The Trump administration’s rapid expansion of ICE arrest quotas and detention facilities over the last 18 months has triggered a gold rush for companies willing and eager to profit from human immiseration. Here in Colorado, the most prominent of those profiteers has been the GEO Group, the private prison company which operates the ICE detention center in Aurora. Last week, we reported that the federal government has awarded GEO a new $529 million contract to open a new detention center in Hudson, Colorado – part of a pattern of federal contracts which contributed to a 700% year-over-year increase in GEO Group profits. 

But the GEO Group is not the only company getting its beak wet on the Hudson deal. While the feds will pay GEO handsomely to operate the facility, GEO itself must pay to lease the facility from its current owner, the Highlands Real Estate Investment Trust, or Highlands REIT. Under the new contract, inked through 2031, Highlands REIT will be the GEO Group’s landlord in Hudson.

According to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing from Highlands REIT, which includes the company’s lease with the GEO Group, the monthly rent payment for the Hudson property is currently $250,000, but will increase to $958,333.33 per month once the facility is operational. That’s about $11.5 million per year.

Highlands REIT isn’t just the GEO Group’s landlord, though: they might be your landlord, too, and you might not even know it. The company owns a handful of residential buildings in the Denver metro area, most of which are held by subsidiaries which do not bear the name “Highlands REIT.”

Take the Chamber Lofts at 1726 Champa Street, for instance. The beautiful, historic downtown property is managed by Cornerstone (which, as many who have rented in Denver will know, is a whole other problem), and owned – on paper at least – by a company named Champa Street Lofts, LLC. According to the Colorado Secretary of State’s business database, the LLC was anonymously registered by a third party. Thankfully, SEC filings stopped the nameless registration from being the end of the road. According to the SEC, Champa Street Lofts, LLC is a subsidiary of Highlands REIT.

The property, which offers 770 majestic square feet for the price of just $1,980, has 1.5 stars on Google. 

The Champa Street Lofts subsidiary of Highlands REIT also owns the better-reviewed Buerger Brothers Lofts on the same block of Champa as the Chamber Lofts. Also managed by Cornerstone, and priced at $2,835 for 1160 square feet, the second property at least has better reviews, clocking in at 4.5 stars on Google. 

In February, protesters gathered outside of the Champa Street properties and called on Highlands REIT CEO, Robert J. Lange, to not rent its facility to ICE but instead “put people over profits.” The company has thus far decided not to do so.

Another Highlands REIT subsidiary, 1560 Downing, LLC, owns the Kenilworth Court apartments at, well, 1560 Downing Street. The Downing property has 1.7 stars on Google, with reviewers mentioning break-ins, fires, stolen packages, and general negligence from the property management company (you guessed it: Cornerstone).

Detroit Street Denver, LLC, yet another subsidiary of Highlands REIT, owns two residential buildings on Detroit Street between Colfax and 16th, next to East High School. The buildings are as cleverly named as the LLC, with the property at 1504 Detroit Street being named The Detroit and the one at 1530 Detroit Street being named Detroit Terraces. The Detroit lands with 3.0 stars on Google, while Detroit Terraces clocks-in at a modest 2.4 stars. 

A few blocks west of the Detroit Street properties is The Lafayette, located at 16th and Lafayette Street, and titularly owned by The Lafayette Denver, LLC – which is, of course, a subsidiary of Highlands REIT. 2.1 stars: “This building has been infested with roaches for over a year,” one reviewer wrote. “My front window is broken, there are water leaks in the crawl space and kitchen, and the sink backs up weekly.”

In northwest Denver, a Highlands REIT subsidiary named Tennyson 44 Owner LLC owns the Tennyson 44 apartment building. 1.8 stars, with the top review reading: “If you’re considering living at Tennyson 44, do yourself a favor and look literally anywhere else.”

Finally, there’s the Muse, a swanky, University of Denver-adjacent apartment building where the Google reviews clock in at a comparably astronomical 4.2 stars but rents can exceed $4,000. On paper, the property is owned by Muse Owner LLC, which is another subsidiary of Highlands REIT.

Altogether, that’s seven Denver apartment buildings owned by the same company which will soon be making nearly $1 million per month in rent to provide detention space for ICE. Given the state of their current residential buildings – roaches, broken windows, and the rest, per reviewers – one must wonder what kind of conditions the company is prepared to provide for detainees.

Despite their Denver holdings, Highlands REIT is based in Chicago, where it started its corporate life in 2016 as a spin-off of InvenTrust Properties Corporation. Activists, organizers, and faith leaders in Illinois have also protested the company’s involvement with ICE. The company also owns properties in California, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan. According to SEC filings and trade publications, their finances are anything but rosy: the company is carrying $120 million in net debt against $320 million in total assets. Despite growing revenues, Highlands REIT posted a net loss of $1 million in 2024, and a loss of $11.1 million in 2025 – just shy of the roughly $11.5 million per year the company will soon be charging the GEO Group to lease the Hudson facility.

Highlands REIT did not respond to outreach for this story.