Stanley JV, a joint business venture that grew from three friends in the neighborhood who wanted a place to hang out, has a buyer under contract.

The food and entertainment attraction, which is also a shopping market and office space, has proven to be a steady economic driver for the area in the past decade. It has also developed a loyal customer base along with a lineup of businesses that hasn’t wavered much, even through the pandemic.

Denver-based has talked to the owners over the past couple of years about Stanley Marketplace, said Chris Carroll, who runs Magnetic with fellow managing partner Daniel Huml.

“We really focus on assets that have a great story to them, with strong fundamentals, a strong place in the community,” Carroll said.

With Stanley’s 10th anniversary celebration coming up in August and plans to open a “mini Stanley Marketplace” at Denver International Airport in 2027, “we thought now is a great time to acquire the asset and really shepherd this into the next generation,” Carroll said.

The purchase price under discussion for the Stanley is roughly $41 million, according to Both Carroll and Jonathan Alpert, a partner with an owner of the marketplace, said the $41 million figure is “in the neighborhood.”

Other proposals mentioned in the memo, including a hotel and more apartment units, are conceptual, Alpert said. The contract isn’t closed yet.

Westfield formed Stanley JV with Flightline Ventures, started by the local residents working on the concept. Together, they started raising money to transform the 140,000-square-foot industrial building that housed Stanley Aviation for 53 years.

The manufacturing facility in far northwest Aurora was the city’s largest employer for a while. Bob Stanley started in 1948 after attending the California Institute of Technology and becoming a U.S. Navy aviator and test pilot. In 1954, Stanley moved the company to Aurora, just south of the former Stapleton International Airport, where he developed ejection seats and other equipment for the military.

He died in a plane crash in 1977. The aviation company was sold and later closed in 2007. Stanley Aviation’s original signs and logo remain.

After it reopened as Stanley Marketplace in 2016, the 20-acre site became a catalyst for an area that Aurora wanted to reinvigorate, said City Manager Jason Batchelor.

“Just south of the Stanley Marketplace, there used to be an old tow yard that was pretty dilapidated,” Batchelor said.

Apartments were built on the site. A nearby shopping center, Montview Plaza, was rebuilt into a mixed-use development that includes apartments.

“Folks want to be near the Stanley,” Batchelor said. “We’ve really seen it be catalytic for reinvestment and redevelopment of the surrounding areas.”

The Stanley Marketplace has been an asset not only for Aurora, but the metro area, Batchelor said. “I think Stanley was sort of at the forefront of the food hall movement in the metro region and I think they’ve set such a high bar. Folks are trying to bottle that lightning.”

The city of Aurora was a driver behind turning the marketplace into reality in the first place. Batchelor, who oversaw the budget and was the finance director, said city staffers pitched the old Stanley Aviation building as the home for a neighborhood gathering spot.

As mayor, the late Steve Hogan, along with other city officials, went to bat for the project when the property owners were set on selling to a manufacturer.

The city also used performance-based tax increment financing through its urban renewal authority, allowing the developers to use a portion of tax revenues to fill financing gaps. Through April, the city has repaid Stanley $7.45 million in eligible tax rebates out of the maximum $13 million in the agreement, which runs��through 2040.

City officials said they’re reviewing a request to transfer the agreement to the buyer. “The city understands the sale is anticipated to close in August and is working with that deadline in mind,” spokesman Joe Rubino said in an email.

Stanley Marketplace wouldn’t have happened without the city’s support, said Mark Shaker, who with friends Lorin Ting and Megan Von Waldled the campaign for a neighborhood hangout. They lived in Central Park, formerly the Stapleton neighborhood, but couldn’t find a spot there.

After a tour with city officials of various sites, the abandoned Stanley Aviation building became their focus.

The three, none of whom had development experience, enlisted other friends, family and entrepreneurs. They worked with Denver restaurateur Kevin Taylor. After the Front Porch newspaper featured their efforts, the group, which formed Flightline Ventures, started hearing from people wanting to lease spaces. The group raised $2.6 million for the property in 2014.

“As we started talking to different banks, it became really clear to us that we needed a development partner,” Shaker said.

In 2015, Flightline teamed up with Westfield, a real estate and development company based in Denver. They became equal partners in Stanley JV, each contributing $5.2 million and taking on a $20 million loan.

One of the draws for Westfield was that Flightline did “an extraordinary job” of curating the tenancy, Alpert said. “The groups that had already signed up and wanted to be here was a cool, electric mix of local, really wonderful operators.”

More than half the current tenants are original lessees. Alpert said the marketplace is 98% occupied.

Westfield will keep the 168-unit Stanley House apartment complex it built on the site.

Magnetic Capital will meet soon with the people running the more than 50 local businesses at Stanley. Carroll said the firm will concentrate on maintaining Stanley’s role as a community hub and work with tenants on their individual goals.

The company plans to add gathering places after the realignment of , trails and landscaping are completed on the site. The project is part of ongoing work to increase the creek’s stormwater capacity and water quality.

“It’s the right time for another group to come in and reinvest, put that energy in and take this thing to the next level,” Alpert said.

‘Stanifesto,’ a manifesto

Karina Tittjung is one of the several tenants who learned in May of the pending sale of the Stanley Marketplace. She has been there almost from the time the doors opened in October 2016. She handled catering and special events for Rolling Smoke BBQ for seven years and then opened the pet boutique when a space became available.

“After working here for seven years, I knew there was nowhere else I wanted to open a business than Stanley,” Tittjung said.

While it was a scary leap from employee to business owner, Tittjung said she could count on help from a building of peers who’ve become family.

“This isn’t just a job,” Tittjung said. “This is our community This is our pack.”

Tittjung’s sentiments echo some of those on a poster on a wall inside a main entrance to the marketplace. A manifesto named “The Stanifesto”�� was written to promote collaboration, putting “goodness into the world” and spending time with family and friends.

One of the line reads, “We believe there’s no point in making a profit if you’re not also making a difference.”

“We wanted a North Star that guides us and helps us make decisions when we have challenges in the future,” Shaker said.

The Stanifesto was attached to lease agreements. “Sometimes lawyers would be like, ‘What’s this Kumbaya nonsense?’ ” Shaker said.

The spirit of the message was important, Shaker added. He said the vision helped people cope with the time and expense of building a marketplace in a cavernous manufacturing facility, requiring extensive environmental cleanup.

Alpert said the spirit was evident during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when employees and business owners showed up, making deliveries by electric skateboards and tuk-tuks.

Customers showed up, Shaker said. Counters at the doors in August 2020 recorded only 20% of the number of visitors that walked through the doors in August 2019.

“But we had about 60% of the sales,” Shaker said. “We only lost one business out of 55 during COVID.”

Stanley generally sees 1.3 million-1.4 million visitors per year, Alpert said.

Javier and Jennifer Perez, owners of , were the second tenants to move into the marketplace, but the first public-facing business. The first tenant was a preschool.

“We opened in December. It was winter. There was no heat in the building yet. Most of the walls weren’t up yet,” Javier Perez said.

Cheluna arranged to have food trucks in the parking lot. When it was too cold for the trucks to show up, the brewery worked with nearby restaurants to have food delivered. They used an industrial-size space heater to warm up the bar.

Perez and other business owners are waiting to talk to Magnetic Capital. He and his wife started their business after he retired as an emergency room doctor. He said Cheluna has many regulars.

“We’ve known people who tell us when they’re pregnant. We know the kid when they’re born. And then 10 years later, we’re talking to the kid about school. It’s been amazing,” Perez said.

Caroline Glover, a 2022 James Beard Award-winning chef, co-owns the restaurant Annette and Traveling Mercies, an oyster and cocktail bar in the Stanley Marketplace. She opened Annette, her first restaurant, nearly 10 years ago when Stanley was the only place that offered her a lease.

“I had been looking at other spots in Denver and nobody was really ready to take a risk on somebody that never had a restaurant before,” Glover said.

She didn’t want to be in a marketplace, but changed her mind after meeting the owners. The spot she looked at had access to the outside, so customers wouldn’t have to go through the rest of the building

And Glover said Shaker was excited to sign someone who didn’t have other places in Aurora or Denver. “I feel like when you get told ‘no’ a lot and then somebody gets excited for you, it gives you momentum.”

Working with other independent business owners striving hard to succeed has been motivating, Glover said. She hopes the new owners will continue the approach that has been effective through the past decade.

When the marketplace changes hands, Shaker will still be there. He owns the Stanley Beer Hall. Shaker said it’s natural to be a little uneasy with change pending, but he believes the new owners will continue “that same sort of community, local charm.”

“It’s the end of an era. A lot of blood sweat and tears went into doing a project�� that most people thought was impossible,” Shaker said. “I’m proud of where it’s at, where it came from, and so I’m hopeful for the next chapter.”

“Not good,” Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman told The Denver Post when asked to assess the state of mayoral relations. “We’re not going to be chummy.”

Things��have devolved to the point where Coffman says he will no longer meet with Mike Johnston alone, fearing the Denver mayor might not be truthful about what the two discuss. At the center of the discontent is the movement of migrants from Denver to Aurora over the last couple years — and what role Denver may have played in stoking a national furor over the presence of Venezuelan gang members in several Aurora apartment complexes.

“It was seared into the national consciousness,” Coffman says of his city’s recent travails.

While the relationship between the two cities’ leaders is at a nadir, at least for the time being, it’s not the first time that leaders of Denver and Aurora — Colorado’s first- and third-most populous cities — have taken off the gloves. Be it disputes over reaping the economic benefits from Denver International Airport, safeguarding a home for the National Western Stock Show or indemnifying Aurora police officers who helped quell protests and unrest in Denver in 2020, there’s a long history of intercity skirmishes.

Eric Sondermann, a longtime independent political commentator, remembers the relocation of the University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital Colorado to the then-new Anschutz Medical Campus��in Aurora nearly two decades ago as a “pretty good pie fight.”

But he said there’s a nasty edge to today’s mayoral melee — likely the result of national partisan “slash-and-burn politics” — that Sondermann doesn’t recognize as clearly from years past.

“I don’t remember these disputes becoming as personal as this one,” he said.

What’s also different in the current tussle between the cities over migrant impacts, Sondermann said, are the contours of the dispute.

“Most of the fights over the decades have been fights over growth and expansion, and about opportunities and who was going to reap those benefits,” he said. “Now, it’s more of a fight about burdens and social obligations — and who’s going to pay those bills.”

For Coffman, a particular sticking point came in late 2023 when Johnston asked him if Denver could house migrants in an Aurora hotel. The Denver mayor, Coffman said, later mischaracterized Aurora’s position as supportive of the arrangement, which he said he halted as soon as he found out that some short-term residents of the hotel had been displaced.

“I’m really distrustful of one-on-one conversations with him, so I’ve suspended that,” Coffman said. “I’m happy to meet with him, but I want staff there. I don’t trust him to relay publicly what was said.”

Johnston, for his part, said Coffman’s new communication protocol is “news to me.”

“He hasn’t communicated that to me. But anyway, I am happy to meet with him individually, with staff — either one is fine with me,” the Denver mayor told The Post.

Both mayors occupy officially nonpartisan offices, but each has engaged in party politics in the past — Johnston as a Democratic state senator and candidate for governor, Coffman as a Republican congressman. While the nuts and bolts of municipal business across the cities’ shared border may carry on as usual, former Denver City Councilwoman Robin Kniech said it’s the big-picture initiatives — the defining, visionary stuff — that is at risk of falling by the wayside when the people at the top are at arm’s length.

“When you can’t have these two large players working together, you’re missing opportunities to leverage regional innovations,” said Kniech, who served all 12 years that Michael Hancock, Johnston’s predecessor, was mayor. “These are the things that are made possible by personal relationships.”

Coffman has been most outspoken

The tension between today’s mayors was laid bare in a blistering penned by Coffman, in which he said publicly that Johnston should be “transparent and tell the truth about what he did.”

What he was referring to were Johnston’s actions regarding some of the migrants who streamed through Denver starting in late 2022, but ended up in Aurora. Coffman expressed frustration that Johnston wasn’t being forthcoming about how many migrants were being placed — and where — by nonprofit organizations Denver works with.

The column followed months of national headlines about the transnational Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua operating in the city. Attention revved into high gear after a video went public showing armed men in August knocking on doors inside an Aurora apartment building.

Two of those men after they were arrested in New York City. Just this past week, a third gang member seen in the video was arrested, also in New York.

The situation quickly became fodder in the presidential race. Then-Republican nominee (and now-President) Donald Trump used Aurora as the backdrop for a campaign rally less than a month before he won the election, hitting on familiar themes of illegal immigration and border security.

A massive media fallout ensued, during which some news outlets exaggerated the extent of Venezuelan gang activity as a seeming criminal takeover of Aurora — a sprawling suburban city of 400,000 —��while others downplayed its severity, despite numerous arrests of transnational gang members by Aurora police.

The media maelstrom placed a glaring and unwelcome spotlight on the city.

“Aurora has suffered from a national embarrassment that has harmed the image of our city in a way that could have lasting economic consequences,” Coffman, 69, wrote in his column.

His city has asked its larger neighbor to the west to reveal how many migrants have come to Aurora and what role Denver played in getting them there. Aurora City Attorney Pete Schulte said the city recently began sending formal records requests for information about Denver’s relationship with its partner nonprofits, which he said were allowed to find housing for migrants in cities other than Denver.

Coffman told The Post it’s information Denver could easily share, but won’t.

“Here we are, two cities side by side, and we’re going through open records requests because Denver isn’t being transparent,” Coffman said. “How can there be trust?”

In an , Johnston said Denver works with nonprofit groups that place migrants in housing. But he said the city doesn’t decide where they go.

In his interview with The Post, the mayor said he’s not hiding anything.

“We’re fully transparent with that information. We’ve answered all the questions the mayor has,” Johnston, 50, said of Coffman. “There’s nothing we’re concealing and nothing that he doesn’t know. I understand he’s probably facing a great deal of political pressure from the president and others, and we’re always happy to help.”

As for Coffman citing the late-2023 hotel episode for some of his distrust, a Johnston spokeswoman provided more details of what happened. Jordan Fuja said nearly 300 people arrived in Denver on Thanksgiving Day that year, triggering the city’s request to Aurora for accommodations.

“Once we learned other guests had been displaced to another hotel in the chain, we immediately worked with the hotel operator to ensure those guests could return at the same extended-stay rate,” she said. “The operator also offered to provide those guests with a free week’s stay.”

Bob LeGare, who served as Aurora’s mayor from June 2018 to December 2019 following the death of Mayor Steve Hogan, says he feels the larger relationship between the municipalities is solid, notwithstanding the current mayors’ relationship. Coffman succeeded him.

“What you’re hearing about is the migrant issue, because it����ap been made into a national issue. But my guess is that there are still things going on in the background where they are cooperating,” LeGare said.

He characterized the conflict over immigration as part of a natural rise and fall in political relations.

“It seems like you’ll have years where everything’s great, and then you’ll have some years where there’s some oil and water,” LeGare said. “I think it����ap just part of the dynamics of two of the largest cities on the Front Range being right next to each other.”

Locking horns over the years

That same proximity existed 45 years ago, when Dennis Champine became mayor of Aurora at the age of 37. But in 1980, the city had 160,000 residents, compared to more than double that today.

“The times are significantly different now,” said Champine, 82, who is still a practicing attorney.

At the time, Denver was even more the center of gravity than it is today, Champine said. But Aurora was growing rapidly, assembling critical water rights and coming into its own.

Champine knew he was up against a political luminary��in Bill��McNichols, who had already been mayor of Denver for 11 years when Champine ascended from Aurora councilman to mayor in 1979. McNichols, , was more than 30 years his senior.

“He called me Denny,” Champine said. “The only other person to call me Denny was my mother. I guess it was an Irish thing.”

In his second term, Champine found a new Denver mayor across the table — Federico Peña, who won election at age 36.

“I just liked both of them a lot and it made things easy between the cities,” he said.

But not too easy. The first fights over Denver’s future airport were just coming into view, with the bigger city looking to annex 54 square miles of Adams County, just outside Aurora, for the gigantic facility.

“The biggest issue then was that there wouldn’t be any more annexation by Denver, beyond the airport,” Champine said. “All of that tax base around the airport — we wanted that to come to the city of Aurora. It was on our boundary.”

DIA, which opened in 1995, replacing Stapleton International Airport, remained a bone of contention between Denver and Aurora when Wellington Webb and Paul Tauer led the cities, respectively, over the next decade-plus. Webb said one of the most contentious battles over DIA during his tenure was about where to locate cargo carrier facilities.

Adams County and Aurora wanted them north of the airport, while Webb wanted them closer to Interstate 70.

“I moved it,” he said. “I was doing my due diligence as mayor of Denver.”

Mike Dino, Webb’s adviser on intergovernmental affairs, remembers the move of the hospitals from Denver to the Anschutz Medical Campus — the former site of the Fitzsimons Army Medical Center — as a moment of particularly high tension between the cities.

And embedded in all of that tension was the friction between Webb and Tauer themselves, ripples stirred by the two men’s outsized personalities.

“Wellington and Paul Tauer were more of a personality situation,” Dino said. “There was a lot of distrust between the two of them.”

There was the time Webb poked fun at Tauer for his shorter stature, Dino said, and the time Tauer expressed irritation over Webb’s decision to name DIA’s entrance road Peña Boulevard, in honor of the prior Denver mayor, instead of Airport Boulevard.

While the mayors had their differences, Dino remembers 1995 to 2000 as the “golden years of Denver-Aurora cooperation,” highlighted by the herculean joint effort to redevelop the former Lowry Air Force Base into a residential neighborhood.

But relations during Webb’s and Tauer’s last years in office wore thin, Dino said. For his part, Webb, now 83, said he and Tauer, who died in 2022, were “cordial” with one another.

“We both knew we had a job to do, and we both did that job,” he said.

Differences inevitable, former mayor says

Tauer’s son, Ed, assumed his father’s seat in 2003. Of Webb’s successor, now-U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, Ed Tauer said: “I got a great mayor of Denver to work with.”

“Between two communities, you’re not always going to see things the same way,” Tauer said. “But it was the ability to work those differences out that was special about John. He was never satisfied with a win-lose situation. If it wasn’t win-win, you keep working on it until you get there.”

That included negotiations over the development of FasTracks, the Regional Transportation District’s vast metro-wide network of rail and regional bus lines that voters approved in 2004.

Hancock, who served as the next elected mayor of Denver for a dozen years, through mid-2023, intersected with Aurora’s Hogan, LeGare and Coffman during his tenure. He declined to speak for this story.

Out of the gate, Hancock faced a massive challenge: Talks had begun in early 2011 about moving the century-old National Western Stock Show to Aurora, to be part of a larger entertainment-themed development featuring the 1,500-room Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center.

Janice Sinden, Hancock’s chief of staff for the first half of his mayorship, said Hancock staked a flag on keeping the institution in the city.

“Hancock put a line in the sand that we were going to do everything to keep the National Western in Denver,” said Sinden, who now heads the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. “Michael just made certain to put all the resources into the institution. We built the infrastructure to make sure the Stock Show stayed.”

By year’s end, the proposed move to Aurora was dead and Denver’s billion-dollar effort to redevelop and expand the National Western campus in northern Denver began taking shape.

Less than two years later, the tables were turned.

Hogan, along with other area leaders, decried a plan by Hancock to create an “airport city” on more than 9,000 acres surrounding DIA, on airport property, as a violation of a 1988 agreement. It had stipulated that any development around the airport be limited to airport-related businesses so that Adams County could lure businesses, and their associated tax dollars, to its turf.

After years of mediation, and even a demand from Adams County that Denver return the land it annexed for the airport decades earlier, the cities arrived at an agreement that was approved by voters in 2015.

Alan Salazar, Hancock’s chief of staff in the mayor’s later years in office, said Hogan and Hancock had a good relationship “even when there was conflict.”

“Hogan and Hancock couldn’t help but laugh and joke — their affection for one another was apparent,” Salazar said. “They were comfortable trusting each other.”

Charlie Richardson — a former Aurora City Council member who also served as city attorney and acting city manager during his decades-long career — said the rapport between Denver’s and Aurora’s mayors has largely hinged on the personalities of the two officeholders.

“The late Mayor Hogan was a statesperson; he had a really good relationship with his counterpart,” Richardson said, referring to Hancock. “Obviously, it����ap a pretty dysfunctional relationship right now.”

“No hard feelings,” Johnston insists

Whether both cities can repair their leaders’ rift in 2025 is yet to be seen.

Under Coffman’s leadership of the last five years, the cities have done battle with each other on several fronts. In January 2020, DIA sued Aurora for greenlighting home construction too close to a future runway. And last year, the state’s��high court settled a yearslong legal battle over noise impacts from DIA on surrounding Adams County neighborhoods, including homes in Aurora.

The judge ruled in favor of the airport, concluding that the plaintiffs brought the case decades too late.

In May 2023, Aurora sued Denver over disputes arising from the massive 2020 racial justice protests. It alleged that Denver refused to pay the full cost of lawsuits against Aurora and the police officers it lent to its larger neighbor.

Then, hours after Johnston took office as Denver’s newest mayor in mid-July of that year, the Aurora City Council narrowly voted to chuck the cities’ mutual-aid pact until its neighbor agreed to fully indemnify Aurora officers.

Despite disagreements with the Hancock administration, Coffman said he never doubted Hancock’s sincerity.

“From the standpoint of trust, I just had a great relationship with him,” Coffman said.

Not so with Johnston, he said.

The Denver mayor, though, said he was ready to work anytime on public safety, homelessness and other big issues with his counterpart in Aurora.

“I think our personal feelings should be secondary to the job we have to serve both our cities, and I’ll always put that first,” Johnston said. “He can always pick up the phone and call me anytime — my line is open, and it will continue to be. I have no hard feelings.”

To fill the shoes of former Mayor Steve Hogan, who passed away last year, the incoming mayor will need to be ready to take on the city’s unique opportunities, which are also its greatest challenges.

Aurora, a minority-majority city, is one of the most diverse in the country. Nearly 20% of its residents are foreign-born, with the largest portion of the immigrant population coming from Mexico, followed by Ethiopia, El Salvador and Korea. Over one-third of the city’s land is yet undeveloped, including prime real estate next to Denver International Airport, the state’s greatest economic driver. From the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, to Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center, to Buckley Air Force Base, Aurora is positioned for economic success, and gentrification.

Aurora’s urban core is under immense pressure pushing in from Denver’s development boom, and its diverse populations are highly vulnerable to the effects of gentrification. As we all know too well, with growth comes traffic, congestion and the displacement of vulnerable populations. This is what makes this election so crucial.

Fortunately, the race is non-partisan. This is ultimately why mayors, unlike our federal and state elected officials, get things done. They’re not playing partisan politics. And, unlike Denver, there is no run-off.

The talented pool of candidates reflects the rich diversity of the city and includes Ryan Frazier, Marsha Berzins and Renie Peterson, all current or former Aurora City Council members; former Congressman Mike Coffman; and Omar Montgomery, an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado Denver and the director for the Center for Identity and Inclusion.

One candidate’s experience stands out amongst this impressive group: Mike Coffman. I have known Coffman since serving together in the Colorado legislature in the 90s. We sat on different sides of the aisle and we certainly didn’t always see eye to eye on issues. I have never endorsed him as he ran for public office.

So, what����ap changed?

First, times are different. With Washington, D.C.’s, dysfunction, some of the most important decisions have been left to cities and states. Local governments are taking the lead on numerous issues like transportation and infrastructure, immigration and education.

Mike Coffman has unique state and federal relationships that will help him attract key infrastructure and transportation funding, which will be an asset for the city. Where the state has been unable to solve the transportation crisis, Coffman wants to help convene the Metro��Mayors Caucus on innovative regional solutions.

Since his time in the legislature, Coffman has consistently worked to connect with his constituents. While he recently lost his congressional election in the 2018 Democratic tsunami, it wasn’t because of his failure to connect with his community. He was one of a few Republicans who fought to support the path to citizenship for DACA recipients, and the path to permanent residency for those under temporary protected status.

He has vowed if elected mayor to fight for Aurora’s immigrant community and fight displacement by supporting affordable housing techniques such as inclusionary housing policies.

As state treasurer, Coffman worked with the financially distressed school districts of St. Vrain and Elizabeth to balance their budgets, without cutting the number of teachers in the classroom. He also came up with and led the effort to replace the VA construction management team with the Army Corps of Engineers to complete the hospital.

As a life-long public servant, Coffman has been a dedicated military leader and government official, serving in the legislature, as state treasurer and secretary of state before serving 10 years in Congress. In 1990, Coffman took a leave of absence from the legislature and volunteered to deploy with the Marines for Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. He retired as a major with 20 years of military service.

Coffman’s professional experience also spans the private sector, where he ran a successful small business for nearly two decades. His private sector experience in property management will also help him work on affordable housing issues in Aurora.

Coffman is committed to more balanced growth in Aurora, including equitable distribution of open space, parks, and trails and new multimodal transportation opportunities. As Aurora prepares for its next chapter of growth, it needs a proactive leader with a
demonstrated record of success.

Yet, the bitterly contested project, set to open soon south of DIA, teetered on the edge of failure more than once. There was nothing inevitable about it.

“It was a rough voyage, especially at the beginning,” said Ira Mitzner, president of Houston-based RIDA Development Corp. “It was big and people were nervous. But what people didn’t realize is that we were very undersupplied in Colorado for large meeting spaces.”

The use of public dollars to fund private projects is always controversial. The $800 million resort wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without substantial public support from Aurora, $300 million, and the state, $81.4 milion.

The day after the state approved incentives, the original development partner, Gaylord Entertainment, dropped out. The project seemed dead until RIDA stepped in and Marriott International took on the role of managing the property.

The Gaylord Rockies had to overcome three lawsuits, a bill in the legislature designed to kill it, calls for a state audit of its incentives, hesitant investors and later on a tight market for construction workers.

More than once, the project seemed done for, only to come back, thanks in part to the tenacious support of Aurora officials. The resort, the state’s largest with 1,501 rooms and more than 486,000 square feet of meeting space, is set to open on Dec. 18.

A creature of the Regional Tourism Act

Understanding why the Gaylord Rockies was so contested requires understanding the Regional Tourism Act (RTA), a complex program the Colorado legislature passed in 2009 to jumpstart development during the Great Recession.

Metro Denver has a history of taking on massive projects to escape an economic funk and the RTA sought to fund signature tourism projects that would draw in out-of-state visitors. Each project includes a zone where a portion of the additional sales tax revenues could be claimed to finance development. But applicants also had to show the project was unique and wouldn’t be built, except for state support.

Initially, Aurora was looking at applying with International Speedway Corp. to build a $400 million race track on 1,000 acres to draw in NASCAR fans. But that proposal died in early 2009, a victim of the downturn and questions about whether the sport had peaked.

Aurora was left to find another RTA project and in July 2010 it approached Gaylord Entertainment, a Nashville-based owner of large conference hotels, about partnering. City officials met with Gaylord executives that September, said Wendy Mitchell, president and CEO of the Aurora Economic Development Council.

Gaylord, which operated four properties across the country, was trying to build a fifth. A leading candidate, a project in Chula Vista, Calif., dropped out in 2008. Aurora joined the fray and beat out several other candidates to win the nod, Mitchell said.

Aurora and Gaylord teamed up to apply for a 1,500-room conference hotel, one of a half dozen projects the Colorado Economic Development Commission would consider before approving two slots.

Denver hoteliers cried foul. They questioned why public dollars were supporting a project that would compete against existing private businesses. A hotel with that many rooms and that much meeting space would cannibalize their business, they feared. Plus, Gaylord had a reputation for keeping its guests on site and making it difficult for them to go elsewhere, i.e. downtown.

But supporters countered the hotel would draw a large share of its business from conventions that rotated through Gaylord’s other properties. The hotel, the largest in the mountain region, would be an amenity for Aurora and the area around DIA, where development had struggled to take off.

“What gave the office of economic development comfort was that it was always a Gaylord branded hotel that could get on the Gaylord circuit,” said Jeff Kraft, director of business funding and incentives with the state who helped draft the original contract the state and Aurora signed. “Those were a unique set of conventions that rotated. You won’t be able to compete for that segment of visitor if you don’t have a Gaylord hotel.”

The battle intensifies

Aurora-Gaylord won one of the two slots in the first round along with Pueblo, which wanted to expand its convention center and improve its Riverwalk, on May 18, 2012. Mitchell describes that day as one of the happiest in her career. It would be followed by some dark ones.

What city and state officials didn’t know was that Gaylord Entertainment planned to convert into a real estate investment trust holding hotel properties, but not building or operating them. Aurora looked like it might join a proposed Gaylord hotel in Mesa, Ariz., in the never-to-be-finished pile.

If Aurora was to have any chance, it would have to find another partner at a time when developers willing to take on big construction projects were far and few between. But who?

It took about a year, but Aurora brought on RIDA, known for its success on big hotel project in Texas and Florida, as the developer. Marriott International, which bought operating rights for the Gaylord hotels, was among the firm’s satisfied clients.

Mitzner said his mother used to tell him it takes an immigrant to understand the greatness of America. Likewise, it takes a Texan to understand what makes Colorado stand apart.

“When you sit in Denver, you don’t realize how special it is,” he said. “I could see the greatness of the state. I knew what we were going to build was going to be well received by meeting planners and the convention community.”

He thought he was coming in to save the day. What he didn’t realize is that he would immediately come under fire, and for a long time.

The entry of RIDA�� gave opponents an opening to challenge the state incentives. A group of 11 hotels, located mostly in Denver as well as the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, sued in Denver District Court, arguing Aurora and its new partner should have to reapply.

But the state economic development office, under then-director Ken Lund, held firm. The deal they cut was with Aurora. The developer didn’t matter, as long as the hotel met the parameters in the application. RIDA committed to building per the specifications approved, if not more.

State officials also worried about being perceived as an unreliable partner when working out a deal. If they backed away from Gaylord, could any RTA or other incentive award be trusted when millions of dollars and thousands of jobs were on the line.

“We didn’t want to be seen as withdrawing or being shaky on our support,” Kraft said. “We wanted to be consistent, stable and solid.”

A judge would throw out the Denver case, arguing the hotels didn’t have standing to file. But the case would be appealed and another lawsuit would follow from two taxpayers in Adams County, who argued the election that created the special taxing district for the project violated the Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

“It was like a roller coaster. We would win a legal battle. Then they went back and filed again. We had to go to the Colorado Supreme Court. it was one thing after another,” Mitchell said.

Opponents leaked financial documents to make the case that RIDA could fund the hotel without incentives, violating a key requirement of the RTA. They challenged the inclusion of raw land within an urban redevelopment zone.

Nationally, the state had developed a reputation for cooperating on economic development issues. But the Gaylord Rockies tested that regionalism in ways it hadn’t been tested before.

Denver is home to the state’s convention center, the region’s transportation hub, the largest performing arts complex, the international airport, and the three big sports venues. Why were Denver interests fighting something Aurora considered so important to its future, supporters of the hotel asked.

Mitchell said more than 100 surrounding governments, groups and businesses, from the City of Black Hawk to Parker, came out to help defeat a bill in the legislature designed to derail the project.

“They were trying to run the clock out. They were basically trying to tire us out. They were a worthy opponent,” she said. But she added they didn’t appreciate how tenaciously Aurora would fight.

“People would have never guessed it back in May 2012, but Aurora never gives up, and it would have been a lot easier to give up,” she said.

Getting ready for the opening

Mitzner said his biggest regret as opening day approaches is that former Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan, who died May 13, and his father, David, who survived the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and passed away in September 2016 at 101, won’t be there to see it.

Plaques in the hotel commemorate both men. Without Hogan’s unwavering support, the hotel wouldn’t exist,��Mitzner said.��And he recalls how his father visited him in Colorado during an especially tough spell.

He reassured his son that metro Denver was among a half-dozen areas that represented the country’s future and that the hotel would add to the hospitality scene rather than disrupt it.

“He said “Ira, stick it out. This will be successful. Colorado had no place to go but up,” he recalled him saying.

So far there are no signs of cannibalization that critics warned about, Mitzner emphasized. Of the 1.1 million rooms booked so far at the Gaylord Rockies, 81 percent are with groups who wouldn’t have otherwise come to Colorado, he said.

And the opposition from existing hotels in the state quieted after the Gaylord Rockies got under construction. It didn’t hurt that the economy took off.

Richard Scharf, president and CEO of Visit Denver, when offered the chance to take one last swipe at the Gaylord Rockies before it opened, chose a conciliatory tone.

“The addition of new hotel development into Colorado only reinforces our mission of driving new demand for hotels and all hospitality-related businesses that benefits everyone,” he said in a statement.

Gaylord’s entry into the market has pushed existing hotels to make improvements, which should result in a better experience for people visiting metro Denver.

New owners of the Sheraton Denver Downtown, which has been the state’s largest hotel with 1,231 rooms, said in October they plan a significant revamp to the 58-year-old property.��Other Denver hotels that have poured millions into improvements include the Brown Palace, Hotel Teatro, the Monaco Hotel and the��Renaissance Denver Stapleton Hotel.

“If you have a new kid on the block, it will make every owner up their game,” said Jan Freitag, senior vice president with STR, a hospitality research firm.

That isn’t to say there won’t be pressure on room rates or occupancy levels in the months ahead, especially if the economy softens, he said. But so far, the Denver market has shown an ability to absorb the thousands of hotel rooms added, he said.

And in the end, downtown Denver, could see an upside as more people head there from the conferences that the Gaylord Rockies brings in. The resort is offering shuttles every 15 minutes to the nearby commuter rail stop that feeds into Union Station.

“I believe that there is plenty of opportunity to spread the visitor dollars around by offering creative approaches to expand the visitor experience,” said Patty Silverstein, chief economist with Development Research Partners.

Building the Gaylord Rockies has also resulted in personal changes for Mitzner. His daughter and her husband liked the Denver area so much they moved from Houston to open another office for RIDA, which has acquired 129 acres near the Gaylord to develop.

RIDA has retained a big stake in the resort and plans on building more in Colorado. It performed well enough that it was put in charge of Gaylord’s next property in Chula Vista, which was resurrected after being sidelined in 2008.

Mitchell said the new hotel will employ 1,500 people and could eventually bring in half a million out-of-state visitors to Colorado every year. It offers a gateway for development in the large area around the airport known as the Aerotropolis.

“This is a transformational project for Aurora as well as for the state,” she said.

The event also paid tribute to late Mayor Steve Hogan, who died May 13 at 69.

Also acknowledged Friday night was the new��7/20 Memorial Foundation��sculpture Ascentiate, designed by Douwe Blumberg,��of Lexington, Ky. The avian-themed art piece pays tribute to 13 people who lost their lives and 70 who were injured July 20, 2012.

“The (foundation) board is so pleased it turned out exactly the way we wanted it to turn out,” said Heather Dearman, vice chairwoman of the foundation, of the memorial art piece. “It has already brought so much healing and strength…it is only going to keep going.”

Dearman is a cousin of Ashley Moser, one of the 70 people injured in the attack.

The sculpture consists of 83 cranes, each 4½ feet tall. Thirteen in the center are made of clear acrylic so light shines through, representing those who lost their lives. Each bird includes a canister containing tokens of remembrance from that victim’s family.��The surrounding 70 birds, representing the injured, fly skyward.

The gathering was at the Reflection Garden, where the memorial art piece is displayed, near the Aurora Municipal Center,��at East Alameda Parkway and Chambers Road.��An earlier ceremony was held July 19.

Among those scheduled to speak Friday night: Tom and Caren Teves, parents of Alex Teves, who was killed; former Police Chief��Dan Oates; retired Chief Mike Garcia; Carole O’Shea, victim services supervisor for the Aurora police; District Attorney George Brauchler;��Lisa Teesch-Maguire, formerly of the DA’s office and now a district court judge;��Becky Hogan, the late mayor’s wife; Roberta Bloom, public art coordinator Aurora; and Blumberg.

Welcome back to The Spot, where The Denver Post’s politics team captures what’s happening this week — from the Colorado legislature to Denver city hall, with a stop through the halls of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Colorado’s 2018 general election is already well underway following Tuesday night’s primary election.

While ballots are still being counted and at least one high-profile race remains up in the air, we’re starting to get a pretty good sense of what to expect heading into November: lots of money, lots of attacks and lots of talk about President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, Aurora has a new mayor, we’ve got more train horn news��and Denver officials are working to ensure that a good chunk of work behind the city’s unstoppable growth��is performed by people in the community who most need it.

Oh, and the the Trump administration is pushing to open more public land in Colorado for fossil fuel development.

Fresh news:��The operator of the Park Hill Golf Course gave notice this week that it will renew its lease for five years, adding a new complication to discussions about the 155-acre property’s future.

ROLL CALL

PRIMARY ELECTION NEWS

• The Colorado governor’s race is set.
• Jared Polis won��the Democratic primary for Colorado governor.
• Walker Stapleton won��the Republican nod for governor.

• In the end, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette brushed off a challenge from the left��in��Tuesday’s��primary.
• But DeGette’s opponent,��Saira Rao, built a progressive coalition that she says is only getting started.
• It will be military vet vs. military vet — Democrat Jason Crow��on Tuesday��won the party nomination to face U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman in the 6th Congressional District general election contest.
• State Rep.��Joe Salazar is not backing down in the Democratic primary for Colorado attorney general, despite Phil Weiser’s lead.
• Brian Watson is��the Republican nominee for Colorado treasurer.
• State Rep. Dave Young is the Democratic nominee for Colorado treasurer.
• Two statehouse Republican incumbents lost their primary challenges.
• Is Doug Lamborn an immovable force? Sure seems like it.
• Meanwhile, Colorado is poised to have its first black member of Congress��in Joe Neguse.

DENVER & THE SUBURBS

• Aurora’s new mayor was chosen this week, and his name is Bob LeGare — a longtime councilman in Colorado’s third-largest city.
• LeGare was appointed following the death of Steve Hogan in May.
• Denver city officials��are ready to spend billions of dollars on big public projects��— and they want the companies that win the contracts to target locals for jobs.
• The long-decrepit First Avenue Hotel on Broadway south of downtown will finally get new life, with plans for affordable housing. Redevelopment��will be boosted by tax breaks and other help from the city.
• ��DZ��ǰ������’s record tourism growth has hit a new milestone.
• Fingers are crossed by thousands living along the University of Colorado A-Line that loud and constant train horns will come to an end as people flip their calendars into August.
• Larimer Square is on a list of the nation’s 11 most endangered historic places.
• Might there be a new, high-tech solution to metro Denver’s endless traffic congestion problem?

D.C. POLITICS FROM A COLORADO PERSPECTIVE

• Dozens of parents separated from their children were awaiting their fate at an Aurora Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility last week.
• Several of Colorado’s elected officials visited the U.S.-Mexico border��over the weekend amid the immigrant family separation crisis.
• “U.S. health regulators on Monday approved the first prescription drug made from marijuana.”
• Sarah Huckabee Sanders getting kicked out of a restaurant for her political beliefs isn’t the same as a gay couple being denied a wedding cake, experts say.
• Should flying a drone over a wildfire be a federal felony?
• In Colorado, the Trump administration and fossil fuel industry are pushing to open more public land for energy development.

THE WIRE

• See something suspicious at DIA? The airport�� that visitors can use to report��questionable activity or behavior.��— The��Denver Business Journal
• Residents of a senior-living tower in Five Points�� in their fight against a dog park.��— Denverite
• Meet : The cannabis community.��— The New York Times
• A at our primary election for Colorado governor. — The New York Times
• It looks like the state Senate’s assistant majority leader, , is going to keep his job. — The Grand Junction Sentinel
• A look at in the 3rd Congressional District. — The Aspen Times
• “Bernie Sanders: Sarah Sanders to ‘go into a restaurant and have dinner.’ ” — The Hill
• What U.S. Rep.��Joe Crowley’s to a 28-year-old, anti-establishment candidate means for Democrats. — CNN
• “ from the primaries in South Carolina, New York, Utah and Colorado.” — Vox
• What’s for water managers of the Colorado River? — KUNC
• Progressive statehouse candidates on Tuesday. — Colorado Public Radio

Questions, comments, feedback about this newsletter? Cool stories?��Send them our way.

And thanks for reading!

P.S.��Please consider backing The Denver Post () or journalism wherever you might be. And thanks for your support, whatever it might be.

P.P.S. Here are your GIF rewards for making it to the end of this newsletter.

Me trying to calculate election turnout percentages…

— Jesse Aaron Paul (@JesseAPaul)

Also, this is what I've felt like today post-election

— Jesse Aaron Paul (@JesseAPaul)

Staff writers John Frank, Jon Murray and John Aguilar contributed to this newsletter.

The vote for LeGare featured a moment of short-lived drama, as six votes from the 10 council members were needed to put one of the four candidates for the position over the top. Five council members raised their hands for LeGare and kept them in the air before LeGare, nearly half a minute later, put his hand up as well.

“We have a new mayor — congratulations,” Mayor Pro Tem Marsha Berzins, who has been leading the council since Hogan’s death May 13, said before applause broke out in council chambers.

Before the selection was made, Aurora city attorney Mike Hyman addressed the conflict of interest concern some have had about LeGare being able to vote for himself. He said Aurora’s charter requires that LeGare cast a vote for the mayor appointment, even if he is in the running.

“The way it is constituted right now, the council member has to vote,” Hyman said.

LeGare, who was set to be sworn in at the end of Monday’s council meeting, has served nearly 15 years on Aurora City Council, completing two four-year terms beginning in 1995. After an eight-year absence from the dais, he ran again in 2011 and won. He was re-elected in 2015.

LeGare was��one of four candidates vying to be Hogan’s replacement��Monday, down from��a total of 13 hopefuls who originally submitted applications last month. The City Council conducted interviews of the four candidates on June 15.

Former councilwoman Renie Peterson received one vote on Monday, while former councilwoman Debi Hunter Holen came up empty. Tim Hogan, the former mayor’s son, got three votes from the City Council.

LeGare will preside over a city that is experiencing rapid growth — most notably on its eastern and northern fringes, where plentiful land is available for development. Later this year, the��state’s largest hotel, with 1,501 rooms, is set to open��just south of Denver International Airport. And not far from Gaylord Rockies Resort,��a giant aerotropolis project��— featuring the proposed 23,000-home Aurora Highlands neighborhood — is on the drawing board.

The city, which straddles three counties, had been eyed by Steve Hogan as a place ripe for designation as its own county, as is the case with Denver and Broomfield. But the lofty notion was one that��didn’t gain as much support as the mayor had hoped��it would.

Hogan, who died after a short battle with cancer at age 69, was a fixture in Aurora. He served on council for six terms — or 24 years — before being elected mayor in 2011. He presided over a city that more than doubled in population — from 160,000 to more than 360,000 people — from the time he was first elected to council in 1979.

Hogan’s term would have run until December of next year and LeGare told the Aurora Sentinel last month that he didn’t intend to run for mayor in 2019, setting the stage in 18 months for an open contest for the city’s top political post.

LeGare is a retired commercial property manager and real estate broker and has lived in Aurora for 43 years. He has served on numerous boards and committees in the city.

The City Council now has 45 days to appoint a replacement for LeGare’s at-large council seat.

Council members on Monday night agreed to interview Councilman Bob LeGare; former council members Renie Peterson and Debi Hunter Holen; and Tim Hogan, the former mayor’s son. The interviews are scheduled to take place at 5 p.m. June 15.

The council has until��June 27 to name Hogan’s successor to lead Colorado’s third-largest city.��The person chosen to become mayor will fill out the rest of Hogan’s four-year term, which ends in December 2019.

Welcome back to The Spot, where The Denver Post’s politics team captures what’s happening this week — from the Colorado legislature to Denver city hall, with a stop through the halls of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Things are getting feisty in the Democratic battle for a chance to become Colorado’s next governor thanks to an attack ad from a pro-Cary Kennedy group that seems to be irking everyone — including Kennedy herself.��The Democrats in the Colorado attorney general’s race primary are also clashing, so we took a deep dive into that contest and into the two candidates’��positions��on the issues.

In Denver, the 2019 mayoral race is already well underway, the airport is about to get larger and the nation’s first legal marijuana spa has hit a wall. Also, be��careful to not get run over by a scooter!

If you haven’t gotten your fill of chaos yet, people are lining up to be Aurora’s next mayor and Colorado’s roads might soon be smarter than we humans are.

Fresh news:��A new law aims to help immigrants who aided the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan and refugees by giving them access to in-state tuition rates as soon as they arrive in Colorado.

ROLL CALL

COLORADO: THE STATEHOUSE & BEYOND

• Carlos A. Samour Jr. is the newest Colorado Supreme Court justice.
• A new Colorado governor’s race attack ad by a pro-Cary Kennedy group targets fellow Democrats on education. And they’re not happy about it.
• You know who else isn’t happy about the ad? Gov. John Hickenlooper says he’s “really … disappointed” by the spot.

Most interesting quote from this:

“Most polls I’d seen, it looked like Cary Kennedy was going to win anyway,” Hickenlooper said. “Why jeopardize her victory by turning this into a a mudfest? I was disappointed.”

— Jesse Aaron Paul (@JesseAPaul)

• Here’s the cast of people running for Colorado governor.
• As Colorado cuts back spending, costs for the state’s college and university students have soared.
• Gov. Hickenlooper signed a bunch of bills��this week��—��including ones��seeking to improve Colorado immigrant driver’s license program and aiming to boost consumer protections.
• Why ��DZ��ǰ������’s environmental battles aren’t the focus of the nation’s top Democratic donor — Tom Steyer — in the 2018 election
• The “street fighter” vs. the law professor: The pair of Democrats running for Colorado attorney general are aligned on the issues — but not on how to solve them.
• Five things to know about Phil Weiser, a Democratic candidate for Colorado attorney general.
• Five things to know about state Rep. Joe Salazar, the other Democratic AG candidate. (The primary is June 26.)

DENVER & THE SUBURBS

• A Denver business hoped to open the nation’s first legal marijuana spa, but it’s come up short — by about 20 feet, to be more exact — prompting a denial of one of the city’s new social pot use licenses.
• Jefferson County is shaping up as the next flashpoint in the regulation of popular home renting services like Airbnb and Homeaway. Reporter John Aguilar breaks down this developing story.
• Gentrification concerns and troubles with Denver’s homebuyer assistance program are spurring new discussions about affordable housing in the city.
• A baker’s dozen worth of candidates want to fill the seat once occupied by Steve Hogan,��the recently deceased Aurora mayor.
• “Data is the new asphalt:” That’s the conclusion from the head of CDOT’s futuristic RoadX program, as the transportation agency looks to team up with a Kansas City startup that plans to test its “smart pavement.”
• Among other things, it aims to help folks who have mistakenly driven off the road to get help quickly.
• Guess where this smart pavement test is going to occur?��On U.S. 285 over Red Hill Pass in Park County, the place where a Highlands Ranch woman drove off the highway four years ago and was found nearly a week later.
• Nifty electric scooters��have shown up across downtown Denver. They’re available for rent by the minute, but not everyone is zipping around with a smile.

Hey , I have a PSA: says yes, you can get a DUI on one of those Lime scooters … so don't drink and scoot!

— Allison Sylte (@AllisonSylte)

• Four Denver��mayoral hopefuls��have lined up a year before the election, including a disability rights activist, a couple of citizen candidates and, because it’s Denver, a marijuana industry consultant.
• Denver’s airport just kicked off three years of intensive expansion, and��the first $1.5 billion project will add gates��to all three concourses. You might have to plan more time to walk from the train station…

D.C. POLITICS FROM A COLORADO PERSPECTIVE

• The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on ��DZ��ǰ������’s Masterpiece Cakeshop case won’t be the justices’ last word on LGBT rights.
• One year after taking sanctuary at Colorado church, Rosa Sabido is no closer to becoming a legal resident.
• Vice President Mike Pence was in Vail over the weekend — but you probably wouldn’t have known.
• Because our politics reporter in D.C. is covering it, read about the Colorado kids in the National Spelling Bee.
• “The first women’s health clinic in Colorado to provide abortion services is at risk of losing nearly 20 percent of its overall funding” under a Trump administration proposal.

THE WIRE

• In deep blue Denver, Republicans seemingly are an endangered species,��leading to a .��— Denverite
• U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, like the rest of us, in the background as he … tries to speak to the U.S. secretary of state. — The Durango Herald
• Is the EPA working to settle its stormwater lawsuit against Colorado Springs of other stakeholders in the legal challenge? — The Colorado Springs Independent
• A in many Western Slope and southern Colorado counties because of drought conditions. — The Grand Junction Sentinel
• The Pueblo City Council has for new police cars. — The Pueblo Chieftain
• Horse-drawn carriages in Telluride? . — CBS4
• A look at of the Masterpiece Cakeshop vs. Colorado Civil Rights Commission case. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on it any day now… — Colorado Public Radio
• Denver’s black-owned Whittier Cafe��was ��on a wooden bench outside the popular coffee shop.��— Westword
• A look at a diplomat who quit the Trump administration — . — The New Yorker��
• Will Democrats’ push for President Donald Trump’s impeachment ? — The New Yorker��
• President Trump is the Roseanne Barr situation. — The New York Times

Questions, comments, feedback about this newsletter? Cool stories?��Send them our way.

And thanks for reading!

P.S.��Please consider backing The Denver Post () or journalism wherever you might be. And thanks for your support, whatever it might be.

P.P.S. Here is your reward (I’m too proud not to share) for making it to the end of this newsletter.

This was the most productive thing my family has ever done.

— Jesse Aaron Paul (@JesseAPaul)

Staff writers John Frank, Jon Murray, Mark K. Matthews and John Aguilar contributed to this newsletter.

The timeframe to put in an application for the post elapsed Tuesday afternoon. Steve Hogan, who served for decades on Aurora’s city council and as the city’s mayor, died May 13 after a short battle with cancer. He was 69.

The Aurora City Council has until June 27 to choose Hogan’s successor.

The list of applicants, which was released by the city Wednesday morning, includes Councilman Bob LeGare and former council members Debi Holen and Renie Peterson.�� Timothy Hogan spoke at his father’s memorial service earlier this month.

The other candidates for Aurora mayor: Eric Mulder, Steven Lawrence King, Joseph Crossley, Colette Bowdish, Toni Ricks, Debi Holleman, Jonathan Scott, Alex Vidmar and Joseph Guerrero.��

The person chosen by council to become mayor will fill out the rest of Hogan’s four-year term, which ends in December 2019.