SerpApi.Org
A piece of Denver's history will soon be revived.
The old Cathedral High School at 1840 Grant Street has been bought by an investment group with plans to renovate it and turn it into a hotel.
It was built more than a century ago and has been a high school, a convent and a crisis support center during the AIDS epidemic.
But, in recent years, it's fallen into disrepair, putting that history at risk.
"Older buildings give us a connection to the past. They anchor us and they ground us," said John Deffenbaugh, CEO of Historic Denver.
Built in 1921, the old building's walls have seen students, nuns, AIDS patients and artists.
"It's really rare that one building has so many different aspects of history within it — educational history, religious history, LGBTQ-plus history, and also creative histories, all embodied within this building," Deffenbaugh said.
But, today, they're covered in graffiti and surrounded by broken glass.
"There's certainly been challenges with vandalism, but that's primarily due to the previous owner not securing the building, and that's allowed so many people to enter this structure and start to cause it damage," Deffenbaugh said. "The longer this building's languished as it has, the more and more of the beautiful historic interior has been removed. Urban explorers post their videos online, and that then encourages more people to come and see the building. And, while that may be a very interesting thing in the moment, it's actually really damaging to the building's long-term future because the more of the existing fabric that's stripped away, the less there is for a future redevelopment project."
After being slated for demolition in 2011, Historic Denver and other preservation groups fought to save the old Cathedral High School.
It was bought by a developer, but plans to renovate the building into a hotel stalled, and it soon fell into disrepair and was declared derelict by the city.
"This probably gets broken into 15 to 20 times a day, and unfortunately, it's trending for all the wrong reasons," said Brian Toerber, president of Inspire Investment Group.
As of June 30, Cathedral High School is under new ownership. Inspire Investment Group has plans to turn the building into a boutique hotel and restaurant.
"We see a boutique hotel, heavy food and beverage, kind of a destination hotel, a destination site," Toerber said. "We really want to kind of tap into the weddings, events, experiential travel."
Toerber is prepared to face the challenges the site poses, having recently renovated the historic All Inn Hotel on Colfax.
"It's been a long vacant, blighted property, which we have experience with developing," Toerber said. "We've had challenges in just the two weeks we've been here. All these boards you see are boards that we had put in, and every day a board or two gets, you know, torn off."
Toerber estimates the renovation could cost up to $30 million, with the hotel likely opening in 2029.
"It'll be an expensive project on a key basis. It's very expensive, but these city incentives, I think, really kind of counter the fact that we're not having to carry that burden like a more traditional development may incur," Toerber said. "Denver Urban Renewal Authority, several mission-based lenders, and some clean energy funds that I think will help pull the sources together that actually will help renovate this project into, you know, the beautiful way that it used to be."
Toerber wants to preserve the building's architecture and history.
"If you went inside today, you'd probably be saddened by the condition of the building. It's very blighted, but some of the most important elements still exist, and so recreating those that have been damaged and preserving those that still exist is important to us," Toerber said.
"We're so appreciative that the building has changed hands, and now there's a path forward to a sensitive adaptive reuse project," Deffenbaugh said.
There are plans to list the Old Cathedral Hotel on both the state and national registers of historic places.
"This building represents so many diverse facets of history," Deffenbaugh said. "And, in retaining it for future generations, it's going to tell those generations the story of what came before them and all the diverse uses that this building once accommodated."
