Denver Governance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee Meeting - October 20, 2026

On Tuesday, October 20, 2026, the Denver City Council's Governance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee met to consider a Denver Downtown Development Authority funding agreement and an Alterra Mountain Company lease at 101 W. Colfax Avenue, to enter an executive session on litigation, and to approve a consent appointment. Minutes list the start time as 10:30 AM and show eight members present (Flynn, Gonzales-Gutierrez, Romero Campbell, Sawyer, Torres, Watson, Alvidrez, Kashmann) with Councilmember Gilmore absent. The agenda was not available. No public comment period is recorded in the minutes or transcript. The raw transcript appears to append unrelated city video content after the executive session motion, so this summary follows the official minutes.

Consent Calendar

• Council Resolution 26-1507, approving Solicia Lopez's appointment to the Citizen Oversight Board, was approved by consent.

Discussion Items

• DDA funding agreement (26-1334) and Alterra lease (26-1337): Bill Mosier of the Mayor's Office and Lisa Lumley, Director of Real Estate, presented the two items together. Mosier explained that the DDA funding agreement releases up to $7 million for tenant improvements at 101 W. Colfax, structured as a 12-year, 2% loan repaid monthly, and limited to less than 50% of the approximately $19 million in improvement costs. The assistance was available only for a tenant locating in Upper Downtown east of Arapahoe Street. Mosier said the city's priorities were to keep Alterra in RiNo, then downtown Denver, then Denver, and finally in Colorado.
• Incentive package: Denver Economic Development and Opportunity (DEDO) offered up to $485,000 in performance grants over two years, based on maintained or created jobs, plus additional workforce training funds. The state of Colorado offered a package of about $3.9 million, mostly tax credits for new jobs, including a $1 million five-year, no-interest loan passed through the DDA to Alterra. Alterra planned to bring employees back into the office three days a week.
• Lease terms: The lease covers 64,654 square feet on most of the seventh and eighth floors. The building contains 297,847 rentable square feet and is currently 32% occupied; adding Alterra would increase occupancy to 54%. The 12-year lease begins at $22 per square foot triple net and increases 50 cents per year. It includes one year of free rent, two years of free parking for 120 general and 10 reserved spaces, an early termination right at year five with a $1.5 million fee, and total projected revenue of $15.7 million over 12 years. Construction is expected through about October 1, 2027, with lease commencement at that point and base rent starting in October 2028. Alterra will pay building expenses, including property taxes through possessory interest.
• Committee questions and concerns: Councilmember Darrell Watson said he learned about Alterra's potential move from a report and criticized the lack of communication with his office and affected improvement districts; Bill Mosier apologized and said the DDA should contact the district councilmember in the future. Councilmember Alvidrez asked about building cash flow and how much general fund support would be needed, requested accurate cash-flow statements, and worried that the package sets a precedent for future tenants. Councilmember Gonzales-Gutierrez argued that the no-rent construction period plus one year of free rent totals at least two years of free rent; staff said the construction period is not traditionally counted as free rent. Councilmember Flynn asked whether the state's $1 million counts toward the 50% cap and about lost parking revenue. Councilmember Cashman questioned whether the deal was too generous, citing the loan, free rent, free parking, and a $1.5 million termination fee. Chair Sawyer pressed for safeguards against paying incentives on rehires; DEDO staff said they verify start dates and employee counts through occupational privilege tax records and pay only after verification, though they acknowledged difficulty determining whether a worker is a rehire.
• Alterra testimony: Krista Springer, Alterra's chief development officer, said Alterra currently has 275 employees moving downtown and has committed to hiring 106 new employees. She said the decision to leave Zeppelin Station was made in March after the previous CEO stepped down, and although Alterra considered moving out of state, it chose to help revitalize Upper Downtown. She said details of the Zeppelin lease termination are confidential under a non-disclosure agreement. Staff earlier described DEDO incentives as tied to 275 retained jobs and 50 net new jobs; Alterra's stated 106 new hires may reflect a different metric or time frame, and the discrepancy was not resolved.

Executive Session

• The committee voted 6-0 to enter executive session for the Quarterly Litigation Update (26-1542) under DRMC 2-34A367. No public action was taken.

Key Outcomes

• The committee voted 6-0 to approve Council Bill 26-1334 and Council Resolution 26-1337 for filing as a block, on a motion by Councilmember Torres seconded by Council President Romero Campbell. Councilmember Gilmore was absent.
• The committee approved Council Resolution 26-1507 by consent.
• The committee entered executive session for a quarterly litigation update.
• Staff agreed to follow up with parking revenue details, lease comparables, and updated city building cash-flow information requested by members.
• The committee action advances the items to the full City Council; staff projected lease commencement on October 1, 2027.