The Alterra lease's three no votes also voted for its $7 million downtown loan deal

The city's roll call for the Alterra Mountain Company lease is now posted, and it matches what the Denver Gazette reported Monday night: 8-3, with Council members Flor Alvidrez, Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez and Shontel Lewis voting no (roll call). Stacie Gilmore was absent.

The record adds something the first reports didn't. The same three members voted yes on the deal's companion bill, the agreement that routes up to $7 million in Downtown Development Authority money to Alterra as a loan. That bill, 26-1334, passed 11-0 on final reading as part of a group of bills approved together (roll call).

Why it matters: the lease, 26-1337, sets the rent and concessions for Alterra's headquarters at 101 W. Colfax Ave., the city-owned former Denver Post building. The funding agreement is the other half of the package. Members who object to one part of a deal can ask for a separate vote on another part. None did here.

The lease vote

Yes (8): Kevin Flynn, Chris Hinds, Paul Kashmann, Amanda Sandoval, Amanda Sawyer, Jamie Torres, Darrell Watson, Council President Diana Romero Campbell.

No (3): Flor Alvidrez, Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, Shontel Lewis.

Absent: Stacie Gilmore.

Sawyer moved the resolution and Hinds seconded, the city's record shows. Our Tuesday story has the lease terms as the Gazette reported them, including about $9.7 million in rent credits toward renovation and nearly two years of free rent.

What the funding agreement does

From the signed agreement attached to 26-1334:

• Up to $7 million. The city passes money to the DDA, which lends it to Alterra under a separate project loan agreement. The maximum is $7,000,000.
• Where the money comes from. It's drawn from loan proceeds the city receives under a larger lending arrangement the Council approved for the DDA in 2025, and the money is available only if those proceeds come in.
• Repayment comes back to the city. When Alterra repays, the DDA must send the net proceeds plus interest to a city account on 30 days' notice.
• Timing. The project loan is scheduled to close on or before Dec. 1, 2026.

The Gazette reported the loan's rate at 2%.

What our records add

Gonzales-Gutierrez's change. At the Governance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee on Oct. 20, she voted with the rest of the committee to send both the lease and the funding bill to the full Council (lease, funding bill). On Nov. 9 she voted no on the lease. Alvidrez and Lewis aren't on that committee.

How the two bills moved. The funding bill passed first reading Nov. 2 without a separate vote. That night Alvidrez used Council Rule 3.6 to delay the lease one week (our story). On Nov. 9 the lease got its own roll call. The funding bill was one of several final-reading bills approved together, on Sawyer's motion.

A related budget bill. One of the Long Bill's companion ordinances, 26-1646, would create a DDA custodial fund to hold loan proceeds and interest the city collects on the authority's behalf. It went to the Mayor-Council meeting Nov. 10 (meeting).

The building is in District 10, represented by Hinds.

What's next

Both items are signed by the Council president, the city's record shows. The project loan is set to close by Dec. 1. Base rent under the lease starts in October 2028, the Gazette reported.