The Evans School building at 1115 Acoma St. in Denver in late 2020. (BusinessDen file)
The Denver City Council approved a plan Monday night that will help permanently open the doors at the Evans School for the first time in half a century.
“It’s going to be a very vibrant, active place. We see this building as uniquely positioned to be the heart of the Golden Triangle,” Joe Vostrejs told BusinessDen Tuesday.
The ornate red-brick school at 1115 N. Acoma St. closed in 1974 and has been largely vacant since. Vostrejs, who co-founded Denver firm City Street Investors, purchased the 34,000-square-foot building in 2019 for $11 million with another local investor, Columbia Group.
Joe Vostrejs
The duo will receive $3 million in tax increment financing to rehab the city landmark into a mixed-use project, with retail and restaurant tenants, art studios, and event and office space.
Vostrejs told council members Monday that, over the past five years, he’s met with some 200 people in the neighborhood to learn what they wanted to see in the building. They generally wanted to see it remain accessible to the public, rather than, say, leased to a handful of office tenants.
“Almost the entire thing is going to be open to the community,” he told council members.
Vostrejs told BusinessDen that fact is largely why he pursued the deal drawn up by the Denver Urban Renewal Authority, or DURA.
“The programming that the public indicated that they wanted for the building is so expensive and infrastructurally intensive that the numbers just didn’t work,” Vostrejs said. “If all we were going to do was a nice remodel of the building and make it an office building, there wouldn’t have been a need for tax increment financing.”
The funding works by returning a portion of the sales tax generated at the property to the developer, along with kicking back the increase in property taxes the new upgrades will bring. Those proceeds will total $3.3 million, per DURA. The tax benefits represent about 13 percent of the project’s $26 million price tag.
“It’s not just a blank check for money,” Vostrejs said. “It’s earmarked for permanent improvements to the building.”
The structure erected in 1904 as an elementary school stands three stories tall and sits on 0.8 acres. City Street plans to install two of its own retail concepts on the bottom floor: a 4,000-square-foot restaurant and beer garden, and a 1,000-square-foot coffee and ice cream shop. At least four other retail spaces will be leased out to other operators. City Street already operates beer gardens in Green Valley Ranch, Lowry and Edgewater, with more on the way.
A 3,000-square-foot patio will go up on the roughly 9,000-square-foot lawn which surrounds most of the building.
The rear of the school building. (BusinessDen file)
At one point, Vostrejs considered making the upper floors a hotel, but said Tuesday that didn’t pencil out economically. The area contains about 15 classrooms, each 1,000 square feet, which can be divided or combined as needed.
The second floor will become more of a “maker” and “wellness” area, with art studios and other spaces for craftspeople. Some will be free or heavily discounted for at least several years, per an agreement with the city, Vostrejs said. The entire floor will be tied together by the existing 5,500-square-foot auditorium, which will hold community and private events.
The third floor will be office space. Vostrejs is looking for “creative” users, such as architects and graphic designers, he said.
The public financing was approved Monday by a 10-1 vote, with Councilwoman Shontel Lewis voting in opposition. She indicated her main concern was how long the discounted art spaces would remain affordable.
With approval in hand, Vostrejs said he expects to begin work onsite by the fall, with hopes to open the building to the public by spring. But he’s got his work cut out for him.
The building’s ornate staircases are missing handrails, its windows need upgrades, the HVAC system requires overhauling and the roof will have to be removed and reinstalled to add insulation and remove lead paint. That doesn’t include making the building more accessible and ADA-compliant, which will cost $800,000.
That expense, along with the $2.1 million needed for repairs to the structure and its facade, the $300,000 for environmental remediation and $100,000 required for “life safety” repairs and installations, will total $3.3 million — which is expected to be recouped via the tax increment financing.
“(It will be a) one-building Main Street for the community,” Vostrejs said. “The building is really remarkable because it has such exceptional and expansive outdoor spaces, which a lot of buildings like this don’t have.”
The Evans School building at 1115 Acoma St. in Denver in late 2020. (BusinessDen file)
The Denver City Council approved a plan Monday night that will help permanently open the doors at the Evans School for the first time in half a century.
“It’s going to be a very vibrant, active place. We see this building as uniquely positioned to be the heart of the Golden Triangle,” Joe Vostrejs told BusinessDen Tuesday.
The ornate red-brick school at 1115 N. Acoma St. closed in 1974 and has been largely vacant since. Vostrejs, who co-founded Denver firm City Street Investors, purchased the 34,000-square-foot building in 2019 for $11 million with another local investor, Columbia Group.
Joe Vostrejs
The duo will receive $3 million in tax increment financing to rehab the city landmark into a mixed-use project, with retail and restaurant tenants, art studios, and event and office space.
Vostrejs told council members Monday that, over the past five years, he’s met with some 200 people in the neighborhood to learn what they wanted to see in the building. They generally wanted to see it remain accessible to the public, rather than, say, leased to a handful of office tenants.
“Almost the entire thing is going to be open to the community,” he told council members.
Vostrejs told BusinessDen that fact is largely why he pursued the deal drawn up by the Denver Urban Renewal Authority, or DURA.
“The programming that the public indicated that they wanted for the building is so expensive and infrastructurally intensive that the numbers just didn’t work,” Vostrejs said. “If all we were going to do was a nice remodel of the building and make it an office building, there wouldn’t have been a need for tax increment financing.”
The funding works by returning a portion of the sales tax generated at the property to the developer, along with kicking back the increase in property taxes the new upgrades will bring. Those proceeds will total $3.3 million, per DURA. The tax benefits represent about 13 percent of the project’s $26 million price tag.
“It’s not just a blank check for money,” Vostrejs said. “It’s earmarked for permanent improvements to the building.”
The structure erected in 1904 as an elementary school stands three stories tall and sits on 0.8 acres. City Street plans to install two of its own retail concepts on the bottom floor: a 4,000-square-foot restaurant and beer garden, and a 1,000-square-foot coffee and ice cream shop. At least four other retail spaces will be leased out to other operators. City Street already operates beer gardens in Green Valley Ranch, Lowry and Edgewater, with more on the way.
A 3,000-square-foot patio will go up on the roughly 9,000-square-foot lawn which surrounds most of the building.
The rear of the school building. (BusinessDen file)
At one point, Vostrejs considered making the upper floors a hotel, but said Tuesday that didn’t pencil out economically. The area contains about 15 classrooms, each 1,000 square feet, which can be divided or combined as needed.
The second floor will become more of a “maker” and “wellness” area, with art studios and other spaces for craftspeople. Some will be free or heavily discounted for at least several years, per an agreement with the city, Vostrejs said. The entire floor will be tied together by the existing 5,500-square-foot auditorium, which will hold community and private events.
The third floor will be office space. Vostrejs is looking for “creative” users, such as architects and graphic designers, he said.
The public financing was approved Monday by a 10-1 vote, with Councilwoman Shontel Lewis voting in opposition. She indicated her main concern was how long the discounted art spaces would remain affordable.
With approval in hand, Vostrejs said he expects to begin work onsite by the fall, with hopes to open the building to the public by spring. But he’s got his work cut out for him.
The building’s ornate staircases are missing handrails, its windows need upgrades, the HVAC system requires overhauling and the roof will have to be removed and reinstalled to add insulation and remove lead paint. That doesn’t include making the building more accessible and ADA-compliant, which will cost $800,000.
That expense, along with the $2.1 million needed for repairs to the structure and its facade, the $300,000 for environmental remediation and $100,000 required for “life safety” repairs and installations, will total $3.3 million — which is expected to be recouped via the tax increment financing.
“(It will be a) one-building Main Street for the community,” Vostrejs said. “The building is really remarkable because it has such exceptional and expansive outdoor spaces, which a lot of buildings like this don’t have.”
