Downtown Denver is one step closer toward getting access to $570 million of public funding meant to revitalize the area hit hardest during the pandemic.  

Denver City Council voted Monday to approve a new Plan of Development, a document required by state law to set guidelines on how the money should be spent. It also voted to support voters’ approval to expand the Denver Downtown Development Authority (DDDA) covering Union Station to the rest of downtown.

Monday’s measures around the DDDA gives the city the ability to hand out $570 million over the next decade generated through tax-increment financing, which funds developments using tax money expected to be generated in the future. It will be open to city agencies and private developers, who will both have to apply for the funding.

Applications will open next year, according to the city. Information on the application process is expected to be released in January.

The new Plan of Development shifts the document’s original purpose to fund Union Station’s 2014 restoration project to addressing downtown’s high office vacancy problems, lack of attainable housing and to make it a more-vibrant city center.

The document doesn’t specify what projects the money can be spent on, but gives examples of potential uses, such as converting empty office skyscrapers into housing, investing in more public spaces, infrastructure and transit projects or supporting Denver’s art and cultural institutions.

Applications will be evaluated by the potential economic impact it would bring to downtown. `

“The Plan of Development is intentionally vague. It needs that flexibility,” Principal City Planner David Gaspers told City Council.

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Eleven Denver City Council members voted in favor of the amended plan. Councilmember Sarah Parady was the only vote against it, citing support for the downtown infusion but said she wished the plan also considered treatment of workers and climate impact as factors in the application process.

“What I’m hoping to see in the cooperation agreement is that we are evaluating projects not only based on the economic benefit that they will bring,” Parady said.

Parady added the funding should go toward applicants who pay the best wages for workers, will support workers unionizing if they choose to, consider employing workers who have left downtown during and after the pandemic, will help the city meet its climate resiliency goals and show how it’ll go beyond environmental regulations.

“If we’re going to evaluate different projects for this funding, we should be considering the full scope of our policy values as a city when we are evaluating them,” Parady said. “And those two items, I think, have been a big miss in this process so far.”

During the pandemic, governments in Colorado and elsewhere in the country shut down businesses, restricted travel and banned large gatherings.    

The DDDA expansion was first announced by Mayor Mike Johnston in May as his first major initiative to revitalize downtown.

Denver’s plan to infuse $570M into downtown gets City Council’s green light

As the loans behind Union Station’s restoration were almost paid off, city officials recognized the DDDA created in 2008 would have no reason to exist and didn’t want to lose access to the $40 million it generated annually.

Over seven months, city planners worked on an expedited timeline to expand the DDDA to cover the rest of downtown and revise the Plan of Development.

It faced criticism from the Denver Planning Board in September who worried about the rushed process and how the city would manage a massive influx of capital and divvy it out in a timely manner.

At the time, Councilmember Chris Hinds compared the DDDA’s process to the $300 million of federal pandemic money from the American Rescue Plan Act that required City Council to approve large grants.

Eligible voters within the DDDA’s original boundaries overwhelmingly voted to expand the public financing tool in November.

Downtown Denver Partnership CEO Kourtny Garrett said in a statement that the funding will mark the beginning of a “true renaissance” in downtown.

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The city is also developing another framework document called the Downtown Area Plan to drive policies for downtown Denver over the next 20 years in conjunction with the DDDA expansion. The Downtown Area Plan will cover the DDDA’s boundary as well as the proposed Ball Arena redevelopment, Auraria, Golden Triangle and the Ballpark district.

Consultants on the project recently identified five areas to prioritize in downtown and will propose ideas to address them early next year.

Hinds mentioned during a public open house last week that the DDDA funding can be used to implement strategies established in the Downtown Area Plan.