Tuesday, October 20, 2026, 10:30 a.m. (Denver time), City & County Building, room 391
The Governance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee, chaired by Amanda Sawyer, considered two action items moved in a block (13-34 and 13-37): a project funding agreement releasing DDA funds and a lease agreement between the City and Alterra at the Denver Post building. Staff from the real estate office and economic development explained the terms of the DDA's up-to-$7 million low-interest tenant-improvement loan, state incentives, and the 12-year lease (64,654 square feet at $22/square foot triple net with one year free rent and two years free parking). Council members questioned communication gaps with Council Member Watson's office, parking revenue impacts, verification of job-creation incentives, and the building's cash flow and court master plan. The items were moved for approval and referred onward, with a motion by Council Member Torres and second by Council President Romero Campbell. The committee then convened an executive session with the City Attorney's office for its quarterly litigation update, and reconvened afterward with consent items. The transcript also includes appended city video segments about the Stiles African American Heritage Center in Five Points, the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, a City Hall turf-to-native-grass conversion project, and Glenwood Canyon flood response, which do not appear to be part of the committee meeting itself.
0:06 Welcome back to this monthly
0:09 meeting of the governance and
0:10 Intergovernmental Relations
0:10 Committee of Denver City
0:15 Council. Thanks for joining us
0:17 for the discussion. The
0:18 governance and
0:20 Intergovernmental Relations
0:23 Committee starts now.
0:33 Morning, everyone. It seems
0:37 like it's going a thumbs up
0:38 from the producer were good. I
0:40 everyone. Let's try that
0:44 again. It is Tuesday, OCTOBER
0:47 20th is the government's
0:48 governance committee. Great to
0:49 see everyone of Amanda Sawyer.
0:51 I have the honor of
0:51 representing the residents of
0:54 District 5 and also chair this
0:55 committee before we get
0:58 started, we have to action
0:58 items moving in a block today
1:00 and then an executive session
1:01 with our city Attorney's
1:05 office on our quarterly
1:06 litigation update. What we do
1:07 around of introductions and
1:08 then we'll get started with
1:09 our action items and a
1:10 minister to my left, right?
1:11 Hi, everybody said in a
1:13 Gonzalez, could councilmember
1:16 at large. Jamie Torres West
1:16 temperature Good morning. Do
1:19 want some fine district 9.
1:20 Good morning. Paul Kashmann
1:21 soft and producing leave it as
1:25 like you district 7. Good
1:26 morning. Diana Romero,
1:28 Campbell, Southeast Denver
1:29 district Southwest numbers
1:33 straight it. Great It does not
1:37 look like we have anyone
1:38 online at this time. And so
1:39 we're going to go ahead. We're
1:42 going to start with 13 34 13
1:45 37 items are in a block and
1:46 there 2 items here. And I want
1:47 be very clear because there's
1:50 been a little bit of confusion
1:53 about this. What City Council
1:56 is considering today are 2
1:58 items. The first is the dvd, a
1:59 funding agreement between the
2:01 city and the dda to release
2:03 funds. And the second is a
2:05 lease agreement between the
2:08 city and Altera at the Denver
2:09 Post building. So with that,
2:10 if you guys want to introduce
2:13 yourselves and get started to
2:14 be great. We solemnly director
2:16 of real estate Bill Mosier and
2:25 the mayor's office. So all
2:26 we'll get started thank you.
2:27 explain what the 2 issues are.
2:27 Council woman Sawyer. You
2:29 The one thing I'll add about
2:30 the project funding agreement
2:32 between the city and the da is
2:34 it's a release of the funds
2:35 and attached to agreement is
2:38 an exhibit which is these
2:40 between the dda and for the
2:41 tenant improvements which will
2:43 talk about and then cover
2:44 those items and turn over the
2:49 lease on police there's a fair
2:50 amount of history. You all
2:51 have heard a lot of But I'll
2:55 just briefly review this. We
2:57 were a prize some months ago
2:59 that Altera was considering
3:02 moving. Whether that be within
3:03 the state of Colorado or
3:06 beyond the state of Colorado,
3:07 obviously from a downtown
3:08 perspective, given some of the
3:08 things that have happened
3:09 recently was companies moving
3:12 out. We took that very
3:15 seriously and started working
3:18 both Altera councilmen, Watson
3:20 and others. Our first
3:21 preference and the mayor is
3:22 first preference was to keep
3:23 them in right now and to keep
3:26 them where they are. That was
3:28 not going to work So the
3:29 second alternative was to keep
3:31 them in downtown Denver. If
3:32 that wasn't going to work out,
3:33 we were committed to keeping
3:35 those jobs in Denver. And if
3:36 that wasn't gonna work out, we
3:38 were all committed to keeping
3:39 them in Colorado. So those
3:42 were parameters that we were
3:43 work very closely with Altera
3:46 variety of other players to
3:47 make sure that we understood
3:49 how to best serve that company
3:52 and to help preserve those
3:55 jobs Denver. And in Colorado.
3:59 So that was the emphasis.
4:01 Obviously, if there's an
4:02 opportunity to capture
4:05 additional outdoor retail
4:07 companies in downtown Denver.
4:13 That would subsequent draw for
4:15 And if we can detect track
4:16 them to upper downtown, which
4:18 I'll talk about a moment, it
4:20 would help activate 16th
4:20 Street in all the various
4:22 things that the da has been
4:23 focused on. Now, I will make
4:26 this very clear from the
4:30 beginning. We were very clear
4:31 to Altera and everybody that
4:34 we dealt with in terms of
4:36 office ownership that all the
4:37 da could do was a traditional
4:41 low interest loan, 50% of
4:43 tenant improvements up to
4:44 7 million dollars regardless
4:46 of the building. But it had to
4:47 be east of Arapahoe. In other
4:49 words, it had to be located in
4:51 upper downtown. And that's a
4:53 provision that we made
4:54 available. We will make
4:55 available to any company, but
4:57 we particularly made available
5:00 to any building in upper
5:01 downtown. And we worked with
5:02 of I worked with a variety of
5:06 to explore that alternative
5:08 Altera as a motivation was to
5:09 return to downtown if they
5:12 were going to stay in Colorado
5:12 as I understand So they were
5:15 seriously looking variety of
5:21 office buildings downtown loan
5:22 approval initially from the
5:25 dda was up to 7 million
5:27 dollars. 2%, less than 50% of
5:30 the tbi cost. And had to be
5:31 paid back during the term of
5:33 the lease regardless of the
5:34 building. And that's the deal
5:37 that tried to today that
5:39 turned out to be the 101
5:44 Colfax building. So I
5:47 mentioned the challenge for us
5:49 and the challenge for Altera
5:49 in many respects was as we
5:53 went and upper downtown,
5:55 there's well-known concerned
5:56 about what has been happening
5:58 in downtown over the last 10
6:00 years. We reinforced with
6:02 Altera that we were investing
6:03 in civic center park to the
6:04 tune of about 50 million
6:07 dollars with city bonds and
6:10 eta money along with the Civic
6:11 Center Conservancy. We had
6:11 finished the construction of
6:15 the 16th Street Mall. We are
6:16 committed to better connecting
6:18 and this is something we will
6:20 continue to work with that the
6:21 da better connecting Civic
6:22 Center park to the 16th Street
6:25 mall. So whether that be along
6:26 Broadway, Cleveland Place,
6:27 it's only a block we can do a
6:28 better job than we have today.
6:30 In terms of the connections
6:31 between Civic Center park and
6:34 16th Street. In addition, the
6:34 Denver Energy Center is under
6:36 new ownership, which is
6:39 literally across north side of
6:40 16th Street. The sheriff's
6:45 home located right there. She
6:47 hotel for downtown and then
6:48 obviously the investment that
6:49 da has and audience, which is
6:52 a couple block away. So it
6:53 really helps stabilize the far
6:56 end of upper downtown at 16th
6:56 and Broadway Broadway was one
7:00 of our key, no toll
7:01 priorities. Both in the
7:03 downtown area plan and with
7:08 the dda 16th and Broadway, 16
7:09 ton glenarm 16th and a wrap of
7:09 where our 3 key nodes that are
7:10 in compliance with the
7:13 downtown area plan. So keeping
7:15 Altera Colorado keeping them
7:16 in Denver. If they come to
7:17 downtown, we want to track
7:20 into upper downtown
7:21 supplementing activity in one
7:23 of those 3 notes was a
7:27 priority. So slide in front of
7:31 you really explains the the
7:32 long is pretty
7:33 straightforward. It's up to
7:34 7 million dollars in less than
7:35 50%, which it is given their
7:36 90 million dollars worth of
7:40 improvements. We put in there
7:42 that we can 50% of the tbi
7:43 costs. That reason we did that
7:46 from the very beginning is a
7:46 generally office owners put
7:52 into I money and can be 100
7:53 150 bucks a to attract
7:55 investment to a building. And
7:56 so we knew that a landlord
7:59 would have to put money. And
8:01 so we said we are we'll put up
8:01 to 50% because the landlord
8:05 will put the balance and that
8:06 became a little bit of a
8:06 challenge for the city lease
8:09 and talk about that. We
8:13 managed work that out. So
8:14 essentially, as I mentioned,
8:16 2% payable over the term of
8:17 the loan. The fact that it's a
8:18 12 year long, which is a
8:21 longer than normal, helped us
8:22 and gave us a little more
8:24 flexibility in that
8:25 negotiation. But the dda will
8:28 get paid back on a monthly
8:32 basis. It's a the city is not
8:34 a party to the loan agreement
8:35 strictly with the dda and I'd
8:36 be happy to answer any other
8:38 questions you have about the
8:39 actual agreement. So the
8:40 overall economic development
8:44 package these boxes here
8:47 really shows how we came
8:48 together both as a city and a
8:51 state to help address desire
8:53 to keep all terror in
8:54 Colorado. Number one, our long
8:56 which we've talked about,
8:58 which was not building
8:59 specific at the time. It was
9:02 just upper downtown. The
9:03 Denver Economic Development
9:06 and Opportunity Office to put
9:10 up to $485,000 of performance
9:12 grants available. That's a
9:13 two-year pay out based on jobs
9:14 actually maintained or
9:16 created. And then there's
9:17 additional money that's
9:18 available for workforce
9:19 training and other kinds of
9:22 things that Altera can use
9:22 over the coming year. Should
9:25 they decide to do so? The
9:26 state of Colorado through the
9:29 lna academic development,
9:30 international trade Office
9:33 came up with a package of 3.9
9:35 million dollars. Most of it in
9:37 tax credits and other words
9:37 Altera create additional jobs
9:39 beyond where they are today.
9:40 They will get tax credits.
9:40 They don't get tax credits for
9:44 the jobs. They're preserving,
9:47 but they did offer a million
9:50 dollar 5 year loan at no
9:51 interest that will come to the
9:53 dda and we will long that as
9:55 part of the tenant improvement
9:56 allowance. So there was a
9:56 grant that the state offered
10:00 to help with this structure.
10:01 And then finally, the city, a
10:03 lease agreement, which is a
10:04 just say that the city least
10:04 really part of the I would
10:09 agreement is a competitive
10:10 lease that. Lisa, talk about
10:12 that. But I was dealing with
10:14 multiple multiple building
10:16 owners and upper downtown and
10:18 new had pretty good idea of
10:20 what the rental rates were.
10:22 What the tea I allowances what
10:23 lease term provisions were.
10:26 And I think that the city is
10:27 getting a very competitive
10:29 market rate deal. It's a
10:34 little. Sad in some ways for
10:36 upper downtown that they just
10:37 so competitive and that the
10:38 lease rates have dropped into
10:39 the lower 20's. But that's
10:40 where we are today. So we have
10:41 a value add opportunity and
10:44 want to take advantage of. And
10:44 upper downtown that we really
10:45 we think Altera will be a lead
10:48 other tenants into vacant
10:48 tenant for us too. Attract
10:51 office space in downtown. They
10:52 will be paying all their
10:54 expenses, including property
10:58 taxes as they should through
10:59 possessor interest. We're very
11:02 pleased about this. I will say
11:05 that in my dealings with
11:06 Altera, if it wasn't for the
11:07 city and the da's investment
11:08 in Civic Center park, this
11:10 would not be happening. I
11:13 think civic Center park really
11:15 turned the opportunity around
11:17 to create of brand vocation
11:21 for Altera. And it turns that
11:22 location into a brand
11:23 opportunity for the city of
11:23 Denver in the state of
11:25 Colorado. Really market
11:27 outdoor recreation. So with
11:27 that turnover to lease on on
11:30 the front. Thank you. So just
11:33 as a reminder for the 1, 1,
11:34 what's called it was returned
11:35 to us in the beginning of
11:38 JULY. The square footage is
11:42 297,847 amenable square feet.
11:45 Right now. It is a 32%
11:46 occupied with the Altair least
11:47 if approved, that would go up
11:48 to 54%. A pause there for a
11:49 moment and just pick it back
11:51 up of what Bill said. I
11:52 actually have been getting a
11:53 number of calls. I just got
11:55 another e-mail today. There is
11:57 a lot of activity already
11:58 happening in interest in the
11:59 building. Just to of this
12:03 being out there, I think we've
12:05 had discussions. I know Dietz
12:05 again, Bill and I've talked
12:08 about this a lot. Brokers have
12:09 told me they're actually
12:10 really excited about this
12:13 because Altera weather came
12:15 here or to another uptown
12:16 building, the see that as a
12:22 huge. Huge benefit for the
12:23 market as a whole that
12:23 somebody of this size is
12:24 willing to come in and put
12:26 stakes in the ground and say
12:27 that they're committed to this
12:30 part of town. So everybody
12:32 seeing it as a potential
12:35 opportunity here. This bill
12:36 said to Altera, certainly the
12:39 connection to the park's the
12:40 mountains, the views that are
12:41 up there. What's important is
12:43 this building has very large
12:45 floor plates compared to other
12:46 buildings. And that is that
12:49 was something that was very
12:51 important. It's the auditorium
12:53 space is available for all of
12:54 our tenants. We have a 235
12:58 seat auditorium there we are
12:59 going to be activating the
13:00 news ticker. They will have
13:03 rights to be able to use But
13:04 we also as the city that is
13:06 where we will annually be
13:07 planning on what we want to
13:12 have on the ticker as well.
13:13 Bill said 16 straight Civic
13:17 Center Park Colfax brt. We've
13:18 got McNichols again. That will
13:20 be activated here shortly.
13:21 I'll be back in front of with
13:22 a couple leases. Hopefully
13:24 here in the next month. And
13:25 then we have a parking garage
13:27 that we do have adequate if
13:29 not more than adequate parking
13:33 compared to other buildings.
13:36 So that lease terms this is a
13:37 12 year term half of the
13:41 square for up 64,654 most of
13:43 the 7th floor and most of the
13:44 8th floor, they will have
13:48 rights to expand. They choose?
13:50 $22. A square foot. Triple net
13:51 is the base rent that they
13:52 will start with and then it
13:55 will increase $0.50 per year.
13:57 There also will be additional
13:59 revenue them with parking and
14:00 with the operating expenses,
14:01 there will be one year free
14:04 rent. And so I'll pause for
14:04 just a minute. Just know that
14:06 we're all talking the same
14:08 time periods if council
14:10 approves this than from the
14:12 date of execution through
14:13 approximately OCTOBER. First
14:15 of 27 w construction period so
14:16 that they can get their tenant
14:19 improvement done once they
14:20 move in, which we're all
14:21 assuming and they're working