It's time for this biweekly meeting of the Finance and Business Committee of Denver City Council.

Join us for the Finance and Business Committee starting now.

Well good morning.

It is Tuesday, May 12th.

You've arrived at the Finance and Business Committee of Denver City Council.

My name is Paul Cashman.

I represent Denver District 6.

I'm vice chair of this committee.

And we have three items on the agenda.

Real estate deal between the city and uh, I believe the state, and uh a couple of items uh related to uh tax increment financing of the Rossonian property in the five points neighborhood.

Before we get to work, start with introductions of members of council starting on my left.

Chris Hines, Denver's perfect.

Darrell Watson, fine district nine.

Madam Pro Tem.

Diana, Romero Campbell Sunday, Denver District 4.

Very good.

And uh we'll uh announce if anyone joins us online, uh, and we will start off our uh schedule uh with uh our department of finance and uh uh Dotti and uh take it away.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Um, Molly Scarborough with Dottie and the Vibrant Bond program.

Lisa Lemley, Director of Real Estate, and Laia Mitchell, the acting deputy director of the Department of Housing Stability.

Very wonderful.

Excellent.

Well, thank you for having us again.

We were here on April 14th to bring to you the vibrant housing investment process as well as our first opportunity for investment at 251 East 12th Avenue.

Um we you gave us a number of feedback on that, and so we are here um providing updates on both of these for you.

Um so first we'll start with the housing investment process for the vibrant bond program.

So this um slide shows the project description for the affordable housing project development for the vibrant bond process that voters approved on November uh in November 2025.

And so it says that the city will invest in land, buildings, andor site preparation to support development and or acquisition of affordable housing and to mitigate and voluntary displacement.

Land or buildings may be leased partners or city-owned, depending on the specific details of the project.

And the city expects to use this capital to leverage additional investments to deliver on these projects.

And so we brought to you last time we further elaborated that with um some specific goals to mitigate displacement of residents by providing affordable housing in proximity to city infrastructure or other projects that may spur displacement.

We are estimating that we would invest in five to seven properties, but that is an estimate based on um expectations, but we could potentially spend um a little bit less for each opportunity and spread that out to more um properties or site improvements or building acquisitions.

So that's just a uh guesstimate target.

We came to you last time with an initial housing investment project approval process.

I'm not gonna go into this in great detail because you gave us quite a bit of feedback on that.

Um, and so we are coming you today with an updated uh approval process.

Um, and so with this, we received feedback from this committee one that we should ensure all council members are given the opportunity to feedback earlier in the process, and that we should continue the bond executive committee for the vibrant bond, and use that body to evaluate the housing investment companies before bringing it um to committee into council for a vote.

Um and we also heard um an interest in involving um not just the council president but another council member in that vibrant bond executive committee for these housing opportunities, and so the recommendation is for the council president to appoint an at-large council member for the that evaluation process.

And so running through this approval process, it starts with real estate identifying opportunities through their usual scan of market opportunities, as well as those coming through the host affordable housing pipeline.

We have also sent a survey to council members to identify if there are other opportunities in your districts that we that you would like to flag for us to see if they are feasible for bond funding and evaluation through this process.

Excuse me, one moment.

Feasible opportunities are then offered to all council members for feedback and then brought to the vibrant bond executive committee for evaluation and for potential referral to council.

And as I mentioned, during the time that potential housing opportunities are brought to the vibrant bond executive committee, then council president will appoint an at large council member to join for that process and that evaluation prior to bringing it to council.

With that, part of the evaluation, this is not changed from last time, that we presented to you.

The project site selection criteria remains the same.

So we are looking for sites that are in proximity to city infrastructure investments.

No more than two vibrant bond affordable housing projects would be in one council districts.

We're looking for sites that are at least a half acre in size and sites that are in proximity to services, ideally within a half mile of those that you see listed on the screen.

And then similarly, the housing RFP criteria, if approved by council, an RFP would be issued for development of the affordable housing.

All those proposals are required to include development of long-term affordable housing with a variety of options for development type to provide more flexibility based on the site, the location, the needs of the community.

And so with that, we will jump into 251 East 12th Avenue specifically.

Wanted to recap the process to bring this specific project opportunity to FinBIS today.

So as we mentioned in April, we followed the initial vibrant housing investment approval process.

We brought it to an internal advisory committee, which recommended the project to a vibrant oversight leadership team, which is made up of city executive directors, to executive sponsors and the council president, and then it was forwarded here to Finbiz.

As I mentioned at April 14th, we received a number of recommendations for process changes and also some requests for some council members to receive more information on the project.

And so since then, we have provided additional briefings with additional council members.

We've issued a survey to council members to identify potential opportunities, and the we updated the overall process as I described earlier, and we have a commitment to continuing the bond executive committee for the vibrant bond.

So we are now bringing the opportunity at East 12th back to you, requesting approval for 251 East 12th acquisition with funding.

And I will turn it over to Lisa.

Thank you.

So just kind of as a quick, this is at 251 East 12th.

The property is approximately just shy of an acre at 43,200 square feet.

The building itself is over 91,000 square feet.

Council district 10 zoning is CMX 8.5 million dollars.

And with that, this again supports the vibrant bond project to provide affordable housing and to address and mitigate involuntary displacement.

We will either go out to RFP, we will either sell it or with a covenant on it, or we will lease it back for affordable housing.

And again, this is an area that is walkable, transit friend, transit friendly, and zoned for high density, but has not seen new housing units since before 2020.

And then Laya, I'll turn this one to you.

Yeah, I did some analysis just of our affordable housing investments of the last five years.

And so for district 10, there were four new affordable housing developments that were um kind of funded and developed during that time period, and out of those four, um, only two of them received city funds.

So there has not been a significant sort of proportional investment in District 10 in the last five-year period.

Um I did want to highlight again the need for affordable housing investments coinciding with our large city infrastructure projects.

There's a lot of research around the impact of those kind of city investments in driving displacement, and the timing of this one is well timed for an investment in affordable housing coinciding with the BRT development and the additional amenities along Colfax.

Thank you.

And so again, we went through that sort of initial process.

We are bringing the same slide forward in terms of what um is recommended for the $4.5 million in bond funds for the acquisition.

Um we are bringing this forward again to ensure that we're not losing this immediate opportunity for affordable housing in close proximity, proximity to these major investments.

Colfax BRT, Civic Center Park, 16th Street, some of the new DDDA investments, all of which can be drivers of displacement.

It is located within a half mile of a number of services, and again, um as Laia said, high demand for affordable uh rental units in District 10.

And so with that, um, if you were to move this approval forward, um, we would take it to mayor council on May 19th, City Council on June 1st, and then we would issue an RFP within 90 days of closing.

And again, that's the far end of that uh period, and we hope to issue that much sooner, um, and then construction determined on the RFP.

So I went through that quickly because I know you have a lot on your agenda, and we covered a lot of these items before.

Um, but that concludes our presentation.

Thank you for the presentation.

Uh let me welcome first uh councilwoman Lewis is on the line.

Uh Council President of Sandoval has joined us here at the table.

And uh we have the beginning of the queue.

We'll start with Councilwoman.

Thank you.

Um I appreciate this coming back and being able to ask about it.

I'm curious who's the at-large that will be appointed, or has that decision been made?

No.

Okay.

Um, also, I one of my biggest concerns about this project is the financial viability of the structure, and so have we do we have studies on this and what the outcome could be because I seriously don't see adaptive reuse as a possibility.

Um, so I don't know if you can speak to that.

Um, yes, thank you, councilwoman.

What I will say is we the city have not undertaken those.

We will allow the respondents of the RFP to do their investigation if they want to look at adaptive reuse.

We have run that through internally to see if it's even feasible, which we've heard that it could be.

Um we know that what has been shared with me from the state is that they do have structural plans, they do have others that have looked at it, not necessarily for adaptive reuse of housing per se, but of some other um other uses, including, you know, could they build up as well?

So up to this point, what we have not heard anything that has um given us any indications of any concerns about whether that's feasible or not.

I guess my concern is we don't know, and we're spending 4.5 million dollars of a very small amount of money that we have to invest in housing for something that we really don't know what we're gonna do with it, how it will work.

And I'm just curious if the state wouldn't work on us on going through an RFP process before we actually purchase to see if there's a viable.

Sure.

Um, so I'd say two things.

I would look at it more that we're investing in the site of almost an acre of land in this area near Colfax, that, as Laia had said, you know, has not had significant city investment as we are, you know, going to be winding down the Colfax BRT project.

Um so I look at it more as the land size more than anything.

I think um the state has been very clear they need to sell this building, or they are required to try to close on this building before the end of the fiscal year.

So the state has expressed that no, I they would not be in a position to allow us to go through an RFP process and wait to see whether or not um what kind of responses we get back.

Another component I would just add from the host side is we'll be very heavily involved in the RFP and kind of what framing what we'd like to see on the site is um we've discussed with real estate sort of framing like several pathways that applicants could propose, which would include both the adaptive reuse and kind of a scrape and rebuild model, and then we'll be able to look at the sort of breadth of possibilities that are brought to us and select the option that we think is delivers the best housing outcomes and is the most feasible.

I guess I just worry about just looking at this as land when the costs of demolition, environmental remediation, and other things are still out there in the ether.

So what I don't hear in these criteria is the financial viability of the project or getting the most bang for our buck when we're spending these dollars.

And I'm curious how that's factoring into how we're spending these dollars and making these decisions.

I would say it's part of the analysis initially when we are going through, and again, councilwoman, part of our challenge is either finding existing buildings and or just land alone for affordable housing.

And that again, I have to say we this is a unique opportunity given the size of it for the number of units that have the potential to be delivered.

And I would just say we have land that is cited for affordable housing around the city, whether it's Colorado Coalition for the homeless owns land, whether it's city-owned parcels like the Zunei shelter, uh, that we are that we have land already to develop, and so it worries me that we're saying we don't have land when we actually do have land, but I'll move on.

Um, one of my other questions is um, you know, you're saying that this is close to the 16th Street mall.

That's quite a stretch in my opinion.

So, what is the distance of the things that we're claiming are part of the reason why we're choosing this site?

It's a half mile of redevelopment sites.

I think this is a half mile from the 16th Street.

Yeah, so it's the it's really the Colfax BRT that I think would be the more significant driver.

Yeah, I think 16th Street is sort of more broad district 10, maybe, but I think this site is really more closely tied to the BRT on Colfax.

The other thing that's been mentioned is a lack of affordable housing in the area.

I know there's been a lot of new developments, and so how many new EHA uh properties are in what are you considering this area?

Is it the neighborhood?

Is it that half mile?

What is this area that is being referenced?

For the four um four developments over the past five years, two of which had city funding, that's for district 10 specifically.

Um, and that I I we could do analysis different ways, and I'm I'm very happy to present that back to you or to the committee, um, before it would go um like or at full city council.

Um, and that is partly in response to the guiding principles about two developments per city council district, and just understanding your need to look at it from the district perspective.

So those four developments were from District 10.

Okay, and then for the criteria on slide six, it's it names, you know, schools and child care and grocery stores, and I don't see the that information mapped out or shared, like what are the schools near this site, what are the child care centers near the site, what are the grocery stores near this site.

So if we're saying that these are the criteria, you're not telling me how this is actually meeting all of these criteria.

I understand it's near Colfax BRT, but I don't see the other information.

And I apologize.

We did send ahead of the April meeting um to council members um a spreadsheet that identifies um the different um locations that were nearby, and so we can resend that to be great.

Yeah, great.

All right, that's all I have for the moment.

Thank you, committee chair.

Thank you, Councilman Hunt.

Thank you, committee chair.

Um, the uh four items are the four uh housing developments in District 10.

There's one at 13th and Sherman, which is just a couple blocks away.

Um that's me.

Um but there used to be uh a uh uh a slide there that had the four items.

So 13th and Sherman was uh 100% affordable housing, and then um there's a very small blip.

I think that's probably uh 10th and Broadway.

Um, and uh just a that was just a uh a little bit there we go.

Uh slight assistance in funding um to to help uh develop a locally owned local developer purchase uh um a small apartment building.

Um but uh other than that the other two are they're still in district 10, so good good that they're on the the map, but they aren't close to this location, and I would say not only is it uh close to uh Colfax BRT as in the 15, but it's also close to the zero.

So if they want to go down to whatever's replacing UMS, what's the name of that?

The Blue Sufer Fest.

If they want to do that.

Okay, then um it's just a couple blocks uh to get to the zero and get down to the festival um as well, and um so I would say it's close to you know um uh transit, but um, uh Director Lumley, I think you were saying uh when we chatted, your initial hesitation was oh man, these this isn't really gonna check a bunch of the boxes um about access to jobs, access to services, but then once you actually did the analysis actually did check a bunch of the boxes.

So would you kind of chat about that just a little bit?

I mean, jobs I think we felt comfortable with, right?

Um I think we weren't sure at the time about uh child care, which we definitely found child care that was there.

We knew that there was a school nearby, there's also food.

Um so once we actually started doing the radius around it and then doing that research, which again for everybody, just know that that is what my team and I do, and do in conjunction, whether it's with Dito, with host, to make sure that we're capturing everything or not, as the case may be.

Um we found that actually it did councilman um have all of those key um criteria right there within that half mile radius.

Uh did the state share um it that there was a additional interest outside the city of Denver for this particular poll.

Yeah, I know that there has been interest, yes.

Yeah, and um, and I would say I know at least one of those um uh landowners uh who's um based in District 10.

That's enough.

Yeah, okay.

Um, you're right.

How do you exactly anyway?

But uh um they uh uh they were interested in the property, but um, but it had already been uh the state had already entered into conversations with um uh with the city.

So it isn't because of um lack of interest.

Correct.

Is it um is there a public um uh appraisal of this uh of this land?

Of the property, sorry, land and improvements.

I have an appraisal, and again, you know, normally um due diligence done is done actually after a contract.

Um so I try to get those aligned more.

Um I would say that I would not be ready to release it yet, since we do not have an executed contract publicly.

But yes, I do have one that uh this purchase price more than meets that appraised value.

Okay, that's um, and so um I I want to repeat what I shared uh in the last committee.

I think this is a a good purchase.

It is within sight of um uh of the state capital, and so uh if we were to adapt or reuse, or you know, if a someone we um we engaged with were to adapt or reuse or um were build, that would be a very beautiful unimpeded uh view of the gold dome.

Um but I think you know there are a bunch of state employees that uh probably could use this um as well because it's right in the Capitol.

I mean, it's the former Colorado Department of Education building.

It is we're purchasing a building, maybe purchasing a building that's in the Capitol Complex and could benefit a lot of the uh the state employees that um work in that in that immediate area.

So I think the reason why it's back here today was not necessarily because of the conversation about this particular property, it was about um the overall strategy of spending this um segment of the vibrant different bonds.

So um so I I'll um I'll leave those questions to uh to others other members of the committee.

Thank you, committee chair.

Thank you.

Um seeing other members in the queue, can we go back uh uh produce to the uh the slide of the map?

Yes, and uh my contribution to this discussion as a former editor is to point to the second bullet point and remind us all that IB4E except after C.

The grammar and correct that for a future show.

So last question.

Thank you for that committee chair.

I'm glad that my slides are not up to me.

Um my last question is just around displacement, and it's more uplifting your process as a whole.

I think you I strongly encourage looking at nest neighborhoods, which are actually at risk of displacement, which I don't think that the downtown core is one of the main areas at risk of displacement since it has the highest vacancy rates.

And so thinking about if displacement is part of the criteria, really making sure that you're looking at NES neighborhoods and neighborhoods that are actually at risk of displacement.

That's all thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, uh, with that, I need a motion to move uh 260120 to the full council.

Councilmember Hines, seconded by council member Watson.

Any objections?

I see thumbs up.

Thank you very much.

We'll see you in council.

Thank you.

And we'll call up uh our our team from I think Dura, and I don't know if anyone else is going to be uh joining at the table.

Just we will be looking at items uh 26-063, in order that it's approving uh cooperation agreement between the city and county of Denver and Duro for the Rasonian Project uh tax increment area and sales tax increment area and 26-0634.

Uh an amendment to the Welton Corridor Urban Redevelopment Plan.

And I want to uh recog uh uh welcome Bill Pruder uh from the uh Denver Urban Renewal Authority.

Uh are you still interim, sir?

I'm still entering, yes.

Executive director.

Well, welcome.

Good morning.

Uh I am the executive director for Denver Urban Renewal Authority.

Uh thank you for seeing us today.

And I have a lot of reading to do some of my glasses on.

Um again, I'm uh Bill Pruder with the inner with Dura.

I'm here today bringing forward two ordinances which are uh uh include Council Bill 0634, which is the amendment to the Weldon Quarter Urban Urban Redevelopment Plan to add the Rasonian project to the uh area, the urban area, and a related ordinance, which is a cooperation agreement with the city and dura because we are looking to utilize tax increment financing to support this project.

Um as most of you know, um this uh quarter was this urban rural area was created in 2012.

Um the Rossonian sits, you can see the little yellow part of the uh area.

The area runs from uh Broadway to Downing uh along Wellton.

Um, and we have added uh five previous projects to this area.

Um it's got uh it's in council district nine, it's approximately 85 acres of the area, and the Rasonian is uh about eight tenths of an acre right at the uh where all the streets meet at Five Points, so it's a pretty uh important project.

Um let's see.

So the most recent, I I'm going a little bit out of order, so I'm reading it wrong now.

Uh the most recent project opening was the Hattie McDaniel uh affordable for sale condo project, which opened in April with uh sixty-two affordable for sale condos and ground floor retail.

Um a little background is uh the Rasonian Hotel and how important it is uh for the city in general, and just uh I kind of stole this from the developers' website, so they're here to answer more questions if we need them.

Um, obviously uh 1912 it was built.

Uh in the 20s and 30s uh it was a uh the one place where um black entertainers could stay because of the time they couldn't stay downtown.

Um and it really became a hub for uh the you know jazz uh entertainment.

So on their off nights, you you had uh Duke Ellington and Count Basie and Nat King Cole and Billy Holiday and uh and uh and a bunch of other people stay there.

Um, really the hub of the area.

Uh it closed in 1973.

Um it's between 73 and the 90s, it was used for some offices, including I think DHA used it for a while.

Um, and in 1995, it was uh listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Um 2005, one of the first attempts to redevelop it.

Uh Carl Bourgeois uh acquired it, uh, didn't work out.

Progress was stalled, we couldn't get it done.

Uh in 2016, and really 18, uh Palisade Partners acquired it to uh see if they could redevelop it.

Um they have worked on a couple other projects in the neighborhood, and uh we are now 10 years later ish, and here we are.

So they brought a new project uh to revitalize the hotel, uh hotel uh historic character preservation and modern updates, amenities, and so forth.

The hotel has been vacant since the 90s, which is a bummer.

So I'd personally like to get something done, but that's not part of my presentation.

Um, give you background on the project.

Uh it's located at 2650 Wellton.

Uh and there's three of the three other parcels, 23 2535 Washington, 2624 Wellton, and 2600 Wellton.

Uh the development team is Ralsonian LLC, uh Palisades partner is part of that development team.

They're here if we have questions.

Um, and we can go through uh what's going on.

Uh the Rossonian, which you can see in the picture, is that's what it has exists today.

It's going to be uh really gutted and remade into a hotel.

Uh I haven't been at site, so I'm assuming there's office layout and all kinds of things that are gonna be uh need to be fixed.

Um then there's going to be an eight-story office building or a hotel building built between the Rossonian and the Hooper, which is kind of on the right of the picture.

And uh we they'll use a couple floors of the Hooper, converting them from office to uh hotel, and then you'll be able to enter in the lobby under any one of the three buildings as we go.

Uh so the final uh breakdown is about 126 hotel rooms, 12,000 square feet of vent and restaurant space, 6,400 square feet of retail, and there'll be 25 spaces, I believe, in the Hooper building.

Um, so uh when this is done in who I hope 2028, cross our fingers.

Uh, this is what it should look like.

Um I didn't pick any of the colors, so you have to talk to those guys.

Um so uh as I said before, the urban redevelopment plan uh was put together in uh 2012.

It continues to be in compliance with the plans that were in place at that time.

So Blueprint Denver, Comp Plan 2000, and the Northeast Downtown Neighborhood Plan.

Um the objectives, it's in compliance uh now, and this uh project is also going to be in compliance.

I highlighted a few that I think are even more relevant for this project.

One is uh to encourage retail commercial development and that is socially and economically inclusive, and from which urban redevelopment area and some irons can draw economic strength.

To encourage the reuse of existing buildings where appropriate, including historic preservation and adaptive reuse, to promote a diverse sustainable neighborhood economy, including mixed use and commercial development opportunities along the urban redevelopment area, and to encourage the participation of existing property owners within the area to in the redevelopment of their property.

As you may have seen from the uh planning board, uh this is in this is also in compliance with comp plan 2040, uh equitable, affordable, and inclusive, and that that basically says ensures all Denver residents have a safe, convenient, affordable access to basic services and a variety of amenities, make neighborhoods accessible to people of all ages and abilities, and then strong and authentic neighborhoods, which is preserve the authenticity of Denver's neighborhoods and celebrate our history, architecture, and culture, and enhance Denver's neighborhoods through high quality urban design.

Um as to the tax increment, the project itself was underwritten by Dura to determine whether or not there was a need for assistance.

We've done that underwriting and concluded the project does require assistance in order for it to have to be delivered as has been contemplated.

We are looking forward to create a TIF area for both sales and property tax increments to reimburse approximately 15.5 million dollars of eligible costs, the anticipated eligible costs as of that are listed up here, a large portion of those are uh related to the hotel reuse, and also include um well obviously the historic building uh making sure utilities are there, fire protection, ACA HVAC conveying site work and and such and such for the project.

Um the TIFF area.

I think I think I missed it.

Oh, no, I didn't.

Um okay, so as part of this, there's a couple other agreements to follow that we have to have.

Um there's a uh Dura City Cooperation Agreement, uh, this agreement um under which the city and Dura agree to cooperate on the collection and remitting of the incremental taxes to Dura in order to support the project.

The tax increment area will have a life of maximum life of 25 years, unless it terminates early, which would happen if the financial obligations to the redeveloper is repaid in advance of those 25 years.

Um Dura also requires a number of own programs to be applied to any project that we're providing tax increment to, and the cooperation agreement acknowledges that Dura will be making redevelopment compliant with these programs.

Uh there's several of these.

Uh the first source hiring program, our small business enterprise utilization program, uh the construction employment opportunities program, and the project art requirements, as well as prevailing wage, although in this project prevailing wage really won't apply because there's not big trunk infrastructure and so forth happening.

We've entered into agreements with other entities that levy a tax.

In this project, that would include DPS and the urban drainage and flood control district.

Uh both have said this project will have no effect on their ability to provide services.

So we will be able to use their portion of the tax increment to support the project, and those agreements are completed.

Let's see, that's still there.

Um from a tiny timing standpoint.

Uh we went to Denver Planning Board, they approved and move it on to this committee.

Um the Dura Board met on April 16th, approved the urban redevelopment plan amendment, the cooperation agreement with the city, the urban drainage and flood control district letter agreement, and the intergovernmental agreement with uh DPS.

And that brings us to today, which is the uh your committee, uh, which I hope will move this forward, and then the uh we would come back next week to city council and on the 18th and the first uh if this moves ahead.

So I have uh I have time for questions, whatever you need.

Uh the redevelopment teams here if you have questions about the project in general, and my guru, Mike Gerton's here.

He knows all the math.

So thank you very much for the presentation.

Uh I will welcome uh committee chair, Councilwoman Senal Gonzalez Guterres.

Thank you for joining us.

Um I do not have a cue for questions.

Let me start with Councilman Watson since it is your district, sir.

Uh thank you so much, uh Committee Vice Chair.

Um and Bill, I think Tracy will be very proud of you and your presentation.

So thank you so much for the good work that you're doing.

I may have saved some of the late some of that format from her.

I think you've done a great job with this.

Um my questions are specific to process.

Um I know that our city uh processes steps you need to take to go through committee and on the mayor, um council and all of that, but can you speak to any of the community discussion process you've done within the five points committee community and help us have an understanding of how community members' input was um certainly uh we met with uh the Curtis Park uh neighborhood group.

We Mike might have to get up and tell me we met with um well you were there, which I forgot what meeting that was.

What was that meeting?

Yeah, I don't always ask questions that I don't know the answers to, they do.

But Mike wants to elaborate on the community informed process, would be very helpful.

Uh if community.

Hi, it's Mike Girton with the uh Denver Urban Renewal Authority.

Um we met twice with the community in uh the Wilton Corridor area, once with a at a community meeting that uh councilman Watson put together and uh another time at the Curtis Park Neighbors Association, and uh both times uh the project was received very well.

Uh we had questions about community benefits related to uh hiring and uh who would work at the place at the at the hotel and restaurant areas.

Uh we had some uh concerns or questions more about the uh RTD uh light rail tracks, whether or not that potential removal of those tracks would impact this project and um but overall it was very well received uh by the public.

And I might add um I see I've seen a copy from Historic Denver and the Five Points Bid supporting this project.

Uh very nice letters on top of that.

And I don't I'm not sure if the development team has any more they've gotten that they'd like to share.

Hi, I'm Sarah White with Palisade Partners.

Um, for the project just Mike and uh Bill covered most of it.

Uh we've also met individually with the bid and with historic Denver.

Um, and we also expect to have a letter I believe from Curtis Park Neighbors by City Council.

Um so that's just the recent ones.

Um, as Bill highlighted, the project has been in some form of development for over a decade, and we've done various meetings early in the project to kind of share where the direction was going.

So just to reiterate, we've we've had a lot of really great support from the community, and we're excited to be moving it forward.

I would say it would be helpful for Samurai Lark as well to reach out to those Red Store neighbor organizations.

I know for the one meeting we sent uh communication for them to attend, yeah, but to um uh see what um additional questions they may have along with five points um with their letter would be helpful.

Yeah, definitely.

We did notify um all of the RNOs in the area for both of the initial community meetings recently, but we can definitely reach out more directly to to see if they have any questions since they haven't been as engaged.

Okay, you share the partnership team once again.

So it's Palisade and who else is a part of this.

Our ownership partner is Five Points Development Corporation.

Um they're another local company in the area.

Okay, all right.

No questions.

Thank you.

Any other questions from uh council members?

Uh I would just uh offer up uh the first place I live when I moved to Denver 50 some years ago, was in five points.

And we just very quickly became aware of the history of that neighborhood, and I've watched the Masonian sit there, and sit there and sit there, and it's such a wonderful piece of property.

And to not have it redeveloped to lose that history would be a crime.

So I'm excited uh about this project.

From the drawings, uh, I hope y'all show the property the respect it deserves.

And uh looks like I say from the uh images on screen, it looks like you you're gonna do that.

So uh that said, um I need a motion to move 2606 33 and 34 forward.

Got a motion by Councilman Watson, uh second by uh Councilwoman uh Romaro Campbell, and uh uh I'm sure we'll thumbs up all around.

Good deal.

We'll see you uh at council.

Um, I believe that is our agenda for the day.

Couple items on consent.

If those are not pulled off, they will move forward on their own.

And then no further business, we are adjourned.

Great job, sir.