East Colfax’s long dormant Rockbar night club and adjoining motel has a new owner who hopes to transform the property into an apartment development.

Inspire Investment Group bought the site at 3015 E. Colfax Ave. at a bankruptcy auction in March for $3.55 million and closed on the sale last week.

Brian Toerber, head of Inspire Investment Group, said he has not made final plans for the site’s future but is leaning toward micro apartments — small living quarters typically under 400 square feet similar to the Turntable Studios near Sports Authority Field at Mile High. A final decision will come this summer when Toerber hopes to start the permitting process.

He hopes to keep the shell of the building and do a complete remodel of the inside.

“That structure really lays out well for what my plans are,” Toerber said. “I want to get smaller, affordable-type housing.”

He noted that “affordable” would likely mean around $1,000 per month in rent.

“I’m really high on micro units. I think it’s a good fit,” Toerber said.

Inspire is responsible for two other apartment developments along East Colfax: the Detroit and the still-under-construction Detroit Terraces, both near Colfax and Detroit Street.

The All Inn Motel is still open at the site but is now on a three-month rolling lease.

The Rockbar nightclub, a hipster haven for 1980s music and cheap drinks, shuttered in 2012 after the club’s liquor license was not renewed. Denver Excise and Licenses had cited neighborhood complaints and a high number of police calls to the club’s address. The club, on the motel’s bottom floor has been boarded up since then.

The property’s former owner, Jesse Morreale, also owned the El Diablo building at First Avenue and Broadway, which was also sold out of bankruptcy in late 2015.

Toerber said he would like to add a fifth floor to the stucture — allowed under the site’s current zoning — and is open to demolishing the building if necessary. He is also exploring the possibility of having retail on the ground floor but isn’t interested in another nightclub or a bar.

Don Novak, president of the Bluebird Business Improvement District, said he is happy to see a new developer for the motel.

“We are excited to have a local developer as the new owner of the All Inn property,” Novak said in an email. “We look forward to working with Brian moving forward.”

Joe Vaccarelli: 303-954-2396, jvaccarelli@denverpost.com or @joe_vacc