The plans were submitted to the city on Aug. 31 by local architectural design firm for properties at 3225 to 3235 N. Pecos St., next to Happy Camper Pizza.

Both proposals were intentionally submitted together within a single concept review, according to documents. Feedback from the city for the 18,770-square-foot site will help inform what approach the developers choose.

The townhouse proposal calls for seven attached residential units facing North Pecos Street, with garages and vehicle circulation located behind the buildings. Six units would be three stories and one would be two stories.

The plans show 23,447 square feet of building area under the townhouse concept, which would not include commercial uses. The proposal is intended to demonstrate a “lower-density” residential redevelopment option, according to project documents.

The alternative would be a 30,897-square-foot, three-story multifamily building with 20 residential units, three ground-floor retail spaces and parking behind and within the development. Nine of the proposed units would have one bedroom and one bathroom, while 11 would be studio apartments.

Restaurant uses are not expected, project documents said, as the site lacks sufficient parking and capacity to accommodate operational demands typically associated with restaurants. City property records show three existing residential buildings on the site.

The properties are owned by 3225-3227 Pecos St. LLC, 3231 Pecos St. LLC and 3233-3235 Pecos St. LLC, which appear to be affiliated with an individual named Keene Smith.

The applicant is not asking the city to select a development plan but for guidance regarding the feasibility of each proposal. That input will help determine any future rezoning request.

Smith and representatives from JG Architects Inc. did not respond to requests for comment.

Alterra Mountain Company is moving its headquarters to a city-owned building (formerly owned by The Denver Post����ap parent company) that has struggled to rent its office space.

The 16th Street rebuild is complete, and free buses are running seamlessly again from Civic Center to Union Station.

The University of Colorado Denver bought prime real estate needed to help fill vacant commercial space on the mall.

And the Downtown Denver Development Authority purchased the struggling Denver Pavilions.

None of these projects are happening by accident. The City of Denver, led by Mayor Mike Johnston’s vision to anchor each block of downtown with an attraction, is engaging in a concerted effort to attract investors.

In total, tax revenue flowing into the Downtown Denver Development Authority (DDDA) . Voters approved a plan to allow the authority to retain tax increment financing in 2024, and now those investments are taking shape.

The area from Union Station to Civic Center Park — often called the Central Business District or midtown — has failed to recover from the COVID work-from-home exodus that devastated our skyscrapers and the businesses that depend on weekday workers.

Desperate times require drastic measures, and this city’s beating heart cannot be allowed to fail. It is through that lens that we now applaud a level of public investment and corporate incentives that we would otherwise be uncomfortable with.

But we urge caution. The DDDA must remember that it is using a finite resource — taxpayer money. Being good stewards of that money is not only essential to the success of their mission, but taxpayers are watching and keeping tabs. Future voters will take note of how these deals play out.

Just last month, an experimental theater closed its doors without ever putting on a show, taking with it a $400,000 taxpayer-funded loan from the DDDA that will likely never be repaid.

The list of positive advances, however, is longer than the list of setbacks.

Alterra Mountain Company announced plans on Thursday to move its headquarters from its existing space in the hip RiNo neighborhood to the old Denver Post building, where the central business district meets Civic Center Park.

The deal – brokered with about $11 million in city and state incentives and loans – only makes sense under the condition that Alterra was considering moving its headquarters to Utah and the money from the DDDA and the state helped inspire the company to stay. We don’t like this arms race of corporate handouts, but we understand why the city must play it at this juncture of history.

The ski company will be an anchor for the southern end of the newly revitalized 16th Street, which, at least for now, has a continuous free shuttle running from the Civic Center transit hub northwest to Union Station. Alterra, which operates the IKON ski pass, and plans to move into the building at 101 W. Colfax Ave. in about a year.

Alterra’s chairman said during an interview Wednesday with The Denver Post that part of what sealed the deal was the vision of the state’s second-largest ski company becoming a part of the city’s civic fabric. We are excited to see how this vision plays out — a sledding hill in Civic Center Park, snowmaking on the now empty gravel pit near the transit hub, or some other urban nod to our mountain sports.

One medium-sized company that only requires employees in office a few times a week moving its headquarters two miles to a new building, isn’t going to fix everything overnight. Downtown is plagued by vacant commercial real estate, skyscrapers selling for pennies on the dollar and a general lack of foot traffic for businesses. There is still open drug use happening on the streets and close to the city’s homeless shelters, large groups gather during the days.

But the Alterra deal comes on the heels of another big announcement. Just as Rock Bottom Brewery announced it was closing its flagship location on 16th Street, the University of Colorado Denver announced it was buying the entire city block that the restaurant called home, including the 25-story tower on Independence Plaza.

The Denver Downtown Development Authority kicked in $4.5 million to help CU Denver buy the property for a total of $28 million. The DDDA is going to launch a small business startup lab in the building, focusing on helping local entrepreneurs build their businesses.

To get a feel for how dire things had become in the area, Independence Plaza last sold for $144 million in 2007.

We are glad that the DDDA is keeping the mall afloat until customers and tenants return, but we are skeptical about plans to pour millions more into the outdoor mall to reconfigure it and add condominiums on surface parking lots behind the mall.

Denver still has a long way to go to get back to the pre-COVID baseline, but with a half-billion dollars, a workable plan of attack and good stewardship of taxpayer money, this city will survive these downtimes.

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, operator of the Ikon Pass, has signed a 12-year lease for 65,000 square feet of space in the high-profile corner building at 101 W. Colfax Ave.

The agreement, made public Thursday, ends weeks of speculation about whether the ski giant would leave Colorado and where it might relocate within Denver if it stayed.

The company plans to spend the next year renovating the space with help of $11 million in state and city incentives, which include a mix of loans, grants and tax credits.

“Ultimately, after considering multiple options in and out of the state and the city, we decided that the Denver Post building specifically was where we wanted to be for the future of Alterra,” said Eric Resnick, chairman of Alterra and CEO of KSL Capital Partners, the private ski company’s owner.

Resnick said he didn’t fully appreciate the intensity of the efforts to revive Upper Downtown, and that KSL Capital wants to be part of those.

Seeing construction equipment at work in Civic Center Park, visible from the balconies of the Denver Post building, helped seal the deal.

A refreshed park is scheduled to reopen about the same time that Alterra moves into its new headquarters.

“This is not us hoping for that to happen in the future. It is seeing that reality coming to life and wanting to be part of it,” he said.

Alterra, which employs up to 25,000 workers at peak winter capacity, expects to eventually employ 400 at its new headquarters, up from 275 at its current space at Zeppelin Station in the RiNo neighborhood.

As the manager of the Denver-owned Winter Park Resort, Alterra, and before it Intrawest, has long had a close working relationship with the city.

That relationship will gain a new dimension as landlord-tenant, pending Denver City Council approval of the lease agreement at its next meeting on Sept. 14.

“We really wanted to have an anchor tenant that would help define the identity of Upper Downtown, and we really want to build that identity around this partner,” said Denver Mayor Mike Johnston.

What Alterra brings is an outdoor industry-focused magnet to Upper Downtown, he said. For a part of Denver that has seen more businesses flee than arrive since the pandemic, it represents a huge win.

The city’s larger vision, supported by the state, is to create a hub where other outdoor recreation businesses, from makers of snow gear to service providers, can set up a base camp and interact with each other.

“We approved $1 million in grants to recruit individual companies to the outdoor recreation hub that are part of this ecosystem,” said Gov. Jared Polis. “Alterra is very much the core anchor of that.”

Alterra won’t manage the hub, but city and state officials hope its presence will attract vendors and other outdoor recreation companies to the building and surrounding area.

Roughly half of the Denver Post building remains vacant, which represents about 150,000 square feet of available space.

After Alterra leases its share, another 85,000 square feet might be available for other outdoor recreation businesses, depending on the city’s own office space needs.

In 2020, the city thought it would need the building for new courtrooms and district attorney offices. In early 2024, it bought the building for $88.5 million, overcoming opposition from some members of City Council.

In June, Denver, in a $13.5 million settlement, took over the master lease from the owner of The Denver Post, which had defaulted on monthly lease payments of $650,000 in August.

Controlling the master lease opened a path for Denver to strike the current deal with Alterra.

Johnston said the demand for more judicial space didn’t pan out as projected. Plans to build new courts, which would have been an expensive undertaking in a city facing budget shortfalls, are off the table.

Plus, if more office space is ever needed, Upper Downtown has plenty of it available.

Of Denver’s 102 largest office towers, the median year of construction is 1980. Built in 2006, the Denver Post building is one of the newest available in that part of Downtown.

And it has something rare in Denver, something that might appeal to outdoor enthusiasts: Balconies that allow tenants to soak up the sunshine and fresh air.

Johnston described the Alterra headquarters and outdoor recreation hub as the eastern capstone on a string of projects that include the repurposing of the Independence Plaza as an education hub and the purchase and eventual revitalization of the Denver Pavilions, a large outdoor retail complex along 16th Street.

“As we’ve talked through each of those neighborhoods throughout 16th Street, this has really been the last one that was the most important for us to get right,” Johnston said.

And the benefits go beyond a single building. Alterra helped make skiing possible on Ruby Hill in southwest Denver; he sees the company and other outdoor recreation tenants turning Civic Center into a hub of wintertime activities.

A retention effort

During the summer, state and local economic development officials scrambled to put together an incentive package robust enough to keep Alterra from moving to Utah, the state’s chief rival in outdoor recreation.

Utah was the first state to create an Office of Outdoor Recreation in 2013, but Colorado was close behind in 2015 with its Outdoor Recreation Industry Office.

In 2017, Denver, with state help, lured the largest snow sports trade show away from Salt Lake City, only to lose it again in 2022.

But losing Alterra would have been a huge black eye for a state that prides itself on being a global hub for the ski industry.

Alterra is North America’s second-largest ski resort operator with 18 destination resorts available under the Ikon Pass, including Arapahoe Basin and the Steamboat Ski Resort.

Colorado is also home to Broomfield-based Vail Resorts, the world’s largest ski company with more than 40 resorts offered via the Epic Pass.

Yet, Alterra’s relocation incentives raise concerns about public interventions in the private market.

Apart from Cherry Creek and Douglas County, most of the region’s office market has a long way to go to recover pre-pandemic vacancy rates.

Upper Downtown may have gained a signature tenant, but Zeppelin Station and the RiNo neighborhood lost one.

“From a public-private sector standpoint, it is a very gray area,” said Bart Allen, a director at Benchmark Commercial Solutions in Denver.

Further complicating matters, Denver will benefit financially to the degree it can fill up a building it owns. It also has financial tools available that struggling private building owners lack in the current environment.

Resnick said the required improvements will take about a year to complete. The company will exercise its option to terminate its lease at Zeppelin Station, up for renewal in 2029, early.

Johnston emphasized that the DDA incentives were conditioned on Alterra moving into a building in Upper Downtown, not into a building the city owned.

The company researched four locations in the area, and it wasn’t a given that 101 W. Colfax would win out in the end.

The city also tried to structure a deal comparable to what a private landlord would have offered, but its financial limitations required going with a different structure.

Normally, landlords fund tenant improvements up front and recover the investment over time via a higher lease rate. But the city didn’t have the money to go that route.

“We didn’t have the capacity to write Alterra a check, so we agreed on a sort of loan forgiveness or a rent‑forgiveness structure to be able to cover some of those tenant improvements,” Johnston said.

A portion of the improvements will be funded through a $7 million loan at 2% interest that the Downtown Denver Development Authority agreed to provide Alterra in July.

That money will become available for other Downtown projects as it is paid back. But Alterra will spend out of pocket for some of the improvements. The city is making up for that by offering a lower lease rate.

Developer Asher Luzzatto, who picked up four distressed office towers at a steep discount and has been approved for a DDDA loan to help convert two of them, would have liked to have landed Alterra as a tenant.

But he is glad the company is coming to Upper Downtown and sees its decision as a rising tide that will lift all boats.

“We need the market to trust that Denver is open for business,” he said. “You can’t do this for every company, but you can do it for some companies that are really reflective of Denver‘s culture and community.”

Alterra fits the bill, he said.

The California-based burger chain is proposing a new 3,886-square-foot restaurant with a drive-thru at 1470 S. Colorado Blvd., according to a concept plan filed with the city Friday.

The proposed restaurant would have 74 indoor seats and 58 outdoor seats on a 1.54-acre site. Two existing buildings on the property would be demolished to make way for the project.

One of the buildings formerly housed an Arby’s. The other previously was home to a Black-Eyed Pea, according to city records.

“Our real estate team continues to evaluate opportunities for future restaurant locations throughout the greater Denver area, but we don’t have any new projects that are far enough along to offer comment at this time,” said Matt Loevenguth, director of real estate at In-N-Out Burger, in an email statement to The Post on Wednesday.

Known for its made-to-order burgers, hand-cut fries and “secret menu,” In-N-Out Burger has built a devoted following since it was founded in 1948 by .

The chain made its Colorado debut in late 2020 and has since expanded to 15 locations statewide. Its newest restaurant is in Timnath, about 55 miles north of Denver. In-N-Out is also planning another location near Denver International Airport. That location is proposed to be a 3,890-square-foot restaurant near E. 56th Ave. and Telluride Street.

Nationwide, the fast-food chain has over 400 locations throughout California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, Washington and Tennessee.

In-N-Out is still owned and operated by the Snyder family. None of the restaurants are franchised, according to the chain’s website.

Representatives from In-N-Out Burger did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.

The establishment moved down the street earlier this year. The building fetched $464 per square foot in the deal.

“It����ap the only piece that we didn’t have,” Hurley said. “It completed that assemblage.”

The 0.29-acre lot is home to the 3,300-square-foot bar building. Hurley is in talks with an operator to take over the spot but declined to share who.

“We’re going to keep it a bar and we’re going to do a concept there that����ap going to include some activation of the adjacent property to make it an experience,” he said.

“We want to keep it something RiNo-esque.”

The sellers, Karl Cdebaca and Barbara Mondragon, bought the property in 2014 for $289,000, property records show. Karl Cdebaca is a relative of River bar co-owners Kourisa and Gil Cdebaca. Before River opened there in 2021, it had been home to the dive bar Welcome Inn, which opened in 1977.

Across the street from River is the former Blue Moon Brewing space, which went dark in the spring of 2025. Hurley is working on adding a Sprouts Farmers Market in its place. He declined to comment on those plans.

Much of the area from 38th to 36th south of Delgany Street is envisioned as becoming Hurley Place. The mixed-use development is fully entitled and will have an office building, residential and hotel units along with new retail connected by walking paths and open space.

The property Hurley purchased at 3759 Chestnut is adjacent to a planned apartment building, but does not fall under the Hurley Place plans. The building hit the market earlier this year and Hurley jumped at the opportunity.

“We wanted to have control over that corner and how it looks for the overall project,” he said.

Read more from our partner, .

The hearing at Centennial Hall in Colorado Springs was packed, with lined up outside an hour before the meeting, some carrying anti-Buc-ee’s signs and others sporting stickers with a simple message: “We love Tri-Lakes!” Nearly 170 community members had , according to the county’s website.

Buc-ee’s proposed second Colorado travel center has divided the Tri-Lakes community about 50 miles south of Denver for nearly two years, with residents fighting over development, water use, traffic and open space.

The 4-1 decision means the Buc-ee’s qualifies as an allowed use within the C-1 zoning district and that the project can proceed through the county’s administrative development review processes.

The decision does not constitute approval of a site development plan or construction of the Buc-ee’s, which is being proposed on vacant land along Interstate 25.

Buc-ee’s next steps will include submitting a site development plan for review by El Paso County staff.

The plan does not return to the board for approval.

“One of the things that I find is that this is a complicated process,” said board chair Carrie Geitner, who approved the appeal, alongside vice chair Lauren Nelson and commissioners Holly Williams and Cory Applegate.

“While I understand that many of you may be disappointed that I agree that the applicant has met that burden of proof, I’ll just say I believe you all came here in good faith, and I came here today in good faith as well.”

Geitner said she approved the Buc-ee’s appeal because, in her view, the county’s old C‑1 zoning and land-use code must be read “literally,” not according to “common sense” or Google definitions. She also said the code doesn’t cap the size of a convenience store. Nelson argued that Buc-ee’s also qualifies as a use “similar in function” to other C‑1 commercial uses like retail, restaurants and hotels, especially along a highway.

Commissioner Bill Wysong was the dissenting vote on the board.

“The burden of proof still remains on the applicant. I do not believe they met that burden of proof,” Wysong said.

“I just wholeheartedly disagree at this point.”

senior executive consultant Nina Dossey, a consultant for Buc-ee’s, argued that the proposed travel center should be classified as a convenience store rather than primarily as a gas station or truck stop.

Dossey said the development would include the sale of groceries, ready-to-eat food, beverages, over-the-counter medicines, household sundries and other convenience merchandise, along with gasoline, other petroleum products and electric vehicle charging.

At one point, Dossey compared the travel center to a Circle K and Kum & Go, drawing laughter from some audience members.

Public comment included many residents who said they live within 5 miles of the proposed site. Supporters cited potential economic benefits, while opponents warned of the project����ap impacts and argued that it was not being developed to serve the surrounding neighborhood.

“Let����ap be frank,” said Tri-Lakes area resident Richard Robinette, who opposes the proposed Buc-ee’s development. “If it looks like a gas station, smells like a gas station and sells more gas than a gas station, it����ap a gas station.”

Monument resident Chris Jeub is in favor of building the potential Buc-ee’s. “We can’t be a county that doesn’t like something and then finds a way to interpret the code to not like it or to push it out,” he said.

“I cannot read the definition of a convenience store any differently than a Buc-ee’s.”

The proposed development will include 120 fueling stations, 20 EV charging stations and about 790 parking spaces.

Buc-ee’s has been rapidly expanding across the country, making its red-capped beaver mascot an increasingly familiar sight along American highways.

At a recent store opening in Benton, Ark., Arch “Beaver” Aplin III, Buc-ee’s co-founder, president and CEO, said he prefers to open locations in He was quoted by USA Today as saying, “I’m starting to realize life’s too short to try to build in places that people don’t appreciate what you’re bringing …” He did not specifically reference project in El Paso County.

Mosher stepped down on Aug. 14 as two of his signature assignments, turning a sinking downtown around and helping convert Burnham Yard into the new home of the Denver Broncos, were in full swing.

From the outside, Mosher might look like a captain who abandoned ship in the heat of battle, or for sports fans, a football coach who walked out at halftime during a grueling game.

But he argues that his decision reflects a confidence in both the plan the city has set in place and the people who will execute it. And with his 76th birthday coming up in October, he was ready to step aside.

“Somebody said, ‘You have got more to do.’ And I said, ‘I could be here 10 years, and there will still be more to do,’ ” Mosher joked. “The only constant thing in Downtown is change.”

As Mosher departs, he leaves behind a map of guiding principles and a handful of warnings on things to avoid.

If there is one message he wants to emphasize, Mosher said it is that Upper Downtown must become a place that more people call home, not just a Central Business District (CBD) where they come to work.

“We have to turn Upper Downtown into a mixed-use neighborhood. The days of an historic CBD office park are over. We will fail if we try to make that happen or wait for it to happen,” he said.

If downtown can add 10,000 residential units over the next 10 years, its future will be much brighter than if it clings to its past as a concentrated office hub.

Not every struggling office tower, however, can convert to residences, said Mosher, who would check requests against a list Gensler, an architectural firm, had developed three years ago of prime conversion candidates.

Complicating matters, metro Denver faces a surplus of apartments, which is pushing down rents and making the math behind conversions harder to pencil out.

Downtown would benefit greatly if the state, after years of failed attempts, finds a way to finally address construction defects litigation and restore construction insurance premiums to manageable levels, he said.

The city needs to let the market pick winners and losers, Mosher said, given that it doesn’t have enough money to rescue every building or business.

But Mosher was also willing to break that rule when the Denver Pavilions, an outdoor retail mall on 16th Street, defaulted on its debt.

The development was too important to Upper Downtown and 16th Street to leave its fate to chance, he said.

The Downtown Denver Development Authority, which is directing public investments in the Central Business District, paid $37 million to purchase the Pavilions, including $8 million for improvements, and $23 million for two adjacent parking lots.

Private investment has largely pulled out of Upper Downtown. But targeted public investments, if done right, could eventually help kickstart more private investments, Mosher said.

Mosher estimates that downtown is struggling with 7 million square feet of surplus office space above and beyond what would be expected if vacancy rates were at historic levels.

About 1 million of that surplus space is on the path to residential conversions, and other adaptive reuses will absorb some of the additional space.

Earlier this month, the University of Colorado Denver closed on its purchase of Independence Plaza, a 25-story tower with only a fifth of its 567,287 square feet of space occupied.

It picked up the building at a nearly 80% discount to its prior sales price, and plans to incorporate it into its campus while also renting out space to tenants.

Residential conversions, while necessary, will only soak up a fraction of the office space now sitting empty. Building owners will need to recruit new tenants.

For that to happen, the city and the state need to encourage more business development, Mosher said.

The DDA has committed $40 million to provide incentives to recruit businesses that will bring new employees downtown. Last month, it extended a $7 million loan to help Alterra Mountain Co. relocate its headquarters from RiNo to Upper Downtown.

Downtown office rents have remained stubbornly high despite the area’s elevated vacancy rates. That reflects owners who, in hindsight, overpaid and their lenders who are unwilling to budge on loan covenants.

As more distressed sales occur, that could pave the way for office rents to drop, which in turn could allow more cost-sensitive businesses, like startups, to find their way to the Central Business District.

Building demolitions may be necessary at some point, but they should only take place if an alternative use is planned, Mosher said. That definition excludes parking lots or otherwise empty spaces.

One of the greatest risks to Upper Downtown looms ahead like a giant whirlpool: the ongoing shift in Denver’s center of gravity toward the Central Platte Valley.

Kroenke Sports and Entertainment’s River Mile project, set to eventually occupy the current Elitch Garden’s site, is slated to create 8,000 housing units across three neighborhoods and host some of the city’s tallest towers.

Upper downtown has a limited amount of time to reinvent itself before newer developments leave it permanently stranded and starved of capital, Mosher warns.

If the mark of a good leader is their ability to chart a course, the mark of a great leader is their ability to ensure a ship can sail without them.

Mosher has done exactly that, said Doug Tisdale, chairman of the DDA and a former member of the RTD board.

“The system has now been put in place. We have a structure that he helped to shape and form, and that structure has been effective and impactful. He created that for us,” Tisdale said.

A steady hand in a difficult moment

Mosher has helped downtown navigate past downturns, going back to the aftermath of the oil bust in the 1990s, when he was in charge of the Downtown Denver Partnership.

As a senior managing director at Trammel Crow, one of the country’s largest real estate developers, he was instrumental in negotiating the master development agreement that brought together private and public parties to reshape Union Station.

The Denver Union Station Development Authority, which raised $300 million in public funds to finance redevelopment efforts, was critical in that transformation, which happened after the Great Recession.

The authority was so successful in generating additional tax revenues that it paid its bonds off 14 years ahead of schedule and set the stage for further private redevelopment, including RTD’s Market Street Station site.

When faced with an even bigger challenge this decade, city leaders returned to the playbook of a public investment authority and public-private partnerships.

In November 2024, Denver voters approved the Downtown Denver Development Authority covering more than 1,000 acres of the city’s urban core. And they granted it $570 million in tax increment financing.

Mosher, a Denver native, was the person Johnston wanted to oversee that effort.

Although Mosher declined Johnston’s request to become a city employee and to stay through his term, he did agree to lead the effort for a year.

He would get the process off the ground, set priorities, and help vet funding requests headed to the DDA.

Around Christmas time, Mosher agreed to stay another quarter, and then somehow found himself staying into the second quarter.

But as the year wore on, he realized if he waited too long, he risked resigning during Johnston’s upcoming re-election campaign — something he didn’t want to do.

Mosher said much of the money that Denver voters approved to revive downtown has been committed, and that the speedy deployment was intentional.

“We are at an absolutely critical juncture. This is not something that could wait five years. Catalytic investments were needed immediately,” said Kourtny Garrett, president and CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership.

Mosher estimates that the DDA has another $20 million to $50 million available to award over the next 12 to 18 months. With most of the money earmarked, the focus is shifting from deployment to execution.

When it comes to getting approved projects across the finish line, Mosher said Jen Welborn, who is Denver’s Deputy Chief Projects Officer, is well-equipped for the task given her 30 years of experience with the city.

She will be supported by Johnston’s Chief of Staff, Jenn Ridder, in taking over Mosher’s duties.

A fast deployment

The Downtown Development Authority lists .

But another $170 million needs to be set aside to cover interest payments and the reserves that bond investors require, Mosher said.

Also, the $570 million that City Council and voters approved was a ceiling, not a guaranteed spending pot. What investors will lend in the future is tied to how quickly downtown property tax revenues rebound.

Successful early projects that boost property values will generate additional funds in the future. As they are repaid, DDA loans can provide additional funds for other projects.

But in pushing funds out quickly, the DDA risks some misses. One of the most notable has been a $400,000 tenant improvement loan provided to the Denver Immersive Repertory Theater.

DIRT’s founders pledged to use the money to refurbish 1431 15th St., a former REI space. .

Given the current situation downtown, some of the loans are high-risk.

The DDA has committed $114.5 million to four office-to-residential conversions, including the historic Symes, University and Petroleum buildings, as well as the renovation of the Barth Hotel.

More than half of that total, and the DDA’s biggest assistance package so far, involves a $63 million low-interest-rate loan for High Fidelity Plaza.

Last year, Los Angeles developer Asher Luzzatto picked up two office towers at 621 and 623 17th St. at a 97% discount. Once valued at $100 million, he was able to purchase them for $3.2 million.

Luzzatto plans to invest $315 million to convert 1 million square feet of distressed office space into a mixed-use residential development with more than 700 apartments and a host of amenities, including an on-site daycare, a children’s museum, and new ground-floor retail space.

The DDA loan, however, will only kick in after Luzzatto has lined up other financing sources. And while the authority loan might represent the last money in, that’s because it is holding the door open so other lenders can walk through.

“Without it, High Fidelity Plaza would not have moved forward,” Luzzatto said of the DDA loan. “We don’t just need to get equity onboard; we need to get the debt markets onboard. Senior lenders like to see (the development authority’s) involvement.”

In a sign of just how distressed commercial real estate has become in Upper Downtown, Luzzatto picked up another pair of towers at 1625 and 1675 17th St., known as The Energy Center, at a 97% discount from their prior purchase price.

He plans to convert one of the towers into 360 apartments, while keeping the other as office space. He has applied for DDA assistance on that project as well.

“On balance, he has prioritized the city’s needs over our desires, but he has oriented (the development authority’s) financing in a way that encourages private developments like ours,” Luzzatto said of Mosher.

And for its part, the DDA is counting on developers like Luzzatto to chart a path for future conversion that can be funded without public support.

“If the (the authority) can demonstrate that the conversion of these office buildings to residential dwelling units does work and that it can be successful and provide a return on investment, then private developers will come along,” Tisdale said.

The work involves everything from hammering out architectural and engineering innovation required to efficiently convert older buildings into apartments to developing a market for the new units and attracting tenants.

Luzzatto said Denver may eventually need to put more money on the table, but believes the payoff will be worth the effort.

“Revitalizing one of the most important downtowns in the U.S. is worthy of whatever investment is required … provided the private markets take the first, largest and most time-sensitive risks,” he said.

Mosher said the DDA represents community capital investing in itself, in a way that hopefully spurs local entrepreneurial investments.

Public confidence can help restore private sector willingness.

“Once those things start being successful and hopefully help us turn the corner, institutional capital will return,” he predicts.

One memory that stands out for Garrett was when Mosher addressed the State of Downtown breakfast the Downtown Denver Partnership hosted last year.

In something only Mosher could pull off, he called on the crowd to “stop whining” about the woes downtown faced and to strap up their boots and get to work fixing them.

“He brought the perfect balance of leadership, inspiration, and motivation to the community,” Garrett said.

The University Hills bookstore will close permanently on Sunday, Sept. 13, bringing an end to nearly five decades in the Denver community.

The Book Rack owner Cathi Kern, when reach by phone by The Post on Wednesday, declined to provide further details, saying there was no information to share at this time.

Kern, a longtime Denver resident and lifelong reader, took over as owner three years ago, according to an April Instagram post.

While the reason for the closure remains undisclosed, the store has announced that it could close sooner if it sells out of its inventory.

“Thank you for sharing your story with us for 49 years,” the store in late July. “We are closing September 13 and would love to see you before then.”

The Book Rack, 4061 E. Wesley Ave. near the intersection of South Colorado Boulevard and East Iliff Avenue, says on its website that it is the only used bookstore that has operated continuously in Denver since 1977.

Fans and community members expressed heartbreak in response to the longtime bookstore’s social media post, with some thanking the store for its years of service and others reminiscing about fond memories of the location.

The store was also included in the 2025 , which recognizes Denver businesses that have operated for 10 years or more.

Over the years, The Book Rack has offered thousands of books across a wide range of fiction and nonfiction genres, along with candles, notebooks, bookish gifts and more than 100 puzzles. The store loved used paperbacks and has been especially proud of its Classics and Mystery sections.

The bookstore is no longer accepting books or puzzles for credit or cash.

On the field, quarterback Bo Nix’s surgically repaired ankle hasn’t slowed him down so far, ramping up expectations for the season.

With Burnham Yard, the Broncos took a significant step this week by acquiring land from SRM Concrete for nearly 10 acres worth of parcels on the northern portion of the proposed district. Last week, the team released new renderings of the project.

Broncos owner and CEO Greg Penner told reporters Tuesday that there are “a lot of moving pieces” to work through before the club can set its sights on a spring 2027 construction start date.

Working with the city and residents on the Burnham Yard small area plan is one of those key pieces.

At a community meeting Wednesday at La Alma Recreation Center in Denver, Broncos officials, residents and city planners gathered at the third public open house��on the plan.

“We still believe Burnham Yard has the possibility to be a vibrant addition to this existing neighborhood,” said Damani Leech, president of the Denver Broncos, to a large crowd gathered inside the center.

Leech said the Broncos’ master plan for Burnham Yard and the stadium district is built around four cornerstones: knitting the new district into surrounding neighborhoods, honoring the site’s long rail and industrial history, making it easy for people to move through and gather in the area, and creating a place where residents, businesses and visitors can “grow and prosper for the next seven generations,” a framework the Broncos say is based on feedback from both the community and city staff.

Leech also addressed parking, which has been one of the top concerns expressed in the community meetings.

Initial parking will include structured parking on developed parcels and surface parking elsewhere. As parcels develop, surface parking will transition into structured parking that is integrated into the buildings.

In the initial phase, Leech said the area would have roughly the as the current setup at Empower Field at Mile High.

“Then we’ll get later into Phases 2 and 3, many years later,” Leech said.

“You’ll start to see more buildout. Some of that surface parking — becomes structured parking. And then you get to full buildout, and that’s the image you all saw publicly,” he said, referring to the recently released renderings.

Even after the final phase, Leech said, the area will have more than 1,000 surface parking spaces north and south of the stadium, designed for tailgating.

After a brief presentation by city staff and Leech, community members had the opportunity to explore a series of interactive stations at their own pace and provide input on neighborhood priorities, concerns and their vision for the future. The stations addressed topics including affordable housing, industrial land-use regulations, retail development, public art, quality of life and mobility.

Attendees used colorful dot stickers to indicate whether they considered various strategies a low, medium, or high priority. Most boards were covered with high-priority stickers, including those highlighting quality-of-life infrastructure, such as more trees and vegetation in the area. Sticky notes also captured attendees’ concerns, questions, and other thoughts.

One note called for improving pedestrian access at Eighth and 13th avenues, while another urged planners to “capture/collect” elements of the railyard’s history.

“It����ap great to see this land being activated,” said Ben Trepp, a LoHi resident who frequently visits the Burnham Yard area, which he currently describes as a “barren wasteland.” He said he hopes it will eventually become “a really cool neighborhood that adds a lot to the city,” with new housing and businesses.

However, Trepp said he is not convinced a new stadium is necessary, arguing that the current stadium is adequate. He left a note under a meeting board about the 13th Avenue and RTD underpass improvements, expressing concerns that new light-rail grade crossings south of 10th Avenue could pose safety risks because trains travel quickly through the area.

Resident Laura Haygood, alongside her husband Marc, said they have been closely following the project����ap development since moving from Texas to the neighborhood in May.

Haygood said the couple wanted to move closer to family but were initially shocked to learn about the project, which they hadn’t been aware of before moving. Living just a few blocks from Burnham Yard, she raised concerns about construction and parking in front of their new home, but not the stadium itself.

Still, Haygood praised the plans presented to the community Wednesday.

“I enjoyed that they gave us a way to interact and comment on our priorities,” Haygood said.

“As long as they do what they’re saying and really continue to work with the community, I think it will be great. I just hope that greed doesn’t get in the way and they look at the dollar over how they’re treating the community.” Small area plans are policy documents that guide future development decisions within specific geographic areas. The city in partnership with community members, gathering public input to shape a draft that will ultimately be reviewed and voted on by Denver’s Planning Board and City Council.

City planners expect to release a public review draft of the Burnham Yard Small Area Plan in October, with final adoption to follow near the end of this year after community feedback and revisions.

Representatives of Burnham Yard Community Action, a coalition of neighborhood residents, businesses, workers, artists and service providers, told The Post on Wednesday that discussions with the Broncos over a Community Benefits Agreement remain ongoing.

Leech said the team’s application to the Denver Urban Renewal Authority for assistance with the redevelopment through tax-increment financing is expected to be submitted in late August or early September, followed by a rezoning application after the draft Small Area Plan is published. City council approval is anticipated in 2027.

“Ultimately, all of that is getting up to a really critical timeline for us to deliver a stadium in the first phase of this district by 2031. We need to be beginning construction by early 2027, so that’s driving a lot of our timeline, but also is driving the benefit for this community and others,” Leech said.

Initial construction will focus on the stadium, infrastructure and key elements including the reimagined Locomotive Shop, Turntable Green and other mixed-use elements.

Leech also said the neighborhood is expected to have fewer heavy-rail crossings while adding more light-rail crossing locations.

Given the size of the proposed redevelopment, the site also must go through the city’s large development review process before construction can begin. The city said the club has already begun this process by submitting a pre-application, including a “high-level concept plan” for the site.

Burnham Yard is a 58-acre decommissioned railyard that closed in 2016. For nearly 150 years, the site served as a repair, refueling, maintenance, manufacturing and storage facility for railroad operations.

The property is in City Council District 3, between 4th and 13th Avenues to the south and north, and bordered by Seminole Road and Osage Street to the west and east. It sits in the La Alma-Lincoln Park neighborhood and borders the Baker neighborhood at the south end.

This story has been updated to include more comments and details from the community meeting.

The brokerage announced Tuesday that it is opening a Denver office in Cherry Creek North with 11 founding agents who signed on early to build SERHANT. Colorado (the period is part of its official name), along with other agents joining from real estate firms across the Denver area.

Together, the agents have sold more than $1 billion in real estate. They will initially work from a temporary office on the second floor of 205 Detroit St. as the company builds its Colorado team.

Although the business has not said which parts of the Denver area it plans to target, its business could put it in the market for some of downtown Denver’s larger office and residential buildings as the city continues to look for ways to bring more activity back to the area.

Rebecca Ferguson will lead the Colorado operation as managing director. Ferguson has more than 12 years of real estate experience and most recently served as managing broker of Kentwood Real Estate’s Cherry Creek office.

“Our agents move into the space August 11, and we couldn’t have picked a better neighborhood to plant our flag. Cherry Creek North is the heartbeat of Denver’s luxury market, and being right in the middle of it from day one was non-negotiable for us,” Ferguson said on Monday to The Post.

“This space lets us get agents up and running immediately while we finalize our permanent home in the neighborhood. It’s less a placeholder and more the first chapter.”

Founded in 2020 by real estate broker Ryan Serhant, star and executive producer of Netflix’s “,” SERHANT. has grown to more than 2,000 agents and 200 full-time employees in more than 15 states and Washington, D.C.

Denver is the latest stop in the company’s national expansion, following recent openings in Texas and California.

The Denver opening also comes as , an annual sales event founded by Serhant, is scheduled for Sept. 24 and 25 at the Seawell Ballroom at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

The two-day event will focus on artificial intelligence, technology and the future of the business. Serhant and skateboarder and entrepreneur Tony Hawk are among the scheduled keynote speakers.

The brokerage gives its agents access to S.MPLE, a technology platform with tools for finding clients, marketing properties and managing transactions. The company says the platform uses artificial intelligence throughout those functions.

“Denver is one of the most exciting markets in the country right now, and the agents joining us are already some of its best,” said Serhant, founder & CEO.

“What we give them is a different kind of leverage: AI tools through S.MPLE that take over the work that used to eat their day, and a media engine that puts their listings in front of millions. No one else is putting that kind of firepower behind their agents, and we’re excited to bring our model to Colorado.”

The event will end with a private takeover of Meow Wolf Denver that will also serve as the company’s official Colorado launch party.

Founding agents joining SERHANT. Colorado are:

• Jason Cummings from Compass
• David DiPetro from Compass
• Jon Mottern from Compass
• Clare Day from Compass
• Tom Day from Compass
• Katie McCaslin from Real Broker
• Dwyane Montoya from Valor Real Estate
• Levi Rose from Valor Real Estate
• Will Grimes from LPT Realty
• Eli Schmidt from LPT Realty
• Brett Reasoner from 8z Real Estate

This story has been updated to reflect the agents’ sales volume of more than $1 billion in real estate.