A battle is brewing over Chief Hosa Lodge and Campground.
Periscope Marketing and Management Inc. filed a lawsuit in Denver District Court late last month against the Ohio Casualty Insurance Co. and the city and county of Denver, which has owned the 40-acre site in Genesee Park since 1913.
Periscope alleges that it suffered several million dollars of economic damage during its five-year stint as operator of the historic lodge and campground, named for a 19th-century Arapaho Indian chief.
The lawsuit claims that Boulder-based Periscope was forced to invest nearly $1 million into repairs and upgrades at the property, even though it was guaranteed to be in “turnkey” condition before Periscope took over the concessionaire contract in January 2000.
“I was shocked at the condition of the facility,” said Periscope president David Peri, who said the city failed to reimburse him for the repairs as promised. “The kitchen was just gutted, and there were holes in the walls, holes in the floors. What we received was incapable of being operated safely or legally.”
The city attorney’s office said it has not yet been served with the lawsuit and declined to comment.
Located 20 minutes west of Denver off Interstate 70, Chief Hosa includes two campgrounds and a 3,325-square-foot stone lodge built in 1918, a popular site for summer weddings.
Periscope took over the contract after winning the public bidding process in 1999, and the disagreements with the city began immediately, Peri said. He stopped operating the property in January 2005.
The lawsuit also claims that the city prevented Peri from profitably operating Chief Hosa by not allowing him to raise campground prices or offer new business services there, such as cookouts and catering in the summer and snow tubing in the winter.
Periscope recorded gross sales of more than $4.4 million in the five years it ran Chief Hosa, at least $1 million more than any comparable five-year period on record for the site, according to Peri.
Denver’s Parks and Recreation Department has been running Chief Hosa for the past year. The city said it honored all weddings and events scheduled last summer but is not accepting reservations for new events.
The campground’s website says RV and tent camping sites will be available from May 1 through Sept. 24, but it is no longer accept camping for concerts at nearby Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
“It’s a beautiful and historically significant asset,” Peri said. “It should be celebrated and used, but it has been quite a mess.”
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
