was the largest department store west of Chicago. The Denver Dry retail chain was purchased by the May Companies in 1986. Under the May Companies ownership, the downtown store was closed and threatened to be demolished. With the leadership of Mayor Federico Pena, Mayor Wellington Webb, the Denver Urban Renewal Authority and Jonathan Rose Companies, a major renovation of the building was completed in 1994. This renovation transformed the former department store into a mixed-use, mixed-income structure consisting of retail, office, affordable and market rate housing. The development has received numerous awards including the 1995 ULI Award of Excellence, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, 1995 National Preservation Honor Award, the 1994 Downtown Denver Partnership Rehabilitation of the Year Award, the 1994 Colorado Historical Society Award for Rehabilitation, the American Institute of Architects 1999: One of the Ten Most Environmentally Responsible Buildings and numerous other awards. During the 1990's the Denver Dry served as a catalyst and a model for the preservation and renovation of 20 other downtown historic buildings. Like the Denver Dry, these buildings utilized 3 forms of public financing (Low-income Housing Tax Credits: LIHTC, Historic Tax Credits: HTC and Tax Increment Financing: TIF) to support the renovation of historic buildings creating over 1000 new affordable housing units in downtown Denver and helping to revitalize the downtown economy.

After 30 years of full occupancy, the Denver Dry, along with the rest of downtown Denver, is now confronting the loss of retail and office space. In response, Jonathan Rose Companies, a current owner of the Denver Dry and one of the nation's leading developers focusing on the preservation and development of affordable housing, has proposed to convert the vacant office and retail space into a new   affordable housing complex and at the same time to renovate the existing LIHTC affordable apartments. The plan is also to convert all the affordable housing from antiquated steam heating to a state-of-the-art electric VRF heating system, to dramatically increase the building's energy efficiency. As a part of this project, Rose will also convert the entire building from steam heat to a hybrid gas/electric HVAC system, which will meet the 2030 energy efficiency requirements of the Energize Denver Program. Therefore, the redevelopment of the building will dramatically reduce the building’s carbon footprint and support the City’s decarbonization Goals.

Rose is planning to undertake the adaptive reuse, affordable housing in conjunction with the Denver Urban Renewal Authority and the Community of Opportunity Fund (a National non-profit focused on providing supportive services for affordable housing residents.

Rose received a 4% LIHTC Allocation from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority in November of 2023. This allocation will allow the development of a total of 106 affordable units (51 Acquisition Rehabilitation and 55 new construction) which will operate as one LIHTC/Historic Tax Credit Project. The use of Historic Tax Credits will also allow Rose to undertake work on the Facade, windows, the mechanical, electrical and elevator systems of the building.  Start of construction for the project is scheduled for early 2025 and completion of the project is scheduled for 2026.