The new owners of the former Denver Post printing plant near the Mousetrap said RTD has iced their attempt to develop the 44-acre site by announcing its intention to build a bus maintenance operation there.
“We’re dead in the water,” said Ascendant Development president Graham Benes. “From a marketing perspective, everyone knows we’re in the sights of RTD.”
On Tuesday, Regional Transportation District planners told the transit agency’s board of directors that after assessing 25 possible locations for the 300-bus maintenance facility, they are recommending RTD acquire The Post’s former Fox Street plant and surrounding acreage.
Ascendant and its partners bought the site from the Denver Newspaper Agency this year for about $17.1 million.
“Seeing that RTD had the first opportunity to purchase this site directly from the Denver Newspaper Agency and passed, we find it unconscionable” that RTD “would proceed directly to a ‘taking’ of the property via eminent domain,” Ascendant said Wednesday.
The day before, RTD general manager Cal Marsella said the transit agency could acquire the Mousetrap property through a negotiated purchase or by eminent domain, in which case it would pay “fair market value.”
Marsella said the Ascendant property is the best site for the bus maintenance operation because it is zoned industrial and is close to downtown Denver and major roadways.
The transit agency also may be able to use the existing 320,000-square-foot building and not have to construct a new repair facility, which would save the agency millions of dollars.
Benes said Ascendant has had inquiries from companies interested in putting retail, wholesale, educational, technology and residential uses on the Mousetrap site, especially after a planned commuter-rail station is built in the area.
“It’s frustrating to be in this position where there is so much potential for the site and the neighborhood,” he said, referring to RTD’s alternative plan to maintain the area’s current industrial zoning.
In response, Marsella said, “The city needs to preserve certain areas as industrial.”
