A resolution that would have pulled $2.5 million out of the city’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) contingency fund to purchase a former Goodyear auto repair shop in the city’s Central Business District has failed.

Members of the Denver City Council voted 7 to 4 on Tuesday to reject the plan to purchase the property at 1460 and 1480 Tremont Place, which is being eyed for a future affordable housing development project, specifically citing concerns over the funding source.

“By definition, a contingency is an event such as an emergency that may but is not certain to occur and something liable to happen as an adjunct or result of something else,” Councilmember Flor Alvidrez said. “For example, pullback of federal funding, collapsing bridges, unexpected costs incurred, and many other needs that didn’t make the bond projects and many other needs across the city. In other words, contingency funds are meant to cover emergencies and unexpected things, not speculative real estate opportunities.”

Currently, the CIP contingency fund holds about $7.4 million, Jackson Brockway, capital planning and budget manager with the city’s Department of Finance, said.

Lisa Lumley, the city’s director of real estate, explained to the council that the out-of-state owners were anxious to sell and that the property’s price point presented itself as a “unique opportunity.”

Council President Pro Tem Diana Romero Campbell, who voted no, said that if the deal could be postponed for a month, the city could work with the owners and possibly find another funding source.

District 10 Councilmember Chris Hinds stated that, given the current offer, purchasing the parcels wouldn’t allow for the acquisition of an affordable housing project of comparable value. Still, the city could leverage the purchase to help a developer with an affordable housing project through a lease. 

Amanda Sawyer, who represents Council District 5, asked if the city should even be considering the purchase.

“We do not have the tax base for it, and it feels like we are trying to be all things to all people with the breadth and depth of all of the things that we have been talking about over the last two years under this administration,” Sawyer said. “We don’t have to take every opportunity that comes in front of us, especially not when we are in a budget crisis, especially not when, if the city is willing and ready to spend $7 million of CIP contingency – well, we’ve got a list a mile long.”

When Denver is in a financial crisis and facing a citywide backlog of urgent needs, Alvidrez said, “It is fiscally irresponsible to use contingency dollars for land acquisition.”