The Denver Downtown Development Authority has begun making improvements to Denver Pavilions and has hired an artist to design a new mural to replace a 15-year-old museum advertisement.
The new piece by local artist Olive Moya will replace the existing mural of the late artist Clyfford Still, which was put up in 2011 to advertise the opening of the Clyfford Still Museum in the Golden Triangle.
Today, the mural is weathered and starting to crumble.
“Itap kind of run-down and shabby,” Denver Chief Projects Officer Bill Mosher said of the existing mural.
The new mural will cost $300,000 and is intended to be “a marketing piece for Pavilions,” Mosher said.
Moya, the artist, said she’s “still working design concepts.” Much of her work, according to an online portfolio, features abstract imagery and bold colors.
The DDDA, a city affiliate, bought the Pavilions last year for $37 million rather than see it be relinquished to a lender. It also purchased two parking lots behind the mall along 15th Street for an additional $23 million.
The image of Clyfford Still looms over one of those parking lots, facing 15th Street.
When the DDDA purchased Pavilions, it said it was also earmarking $8 million for renovations and to help lure tenants. Now, that money is starting to go out the door.
Nearly $2.5 million is being spent on garage improvements, including replacing the CO2 system and fixing areas of degradation. Some technology upgrades already have been completed, such as a license plate reader that allows monthly parking tenants to get in and out easier, Mosher said.
Roof work totaling $350,000 is expected to begin by August and will take several months.
Two escalators at the Pavilions, broken when the mall changed hands, are also being repaired. Signage is being updated. Some of it had pointed out tenants that no longer exist, Mosher said.
In late April, real estate industry group Urban Land Institute recommended that Pavilions be largely demolished and replaced with a parklike space. But the DDDA is not pursuing that.
“We’ve got going concerns there and we want to honor that and keep Pavilions as healthy as possible,” Mosher said, referring to existing tenants.
The plan is still largely the same: Seek proposals from developers with ideas for the property. They could involve the whole two blocks, or just the mall or one of the parking lots, Mosher said.
“We’ll see what developer interest is and what capital markets interest is,” he said.
The ULI panel recommended that residential towers be built on the parking lots. But Mosher is open to anything — residential, hotel, even office. He’s having preliminary designs drawn up to show that an office tower like Block 162, at 675 15th St., could fit.
But the DDDA has yet to issue a request for proposals, and development in most of the country is muted because of high interest rates and construction costs, as well as economic uncertainty and an oversupply of apartments.
Mosher said he thinks the DDDA will own Pavilions for three to five years.
And he’s not writing off the mall. Nearby hotels reached out after the ULI proposal, he said, and told him itap still a draw for visitors.
“Between COVID and the 16th Street construction, Pavilions hasn’t really had a shot,” he said.
Half a mile away, meanwhile, the Clyfford Still Museum is celebrating its 15th anniversary with never-before-seen paintings and a large promotional campaign, according to spokeswoman Sanya Andersen-Vie.
“Some members of our staff are sad to see it go because it was such a longtime fixture downtown,” she said about the mural in an email. “Others have expressed that they are fine with its removal, as it was starting to show its age.”
Read more from our partner, .
