Denver Prep Academy students practice in the 375 S. Zuni St. gym in 2021. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
A gymnasium in Denver’s Athmar Park neighborhood that housed a short-lived, basketball-focused prep school is back on the market.
Denver Community Church, which bought the gym at 375 S. Zuni St. in September 2022, recently hired Transwestern to market it for sale.
The church, which operates in Uptown, paid $3.8 million for the 10,000-square-foot structure and an adjacent 0.6-acre undeveloped lot just south of Alameda Avenue. The asking price this round is $4.2 million.
Last year, Executive Pastor Jon Gettings told BusinessDen that the congregation planned to use the gym for worship services and hoped to construct a two-story building on the vacant lot to house office space and classrooms.
On Wednesday, Gettings said the decision to try to sell came after the church put the proposed new building out to bid.
“Unfortunately, construction costs came back much higher than we can afford,” he said. “We still love the location, love the neighborhood, love the property.”
DCC currently worships in a former synagouge in Uptown that is a protected city landmark. The congregation has had it listed for sale since early 2022, although Gettings said it’s not necessarily been marketed that whole time.
“We have interest every few weeks of someone who wants to tour,” Gettings said, adding that interest has come from both other faith communities as well as parties interested in conversion possibilities.
The worship center that Denver Community Church uses at 1595 N. Pearl St. is also for sale. (BusinessDen file)
With the move to Athmar Park nixed, Gettings said DCC is exploring its options, which could include investing in the Uptown facility or finding another property in the area where it doesn’t need to build. The core issue, Gettings said, is that the layout in Uptown isn’t ideal, particularly in terms of office space and classrooms. About 400 people attend DCC services on any given Sunday.
Transwestern brokers Alex Shapiro, Kevin McKinnon and Craig Paton are marketing both the Uptown and Athmar Park properties.
For the gym building, Shapiro said he and his colleagues will likely reach out to owners of similar properties, as well as operators of basketball-centric organizations, to see if they’d be interested.
The gym, which features a hardwood court under an impressive wooden barrel roof, was used by the American Basketball Association’s Denver Rockets in the 1970s, according to the Denver Post.
The structure was then owned for decades by the Mormon church, records show. From 2021 into 2022, the building was used by Denver Prep Academy, which aimed to provide an alternative path for elite boys high school basketball players. The gym was known as Oxi Fresh Arena, after the school’s primary benefactor, the founder of franchise business Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning.
Denver Prep Academy students practice in the 375 S. Zuni St. gym in 2021. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
A gymnasium in Denver’s Athmar Park neighborhood that housed a short-lived, basketball-focused prep school is back on the market.
Denver Community Church, which bought the gym at 375 S. Zuni St. in September 2022, recently hired Transwestern to market it for sale.
The church, which operates in Uptown, paid $3.8 million for the 10,000-square-foot structure and an adjacent 0.6-acre undeveloped lot just south of Alameda Avenue. The asking price this round is $4.2 million.
Last year, Executive Pastor Jon Gettings told BusinessDen that the congregation planned to use the gym for worship services and hoped to construct a two-story building on the vacant lot to house office space and classrooms.
On Wednesday, Gettings said the decision to try to sell came after the church put the proposed new building out to bid.
“Unfortunately, construction costs came back much higher than we can afford,” he said. “We still love the location, love the neighborhood, love the property.”
DCC currently worships in a former synagouge in Uptown that is a protected city landmark. The congregation has had it listed for sale since early 2022, although Gettings said it’s not necessarily been marketed that whole time.
“We have interest every few weeks of someone who wants to tour,” Gettings said, adding that interest has come from both other faith communities as well as parties interested in conversion possibilities.
The worship center that Denver Community Church uses at 1595 N. Pearl St. is also for sale. (BusinessDen file)
With the move to Athmar Park nixed, Gettings said DCC is exploring its options, which could include investing in the Uptown facility or finding another property in the area where it doesn’t need to build. The core issue, Gettings said, is that the layout in Uptown isn’t ideal, particularly in terms of office space and classrooms. About 400 people attend DCC services on any given Sunday.
Transwestern brokers Alex Shapiro, Kevin McKinnon and Craig Paton are marketing both the Uptown and Athmar Park properties.
For the gym building, Shapiro said he and his colleagues will likely reach out to owners of similar properties, as well as operators of basketball-centric organizations, to see if they’d be interested.
The gym, which features a hardwood court under an impressive wooden barrel roof, was used by the American Basketball Association’s Denver Rockets in the 1970s, according to the Denver Post.
The structure was then owned for decades by the Mormon church, records show. From 2021 into 2022, the building was used by Denver Prep Academy, which aimed to provide an alternative path for elite boys high school basketball players. The gym was known as Oxi Fresh Arena, after the school’s primary benefactor, the founder of franchise business Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning.
