After being in business for 106 years, the Tennyson Center for Children in northwest Denver finally owns the property it calls home.
On Friday, they paid $4.45 million for the one-block, 4.12-acre campus where they work with abused and neglected children.
The purchase saves them $26,000 monthly in rent payments — money that will now go directly to serving children.
The deal was conducted in partnership with the Urban Land Conservancy, a nonprofit that buys urban assets to preserve or redevelop them for the benefit of the community. The group has logged 11 acquisitions, including places like the former Holly Shopping Center in Park Hill.
In 2005, Tennyson Center was the first acquisition, and “it’s the first sell-back we’ve had,” said conservancy CEO and president Aaron Miripol. “We’re thinking, ‘Wow, we did it to preserve it, and now they’ve bought it.’ That’s the fulfillment of the work we do.”
That it all happened now is surprising, he said. “It’s impressive what Tennyson has been able to do in this economy.”
The success story started in 2005 with a blast of devastating news.
“We were given two weeks’ notice that the property was going to be sold at bankruptcy auction,” said Tennyson president and CEO Bob Cooper.
That was a shock, particularly because its parent organization, the National Benevolent Association, had been their landlords for more than a century.
In 1901, two Colorado school teachers, Mary and John Warren, had offered their farm west of Loveland to the National Benevolent Association with the idea of turning it into an industrial school for kids. The Western Sugar Company donated another 10 acres, and ground was broken in 1904, with the school opening as the Loveland Christian Orphanage.
By 1907, the facility had moved to northwest Denver and eventually evolved into the Tennyson Center, a leading treatment center in the Rocky Mountain region for abused children.
On the night before the bankruptcy auction, Tennyson Center leaders received a call from the Urban Land Conservancy, asking if they had a friendly bidder.
“We were ecstatic,” Cooper said.
Together, the two organizations worked out the deal.
The conservancy bought the property for $4.45 million, then leased it back to Tennyson with a 30-year lease.
“There were no tax dollars involved,” said Miripol. “It was all philanthropy and lending.”
The conservancy was formed in 2003 to preserve and develop land into such community assets as workforce housing, nonprofit office space and schools.
As part of the purchase deal, Tennyson has agreed that if the property is sold within 89 years, it must go to another nonprofit with a mission for education.
Cooper credits the Tennyson board with much of the fundraising success.
“They made some very significant leadership gifts themselves, about $1.5 million in gifts and pledges,” Cooper said. “When people do that, it speaks volumes to the rest of the community that the project is do-able and going to be successful.”
A bridge loan will be used until the $4.45 million goal is reached. Tennyson is still fundraising, with hopes of paying off the loan this year, and also raising another $10 million for an endowment to see them through tough times.
“We’ve been here for 106 years because the community embraces us,” Cooper said. “A lot of residential treatment centers for children and youth have closed in the past 15 to 20 years because their message and mission didn’t get to the community enough to help them.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083 or coconnor@denverpost.com
