A luxury residence in Denver's Golden Triangle
The Watermark Condominiums
Ninety luxury residences in a landmark-district building on 4th Avenue between Broadway and Acoma, steps from the Denver Art Museum, Civic Center, and the Cherry Creek trail.
410 Acoma Street, Denver, Colorado 80204
Three things every owner should know
Dues are home values
A buyer at their lender's limit counts the dues as part of the mortgage payment. At today's 7.32% rate, an extra $100 a month cuts what that buyer can borrow by about $14,600, and an extra $300 takes about $43,700 off a $500,000 condo. A smaller pool of buyers means pressure on every owner's resale price. See the table →
Did you know? The building pays Associa a markup on the labor it supplies, estimated at 12 to 14%, or about $40,000 a year. That is about three times the $13,500 increase in the 2027 professional services line, and employing our own staff directly would recover it. See how →
A 10¢ EV rate is a legal risk
The board adopted 10¢ per kWh for EV charging on October 28. Colorado law lets the Association recover the “actual cost of electricity.” Worked from the Xcel invoice, that cost is about 4.4¢ per kWh including taxes, and the 10¢ has no Xcel data behind it. If an owner challenges it and the Association can't show how it got there, the owner can ask for the difference back, and CCIOA says a court shall award reasonable attorney fees and costs to the prevailing party in a civil action to enforce the act (C.R.S. 38-33.3-123(1)(c)). Legal fees are already rising in the budget, and every owner pays them. Read the math → The law: CCIOA, EV charging statute, and a Colorado law firm's EV explainer.
An EV uses less electricity than you'd think
An EV driven 1,000 miles a month uses about 300 kWh. A high-end workstation running around the clock at 600 watts uses about 438 kWh, more than that EV. At the invoice-based cost, the EV's month of driving is about $13.
2027: what owners should be concerned about
The board-approved 2027 budget (Budget D, October 1, 2026) raises assessments 9.8%. An earlier draft, Budget A, dated September 12, proposed 23%. The lower number is good news, and it's worth saying so. What matters now is how it came down, and what's still in it.
The reserve contribution falls from $290,400 to $250,000, and the September draft had $324,000. Without that cut, the increase would be about 13%. Reserves pay for the roof, the elevators, and the mechanical systems, repairs that arrive whether or not they're budgeted.
Everything other than reserves goes from about $968,000 to $1.13 million. Assessments rise 9.8% only because the line we pay ourselves for the future shrinks.
Payroll goes from $157,000 to $298,920, including a new $101,920 maintenance salary line. Building Repair and Maintenance drops from $60,000 to $15,000. The budget packet doesn't include the staffing plan behind either move.
$156,850 came out between the September draft and the approved version: $74,000 from reserves, $49,920 from a janitorial line that duplicated another, and $38,930 from salaries. A duplicate that size shouldn't survive into a draft that went to owners.
Hallway walls with holes where the art came down. An entry that isn't finished. Fall landscaping that hasn't happened. Each started with good intentions and stalled when the next idea arrived.
Five standing committees generating their own agendas, and monthly meetings that reopen last month's arguments. No scorecard, no written decisions with names and dates, no way for an owner to tell what got done.
Our homes are worth less than they were in 2022. Unit 414 sold for $625,000 in December 2022 and $580,000 in September 2024, after six price cuts. A 1,201 sq ft two-bedroom sold for $482,000 this July; a same-size home sold for $577,000 in 2022. Rising dues and a smaller reserve are part of what buyers price in. See the sales →
None of this is about bad people. It's what happens when a board tries to do everything at once and nobody is allowed to say no. A 9.8% increase that quietly shrinks the reserve is a decision owners should make with their eyes open, not one that shows up as a lower number. The rest of this page is what a shorter list, an owner vote, and a management team left alone to execute looks like.
The building
The Watermark was established as a condominium community in November 2007 (recorded under the name Watermark Village) and is governed by the Amended and Restated Declaration recorded in 2020. It sits inside a Denver Landmark Preservation district, so exterior changes go through the city as well as the Association. Homes range from one-level residences on the lower floors to two-level penthouses on the seventh floor.
Residences per floor, from Exhibit A of the Declaration. Bar length shows how many homes are on each floor; the size of the largest home on that floor is noted.
Amenities
- Sky GardenSeventh-floor rooftop with city views, grill, and lounge; reservable for private events
- Heated pool and hot tubOn the Sky Garden, open year-round, 5 a.m. to midnight
- Fitness roomSeventh floor, 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.; free weights, treadmills, bikes, machines
- Kitchenette and meeting roomSeventh floor, reservable for gatherings of up to 15
- LobbyCoffee, tea, and hot chocolate around the clock, and a community library
- Concierge and securityStaffed concierge seven days a week; on-site security overnight, every night
- Secured garageAssigned parking, bicycle cage, and storage
- Package deliveryPackages brought to your door by the concierge; dry-cleaning pickup in the mailroom
This site is published by an owner, not by Watermark Condominium Association, Inc. Official notices, records requests, and management contact go through Colorado Association Services, the Association's managing agent.
How the building is governed
The Association is a Colorado nonprofit run by a five-member board elected by owners to three-year terms. Every unit's vote is weighted by its share of the building, from 0.60% for the smallest home to 2.97% for the largest. Assessments are allocated the same way.
- Budget. The board adopts a budget each year. It takes effect unless owners holding 51% of the total vote reject it at the budget meeting.
- Board meetings. Open to all owners, held at least quarterly, with an agenda available in advance. Closed sessions are limited by statute to a short list of topics.
- Records. Owners can inspect Association records under Colorado law and the Bylaws. Financial statements, minutes, insurance, and policies must be made available within 90 days of year-end.
- Elections. Contested seats are decided by secret ballot, counted by owners who aren't candidates or directors. Proxies are allowed.
- Special meetings. Owners holding 20% of the vote can call one by petition.
Declaration recorded March 12, 2020, Reception No. 2020036227; Amended and Restated Bylaws adopted March 6, 2020.
Nine years of assessments
Owner assessments are up 83% since 2018 and 33% since 2023. Most of that came in steps of 5 to 10 percent a year, with a larger step in 2023, the first budget after the move to Associa. The 2027 increase of 9.8% is the largest since then, but it is not an outlier.
budget actual 2027 board-approved. Years 2019 through 2021 are not yet in the archive.
| Year | Basis | Assessments | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Budget | $701,768 | |
| 2022 | Budget | $853,608 | +21.6% |
| 2023 | Actual | $966,941 | +13.3% |
| 2024 | Actual | $1,028,235 | +6.3% |
| 2025 | Actual | $1,081,842 | +5.2% |
| 2026 | Budget | $1,170,896 | +8.2% |
| 2027 | Approved | $1,285,603 | +9.8% |
2018: Watermark 2018 Financials. 2022: 2023 Annual Budget. 2023 to 2025 actuals, 2026 budget, 2027 approved: "2027 Budget D — Approved," October 1, 2026. The 2022 figure is a budget and the 2023 figure an actual, so that one step mixes bases. An earlier draft of the 2027 budget, dated September 12, 2026, proposed $1,442,453 (+23.2%).
2018 to 2027 works out to about 7% a year, compounded.
What our homes are selling for
Assessments went up every year. Sale prices didn't. Here are recent Watermark sales next to earlier ones, from public sale records.
| Home | Earlier sale | Recent sale | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 414, 1,301 sq ft Same home, sold twice | $625,000 Dec 2022 | $580,000 Sep 2024 | −7.2% |
| Unit 609, 1,201 sq ft vs. Unit 409, 1,202 sq ft | $577,000 Feb 2022 | $482,000 Jul 2026 | −16.5% |
| Unit 610, 1,196 sq ft vs. Unit 409, 1,202 sq ft | $577,000 Feb 2022 | $555,000 Jul 2026 | −3.8% |
Sources: Redfin sale histories for #414 and #409, and recent building sales listed there; #610 listing history. Rows two and three compare different homes of nearly the same size, not the same home. A January 2026 sale of #208 is left out because the sources disagree on the price.
Unit 414 came on at $639,000 in February 2024 and took six price cuts over six months to sell at $580,000. Unit 610 listed at $599,000 this July and sold at $555,000. Five homes in the building are for sale right now.
Some of this is the whole city. Denver condos are down about 14% from their 2022 peak, and they take a median 40 days to sell against 17 for houses. The agent who tracks that market points to rising HOA dues as one reason buyers stay away (Denverite, August 2026).
That part is the part we control. A buyer looking at $900 to $1,000 a month in dues on a two-bedroom (what current listings here show), on a building budget up 33% since 2023, with a reserve contribution just cut, prices that in. Every dollar of dues a buyer has to carry is a dollar less they can borrow for the home. This is a small set of sales, not an appraisal, but the direction is clear. Keeping the budget disciplined is how we protect what our homes are worth.
The budget, this year and next
Every owner pays a share of this, weighted by unit size. The 2026 budget is what we're paying now. The 2027 column is the board-approved budget, "2027 Budget D — Approved," dated October 1, 2026. It takes effect unless owners holding 51% of the total vote reject it at the budget meeting.
2026 budget 2027 approved
| Category | 2026 | 2027 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reserve contribution | $290,400 | $250,000 | −14% |
| Payroll and benefits | $157,000 | $298,920 | +90% |
| Utilities | $241,792 | $255,973 | +6% |
| Contracted services (janitorial, trash, HVAC, fire) | $134,589 | $151,978 | +13% |
| Repair and maintenance | $167,996 | $123,150 | −27% |
| Security and concierge | $82,567 | $85,900 | +4% |
| Insurance | $65,000 | $68,300 | +5% |
| Elevator | $38,275 | $41,950 | +10% |
| Administrative and management | $34,624 | $35,250 | +2% |
| Professional services (audit, legal, engineering) | $18,500 | $32,000 | +73% |
| Landscaping | $9,500 | $19,500 | +105% |
| Communications | $16,000 | $11,700 | −27% |
| Operations | $2,000 | $6,729 | +236% |
| Total operating expense | $1,258,243 | $1,381,350 | +10% |
Total expense rises 9.8%. Take out the reserve contribution and the rest of the budget rises 16.9%, from about $968,000 to $1,131,000.
Legal and professional fees are up 73%. The professional services line (audit, legal, engineering) goes from $18,500 to $32,000, an increase of $13,500. The audit line is being cut from $2,500 to $500 at the same time, so legal and engineering together are rising by about $15,500. Legal alone was $6,758 in 2023 and $12,132 in 2025, up 80%, and the approved budget doesn't break out a 2027 legal amount. Owners should ask which matters are driving it and who they're for. See the questions for the board.
| Income | 2026 | 2027 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner assessments | $1,170,896 | $1,285,603 | +10% |
| Other income (rooftop lease, fees, contributions) | $87,347 | $95,747 | +10% |
| Total operating income | $1,258,243 | $1,381,350 | +10% |
Source: "2027 Budget D — Approved," October 1, 2026. An earlier draft (Budget A, September 12, 2026) proposed $1,538,200 in total expense with a $324,000 reserve contribution; the approved version cut $156,850. Other income combines Mansion HOA dues, EV chargeback, initial contributions, user fees, and the cell-site lease.
The cell tower on our roof
Since 2015 the Association has been landlord to an AT&T cell site. It brings in about $37,000 a year, which is roughly 2.9% of everything owners pay in assessments. It also comes with a contract that binds the building for up to thirty years. Most owners have never read it. This page is what it says.
What's up there
Twelve antennas in three groups, mounted on the penthouse walls and behind a fiberglass enclosure on the roof, all painted to match the building. A 30-by-9-foot equipment area on the rooftop. Cable trays running along the screen wall. The exhibit to the lease describes the antennas as concealed and textured to match the existing building, which is why most people never notice them.
The tenant is New Cingular Wireless PCS, LLC, doing business as AT&T. The site is designated COU5231, "Speer and Broadway." The Association signed as landlord on January 27, 2015, by then-directors Agatha Kessler, Gjoa Kuberry, and Susan Demidovich. AT&T signed February 18, 2015. A Memorandum of Lease was prepared for recording against the property.
How long we're in this
The lease runs in stages, and every stage renews on its own unless AT&T says otherwise:
- Initial term: ten years from the date AT&T exercised its option and started construction.
- Four automatic five-year extensions after that, on the same terms, unless AT&T gives sixty days' notice that it won't renew. That's thirty years total.
- Then year-to-year, until either side gives six months' notice.
"This Agreement will automatically renew for four (4) additional five (5) year term(s)... upon the same terms and conditions unless Tenant notifies Landlord in writing of Tenant's intention not to renew this Agreement at least sixty (60) days prior to the expiration of the existing Initial Term or then-existing Extension Term." Section 3(b)
Read that carefully. The renewals are AT&T's to decline, not ours. The Association has no right to end the lease during the initial term or any extension except for AT&T's own default. AT&T, on the other hand, can leave on sixty days' notice at any time by paying three months' rent (Section 6(e)).
The rent, and the 4% that's written in
Base rent started at $24,000 a year. Section 4(b) sets what happens after that:
"Beginning with year two (2) of the initial term, and each year thereafter, the monthly rent will be increased by four percent (4%) over the previous year's rent." Section 4(b)
This isn't something the board sets or negotiates. It's a term the Association is already bound by. The rent simply is 4% higher each year than the year before.
Run the clause forward from $24,000 and it reproduces the 2018 figure exactly if rent began in 2016. Here is that formula next to what the budgets show:
| Year | Lease formula | Budget or actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | $25,958 | $25,958 |
| 2022 | $30,368 | $30,263 |
| 2023 | $31,582 | $30,418 actual |
| 2024 | $32,846 | $43,057 actual |
| 2025 | $34,159 | $36,678 actual |
| 2026 | $35,526 | $36,947 budget |
| 2027 | $36,947 | $36,947 budget |
Sources: lease Section 4(b); 2018 Financials; 2023 Annual Budget; 2027 Budget D. The formula is an approximation, because rent steps up on the lease anniversary, not on January 1, and it assumes the first rent year was 2016.
The 2027 budget figure matches what the lease produces. The earlier years sit a few thousand dollars either side, which is what timing looks like. The one that stands out is 2024: $43,057 recorded, about $10,000 above the formula. That could be back rent collected or something else. Management can say which.
So the numbers don't show the escalator being missed. They show a rent line that has moved around, and one year that needs an explanation. The rent schedule and the commencement date settle it.
Who pays for the equipment's electricity
Cell equipment runs 24 hours a day. The lease is direct about who pays for that:
"Tenant will be responsible for paying on a monthly or quarterly basis all utilities charges for electricity, telephone service or any other utility used or consumed by Tenant on the Premises. In the event Tenant cannot secure its own metered electrical supply, Tenant will have the right, at its own cost and expense, to submeter from Landlord... Landlord agrees that it will not include a markup on the utility charges." Section 14(b)
Two things follow. AT&T pays for its own power, at cost. And if AT&T is on the building's meter rather than its own, the Association is supposed to read the submeter monthly and invoice it.
The 2023 budget planned $6,000 in electricity reimbursement from the AT&T cell tower, and $5,400 the year before. The approved 2027 budget shows $0 actually booked in 2023, 2024, and 2025, with $14,000 budgeted for 2027. Either AT&T moved to its own Xcel meter at some point, in which case there's nothing to collect, or the Association stopped invoicing, in which case there is. This page doesn't decide which. It's a question management can answer in one sentence.
There's a deadline attached to the answer. Section 4(c) says utility charges the Association doesn't bill within a year of the end of the calendar year they were incurred "shall not be billed by Landlord, and shall not be payable by Tenant." Whatever wasn't invoiced for 2024 is already gone. 2025 has until the end of this year.
What the Association agreed to
Beyond rent, the lease puts obligations on the building. Owners should know them before anyone proposes changing the site.
- Access, around the clock. AT&T gets 24/7 access for emergencies and business-hours access for routine work. If the Association blocks access, it owes $120 a day in liquidated damages until it's fixed (Section 12).
- No interference. The Association won't lease roof space to any other wireless carrier if it would interfere with AT&T, and must stop any interference within 24 hours of notice (Sections 8 and 22(c)).
- No zoning changes. The Association won't seek or consent to any zoning change or use restriction that would limit AT&T's use of the site (Section 1(g)).
- AT&T can modify at will. The tenant may "modify, supplement, replace, upgrade, expand the equipment, increase the number of antennas or relocate the Communication Facility at any time during the term" (Section 2). The Association's consent isn't required.
- Loser pays. In any dispute under the lease, the prevailing party recovers its attorneys' fees (Section 24(m)).
Put together, that means the Association cannot make AT&T move or remove its equipment. Any relocation would be a negotiated purchase, at the building's expense, and would put the Association on the wrong side of an interference clause and a fee-shifting clause if it pushed too hard. Anyone proposing to spend Association money on relocating the antennas should start by reading Sections 2, 8, and 24(m).
If the antennas move, the rent has to move with them
There's been talk of relocating the antennas from the north penthouse wall onto the roof. Before anyone spends a dollar on that, two things in the lease decide how it works.
More square feet means more rent, by contract
The lease covers a specific 300 square feet. If AT&T's equipment needs more space than that for any reason, including a relocation, Section 2 says what happens:
"In the event Tenant desires to modify or upgrade the Communication Facility, in a manner that requires an additional portion of the Property (the 'Additional Premises') for such modification or upgrade, Landlord agrees to lease to Tenant the Additional Premises, upon the same terms and conditions set forth herein, except that the Rent shall increase, in conjunction with the lease of the Additional Premises by the amount equivalent to the then-current per square foot rental rate charged by Landlord to Tenant times the square footage of the Additional Premises." Section 2
At $36,947 for 300 square feet, the lease rate is about $123 per square foot per year. A rooftop layout that takes 450 square feet instead of 300 would add roughly $18,000 a year in rent at that rate, escalating 4% annually like the rest. That isn't a negotiating position; it's the formula the contract already contains. Any relocation plan that doesn't include a survey of the new footprint and a rent adjustment to match is leaving money on the table.
The building should not pay to move AT&T's equipment
Everything on that roof belongs to AT&T. Section 13 says the equipment "will be and remain Tenant's personal property," and Section 2 gives AT&T the right to "relocate the Communication Facility at any time during the term" on its own initiative and at its own expense. If AT&T wants to move, it moves and pays. If the Association wants it moved, the Association has no right to require it, and no obligation to fund it.
If a relocation is being driven by a handful of owners who'd rather not have antennas on their wall, that's a legitimate request. It is not a common expense. Declaration Section 5.5(c) is explicit that an expense benefiting fewer than all units "may be assessed equitably against those Units benefited according to the benefit received." The owners who want the antennas moved can fund the move, negotiate the terms with AT&T through the Association, and the building as a whole collects the higher rent on the larger footprint afterward. That's the only version of this where every owner comes out ahead.
The version where the Association pays six figures to move a tenant's property, at the request of a few units, while collecting the same rent, is the version owners should refuse.
Five questions for management
- What is the rent schedule? Provide the rent commencement date, the current schedule under Section 4(b), the payment history for 2024 to 2026, and what the $43,057 recorded in 2024 was.
- Whose meter is AT&T on? Its own, or the building's? If the building's, when did the Association last read the submeter and invoice it?
- Where do AT&T's notices go? The lease lists the Landlord's notice address as "c/o Ms. Agatha Kessler" at the building, with a copy to her office. Section 17 lets the Association change that with thirty days' written notice. Has it?
- Where is the recorded Memorandum? The lease calls for a Memorandum of Lease to be recorded. Provide the reception number.
- What's the footprint of any proposed relocation? If antennas move to the roof, provide the square footage of the new premises and the rent adjustment under Section 2 before any owner money is discussed.
The lease, the 2018 budget, and the 2023 budget are Association records. They were obtained the way any owner can obtain them: by asking.
EV charging: what Colorado law lets the Association bill
Owners who charge an electric vehicle in the garage can be billed for the electricity. Colorado's condominium act sets the rule, and the Association's Xcel invoice supplies the numbers. This page covers both: what the statute allows, and how to work out the cost of a kilowatt-hour from the invoice yourself.
What the statute says
C.R.S. 38-33.3-106.8 protects an owner's right to install and use an EV charging station. The Association may require the owner to reimburse it for the “actual cost of electricity” the charger uses, or charge a reasonable fee for access to the station. It cannot invent a cost that isn't the electricity itself.
Everything turns on two words: actual cost. Colorado Association Services has proposed collecting from January 1, 2027, with charges waived until then. Its draft policy offers options that include the demand charge and options that leave it out. That is the open question, and it is a question for every owner who charges, not for any one of us.
The board adopted 10¢ per kWh on October 28, 2026. That number isn't an Xcel rate and doesn't come from any Xcel invoice. Worked from the invoice below, the cost of a kilowatt-hour including taxes is about 4.4¢, so 10¢ is more than double. For 200 kWh that is $20.00 against $8.74. Statute allows reimbursement of the “actual cost of electricity,” and a rate with no data behind it isn't a cost. Owners should ask the board what the 10¢ is based on.
This page explains the math and the statute. It isn't legal advice. If a number affects you, check it against the invoice, then ask the board to put the method in writing.
How to read the Xcel invoice
The building has three Xcel meters: the Fire Pump (1982), the Mechanical Room (2014), and the Residential meter (2016). The garage chargers sit on the residential meter. Four kinds of lines show up on it, and only some of them have anything to do with how many kilowatt-hours a car pulled.
What you actually used. Billed at the Secondary General rate per kWh, plus the Electric Commodity Adjustment (ECA). This is the cost of the electricity itself.
The highest 15-minute burst of power in the month, not total use. Xcel takes the kWh used in that interval and divides by 0.25: 20 kWh in 15 minutes is 80 kW. It bills the maximum as Demand Actual, then Billable Demand in full-kW steps.
Customer and service charges and riders. They're the same whether one car charges or none.
A 3% franchise fee and state and local sales tax, applied to the charges above. They are percentages, so they move with the charges they sit on.
Rates aren't permanent. The ECA resets every quarter, so a rate from last quarter's invoice is already wrong. Always take the rates from the invoice you're checking.
The formula
For energy only, which is the cost of the electricity a charger uses:
Cost = kWh × (Secondary General rate + ECA rate) × 1.12423 1.12423 = 1 + 3% franchise fee + 9.423% sales tax, for the invoice used below
Worked example for 200 kWh of charging, using the building's residential-meter invoice:
- Add the two per-kWh rates. Secondary General $0.008530 plus ECA $0.030320 is $0.03885 per kWh. Check it against the invoice: $350.70 plus $1,246.58 is $1,597.28, divided by 41,114 kWh, is $0.03885.
- Multiply by the kWh used. 200 × $0.03885 = $7.77.
- Add the taxes, each on the $7.77. Franchise fee at 3% is $0.23. Sales tax at 9.423% is $0.73. They don't stack on each other. Combined, 12.423%, that's $0.97. The sales tax rate comes off the invoice: $488.99 of tax on $5,189.34 of taxable charges is 9.423%.
- Add it up. $7.77 plus $0.97 is $8.74 for 200 kWh, about 4.37¢ per kWh.
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Energy: 200 kWh × $0.03885 | $7.77 |
| Franchise fee, 3% | $0.23 |
| Sales tax, 9.423% | $0.73 |
| Cost of 200 kWh | $8.74 |
Rates and totals are from a Watermark residential-meter Xcel invoice. Each quarter, re-derive the sales tax as the invoice's tax divided by its taxable amount, and use that quarter's Secondary General and ECA rates.
How much power is an EV, really?
The electricity an EV uses in a month is in the same range as a computer that never sleeps.
| Load | kWh a month | At 4.37¢ | At 10¢ |
|---|---|---|---|
| EV driven 1,000 miles (0.3 kWh a mile) | 300 | $13.11 | $30.00 |
| High-end workstation, 600 W around the clock | 438 | $19.14 | $43.80 |
| Gaming PC, 500 W, 6 hours a day | 90 | $3.93 | $9.00 |
Estimates, not measurements. A month is 730 hours. 4.37¢ is the cost per kWh with taxes from the invoice formula above. Real EVs vary from about 0.25 to 0.35 kWh a mile, and a computer's draw depends on what it's doing.
The risk in a rate with no data behind it
The statute allows reimbursement for the “actual cost of electricity.” On 200 kWh a month, 10¢ is $20.00 against $8.74 from the invoice formula, an overcharge of $11.26 every month for every owner who charges. As I read the act, an owner who challenges that has a straightforward argument: show the Xcel invoice lines that make 10¢, or refund the difference. C.R.S. 38-33.3-123(1)(c) says a court shall award reasonable attorney fees and costs to the prevailing party in a civil action to enforce the act, so a lost challenge costs the Association more than the money in dispute, and every owner pays for it. This isn't legal advice.
Where owners and management differ
Two readings of “actual cost” are on the table.
Energy only
An EV owner reimburses the kWh the charger used, with the taxes on them, as in the formula above. The demand charge and the fixed charges are the building's load. They would be on the invoice with or without a charger, and the chargers are a small new load on a meter the building already pays for. A flat monthly fee of $15 to $25 would be a simple alternative the statute also allows.
Every line on the meter
Management's reading is that actual cost means all the electricity lines on the residential meter, including demand. Under it, owners are billed a share of the total, and the demand charge can make a month's charging cost far more per kWh than the energy rate above.
The statute doesn't define “actual cost.” The first reading is the one the invoice supports: a kilowatt-hour has a price, and the formula finds it. If an owner is billed more than that, the Association should be able to show which invoice lines it's charging for and why each one is caused by the charger.
What to ask for
- The method in writing, with the formula, before the first bill goes out.
- Which invoice lines are included, and how each is allocated among owners who charge.
- How charger use is measured: a submeter reading, or an estimate.
- Confirmation that charges are waived through December 31, 2026, as proposed.
Read the law yourself
- Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act (CCIOA), full text, 2026, from the Colorado Division of Real Estate
- C.R.S. 38-33.3-106.8, EV charging systems in associations
- C.R.S. 38-33.3-123, enforcement and attorney fees
- Everything You Need to Know About EV Charging Systems, Altitude Community Law (a Colorado HOA law firm's explainer)
What dues do to home values
Denver's median home sale price is about $597,000. Many of the Watermark's smaller homes are bought by first-time buyers, and a first-time buyer is usually at the edge of what a lender will approve. For that buyer, the monthly dues are part of the mortgage payment, not an extra.
The math
Lenders count HOA dues in a buyer's monthly obligations. Every additional $100 a month in dues cuts a buyer's borrowing capacity by roughly $14,600, assuming a 30-year mortgage at 7.32% and a buyer at their lender's debt-to-income limit. A $300 increase means about $43,700 less purchasing power on a $500,000 condo.
| Additional monthly dues | Less borrowing capacity | % of $500,000 home | % of $600,000 home |
|---|---|---|---|
| $100 | $14,600 | 2.9% | 2.4% |
| $200 | $29,100 | 5.8% | 4.9% |
| $300 | $43,700 | 8.7% | 7.3% |
| $500 | $72,800 | 14.6% | 12.1% |
| $1,000 | $145,600 | 29.1% | 24.3% |
Assumes a 30-year mortgage at 7.32%, the Freddie Mac weekly average for October 22, 2026, and a buyer at their lender's debt-to-income limit. The dollar reduction is the same at either home price.
Why it matters to every owner. Higher dues shrink the pool of buyers who can qualify, and a smaller pool puts pressure on resale prices. That cost lands on every seller, not just on owners who are buying. See the sales and the 2027 budget →
Where to look for savings
The building pays a management markup on labor of an estimated 12 to 14%, about $40,000 a year. At that size it would cover roughly four months of the building's electric bill. Direct employment of staff is one way to recover it; see My plan.
Questions for the board
These are questions any owner can ask. Each one comes from a document the Association has already produced, and each lists its source so you can check it yourself. Bring them to the budget meeting, put them in a written records request, or ask a director in the elevator.
None of them assume bad faith. Most have simple answers. The point is that owners should have those answers before the 2027 budget takes effect.
Last updated October 28, 2026 ·
When the board answers a question, it will be marked answered here, with the answer.
A note from David Dimmer, owner and board candidate
Assessments are up 33% since 2023, and the board-approved 2027 budget adds another 9.8% while cutting what we set aside for reserves. I've owned here since 2017 and own three homes in the building. I'm running for one of the two open board seats this year. What follows is how I'd run the building and why. Read it, argue with it, and call me.
Where the money is going
This is the board-approved 2027 budget next to what the building actually spent in 2025. Read it for yourself before the budget meeting. The board's numbers, not mine.
| Line | 2025 actual | 2027 approved |
|---|---|---|
| Payroll (salaries, burden, maintenance) | $145,042 | $298,920 |
| Janitorial contract | $35,573 | $52,000 |
| Building repair and maintenance | $51,041 | $15,000 |
| Reserve contribution | $264,000 | $250,000 |
| Audit and tax services | $3,000 | $500 |
| Owner assessments | $1,081,842 | $1,285,603 |
Source: "2027 Budget D — Approved," October 1, 2026. The 2025 reserve figure excludes a one-time $28,517 transfer.
A few things in that table deserve an answer, and I've asked the board for them. Payroll doubles while building repair spending drops by about 70%. The reserve contribution shrinks while the rest of the budget grows. And the audit line falls to $500 in the year payroll doubles. The budget takes effect unless owners holding 51% of the vote reject it, so the questions have to be asked before then. Here are the questions →
Pay our people directly
The concierge and maintenance staff are the reason this building works day to day. Right now most of what we pay for them flows through a management company before it reaches them. I'd change that.
The Association should employ its own staff and run payroll through Gusto, the same platform my company has used for years. It handles payroll, tax filings, workers' comp, a 401(k), and health benefits for a flat per-employee software fee. There's no percentage markup on wages, because there's no middleman taking one.
Three things happen when you do this. The people who show up every morning get real benefits and a retirement plan, which is how you keep good staff instead of training replacements every year. The building stops paying a management fee on top of every hour worked. And the board can see, to the dollar, what our people cost, instead of a burdened line on a management company's invoice.
Management companies still have a role: accounting, collections, compliance, insurance placement. I'd keep the pieces that earn their fee and bring the people in-house.
The mechanics
- The Association registers as an employer. Gusto handles payroll, tax withholding, W-2s, state and federal filings, and new-hire paperwork.
- Staff pick health coverage from plans Gusto brokers, with the Association contributing a set amount. A 401(k) with a modest match is a checkbox, not a project.
- Workers' compensation is placed through Gusto's pay-as-you-go program or our existing insurance broker. Employment practices liability gets added to the Association's policy.
- The management company keeps accounting, collections, compliance filings, and insurance placement. It stops being the employer of record for people who work only in our building.
Why it's cheaper
A management company that supplies staff charges a burdened rate: wages plus their overhead plus their margin. When the Association is the employer, it pays wages, payroll taxes, benefits, and a flat software fee. The margin goes away. The exact savings depend on the current contract, which is one of the records I've asked for.
What to watch
Being an employer is a responsibility. It needs a written handbook, an HR contact, and insurance in place before day one. That's a month of setup, not a reason to keep paying a markup forever.
How the board would operate
I've served on two HOA boards, including as president, and I run a 30-person company on a system called Traction. It's simple: a short list of priorities, quarterly goals with names next to them, and a meeting cadence that reviews the numbers instead of relitigating opinions. The board sets direction and holds management accountable. It doesn't approve every invoice.
EOS is the operating system described in Gino Wickman's book Traction. About 250,000 companies run on it, including mine. It's built for organizations that have plenty of good ideas and not enough follow-through, which describes most HOA boards. Here's the translation.
What this building is for, what "done right" looks like, and the three to five things that matter this year. Written down, voted on, posted. Every decision gets measured against it.
Each quarter the board picks three to five priorities. Each one has a single owner, a due date, and a definition of done. If it's not a rock, it waits. This is how the pool, the gym, and the hallway stop being perpetual agenda items.
Ten numbers that tell you the building is healthy: open tickets, tickets older than 30 days, cash versus budget, reserve balance, staff hours, delinquencies. Management reports them; the board reads them. Problems show up in the numbers before they show up in the hallway.
Every function has one name next to it. The board owns direction, budget, and policy. Management owns execution. Committees exist only if the chart says so and owners voted for them.
Ninety minutes, same agenda every time: scorecard, rock review, owner headlines, to-do review, then the issues list. No presentations, no relitigating last quarter. The meeting ends with a list of decisions and who's doing what by when.
Issues get named, the root cause gets discussed once, and a decision gets made. It's the opposite of tabling something for the third month running. Indecision has a cost; this is how you stop paying it.
None of this requires a consultant. The book is twenty dollars and the tools are a spreadsheet. What it requires is a board willing to let management run the building and hold itself to a written list.
The first 90 days
- Publish the open-projects list. Every unfinished project, who owns it, what it costs, when it's done. Hallway art and the patched holes, the entry, the fall landscaping. Close them before starting anything new.
- Open the closed sessions. Colorado law allows a board to meet privately only for a short list of reasons: legal advice, personnel, contract negotiation, an owner's delinquency, or a criminal matter. Every executive session held in the past several years gets reviewed against that list. If it qualified, it stays confidential. If it didn't, the minutes get released to owners.
- Move staff to direct employment. Set up the Association as the employer through Gusto, with 401(k) and health coverage, and report the true payroll number to owners.
- Every bill, online, for every owner.
AI-assisted
Xcel, water, sewer, trash, elevator, insurance. Upload every bill as it arrives. An AI layer strips out account numbers and payment details, and any owner can ask a plain question and get a plain answer: what did we pay for electricity in March, how does this year's water compare to last, what changed. No records request, no two-week wait, no lawyer deciding what you're allowed to see.
- Restore the audit. An independent review of the books every year, available to any owner who asks, as our own bylaws already require.
- Committees by owner vote. A committee exists because a majority of owners said so and gave it a budget. If less than half the building wants it, it's disbanded. No standing committees generating their own agendas.
Back to the building we bought
What's slipped
- The pool has declined for the better part of a decade.
- The fitness center hasn't kept up with what a building at this level offers.
- Hallway walls sit with holes where the art used to hang.
- The entry is unfinished. So is the fall landscaping.
What I'd stop
- Paid studies that tell us what we already know. Reserve planning can be modeled in-house with today's tools for a fraction of a $20,000 report.
- Spending building money on disputes between individual owners and outside parties.
- Projects the survey says one unit asked for.
- Twenty-four-hour lighting where code allows motion sensors. Start with the garage.
Common-sense fixes that save money
None of these need a consultant. Most of them are tools my company already uses, and the software costs less per month than one hour of an attorney's time.
Every meeting, recorded and searchable
Board meetings get recorded, transcribed, and posted. The same AI reads the transcript and keeps a running list: what the board said it would do, who owns it, and whether it happened by the date they gave. Accountability stops depending on who took notes.
A ticketing system for the building
Every request, repair, and project goes into one queue with an owner and a date. Aging tickets show up in red. Owners can see where their request sits without emailing three people. My company runs on a system like this; there is no reason a building can't.
One queue for everything: a leaking valve, a burned-out light, a capital project, an owner's question. Each ticket has an owner, a priority, a due date, and a status anyone can see.
- Owners submit from their phone. They get a ticket number and updates when the status changes. No chasing the concierge for news.
- Management works the queue in priority order. Anything older than 30 days turns red and shows up on the board's scorecard.
- Every quarter the board reviews aging tickets and asks one question about each: what does it cost to keep waiting?
- Capital projects live in the same system, broken into steps, so "finish the entry" has a date next to it instead of a shrug.
The software is off the shelf and costs a few hundred dollars a year. The discipline is the hard part, and that's what a board is for.
What you'd see
Quarterly, in writing, to every owner: the goals the board set, what got done, what it cost, and what didn't. The full budget with prior-year actuals beside it, not a summary. Survey results in full, including the ones that didn't go the board's way. Board meetings that are open, noticed, and short.
Open access is the default. Board packets, contracts, vendor bids, the reserve study, the insurance policies, and the minutes of every meeting, including the ones that were held in executive session, get reviewed to see whether they ever needed to be private. Confidentiality is a tool for the narrow cases the statute names, not a habit. Where it was used as a habit, the record comes out.
Board candidate questions
David Dimmer, Units 101, 614, and 708. Responses to the Watermark board candidate questionnaire dated October 28, 2026.
1. Process and time commitment
What is your understanding of the process and procedures that ideally board members should adhere to, to insure the board works as effectively and efficiently as possible? How much of a time commitment do you think it requires?
Our governing documents already set the process: open meetings with notice and an agenda, closed sessions only where the statute allows, minutes that record decisions, annual disclosures, a conflict-of-interest policy reviewed every year. The problem isn't the rules. It's following them.
I'd add the system I run my company on, Traction [1]. A two-page plan for the year. Three to five quarterly goals, each with one owner and a due date. A one-page scorecard from management every month. The same agenda every meeting. The board decides, management leaves with the list of who does what by when.
Time: four hours a month, maximum. If a board needs more than that, hire the right people and let them run the building.
2. Board and general manager
What do you see as the roles of the board of directors and the general manager and how can they best work together?
The board sets direction, adopts the budget, sets policy, and holds management accountable. The manager runs the building. The board shouldn't approve invoices or decide how a billing error gets fixed. It sets the manager's spending authority in writing and gets out of the way.
If the board is picking vendors, the manager stops picking vendors. Then we have five part-time managers and no accountable one. That's what happened with the front entrance: the board micromanaged the management company, overloaded their plate, and we got a project owners have been told ran around $500,000, still unfinished. If that number is wrong, the board can publish the invoices.
The fix is to separate the jobs. Mike runs operations. A project coordinator, funded from the maintenance salary line the board already approved, owns every capital project from bid to close-out and reports monthly. One person accountable for the open loops, and not a volunteer.
3. Challenges, and aging building versus luxury finish
What do you see as the major challenges facing the Watermark Community in the next year and in the years to come? How would you balance the budget needs of an aging building with the desire of many residents for a more luxurious look to our common areas?
Next year: assessments are up 33% since 2023, and Budget D adds 9.8% while cutting reserves from $290,000 to $250,000 [2]. Operating costs excluding reserves rise 17%. Payroll nearly doubles with no staffing plan owners have seen. And a backlog of stalled projects: entry, hallway, landscaping, pool.
Longer term: the building turns twenty next year. Roofs, elevators, mechanical, and the pool deck come due on a schedule. Cutting reserves to hold down dues pushes those costs onto a later board and a bigger bill.
Aging versus luxury isn't a choice. It's a sequence. Structure, mechanical, and water first, because deferring them turns a planned expense into a special assessment. Then finish what's started. Then the finish work, chosen by owner vote and funded on a schedule. The pool and fitness center aren't upgrades. They're what we were sold.
4. Top three priorities
What would your top three priorities be to improve the community?
Close the open loops, then stop starting new ones.
Publish every open project with an owner, a cost, and a date. Close them. No new initiatives until the list is clear, and new ones after that need an owner vote.
Put the money where owners can see it.
Bills, contracts, and minutes posted. Meetings recorded. A monthly one-page report. An independent review of the books every year, as the bylaws already require. I've started this myself: the budget history, the cell tower lease, and a running list of questions for the board are on this site.
Pay the people who take care of the building properly.
Bring staff into direct employment with health coverage and a retirement plan, through a flat-fee payroll platform. Pay people properly and they stay. Right now we pay a markup and get turnover.
References
- Gino Wickman, Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business (BenBella Books, 2012). amazon.com/Traction-Get-Grip-Your-Business/dp/1936661837
- Watermark Condominium Association, "2027 Budget D — Approved," dated October 1, 2026, including 2023–2025 actuals and the 2026 budget as printed.
About me
I've owned at the Watermark since 2017 and own three homes here today. I founded FYIN in 1999 and still run it, with a team of 30 in Denver. My degree is in management and information systems. I was president of an HOA in Milwaukee from 2012 to 2014 and sat on the board of a 160-unit downtown Denver building from 2014 to 2017.
Two seats are open this year. If you agree with what's on this page, I'd like one of them. You know where to find me; I'm in the building most days.