Denver’s Historic Evans School Repurposing in Line for Tax Increment Financing

More than 5 years in the making, a plan to repurpose and redevelop a historic Denver school is receiving public funding support.

Located at 1115 Acoma Street in Denver’s trendy Golden Triangle neighborhood, the three-story brick Evans School is regarded as an architectural treasure with a copper-clad cupola, mosaic entry tiles, vintage tin ceilings, and copper stairwell.

As one illustration of the building’s solid structure, the school also features a never-used heavy-timber attic.

Built in 1904 and designed by well-known Classical Revival architect David Dryden, the 48,000-square-foot structure served several generations of elementary and junior high school students before being closed in 1972.

That closure, as then mandated by the Denver Public Schools system, was owing to the school’s steadily declining enrollment.

Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, the nearly 34,000-square-foot building has remained empty for the last 52 years, while also being the subject of plans to bring it back to life.

In 2019 it was purchased by the Denver-based Columbia Group and City Street Investors, two firms forming a partnership to bring the building back to life.

Now members of the Denver City Council have given the green light to an urban redevelopment tax increment plan that is expected to secure an estimated $3.3 million for what is forecast as a $26 million rehabilitation project.

Officially called the Evans School Urban Redevelopment Plan, the effort has as its mission repairing and upgrading the facility’s interior, while also remodeling the first floor for coffee shop, ice cream parlor, restaurant, and even beer garden space.

Work on the second floor will focus on rehabilitating an existing auditorium; with the third level being made over for studio, office, and retail space.

By Garry Boulard

Image Credit: Courtesy of the State of Colorado

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