DNA Building Takes Step Forward

The city already has paid $16 million in cash for the current Rocky Mountain News at 100 Gene Amole Way, where the city may build a new justice center that would include courtrooms and a jail. The new building would be at the northwest corner of Colfax Avenue and Broadway.

For the first time at the city finance committee meeting, the city released information about the new building that it received from the DNA. The total projected cost of the building is $83.6 million, or $271.56 per sf for the 308,000-sf building. The building would have 10 stories along Colfax Avenue stepping up to 12 stories along Broadway.

There would be about 8,980 sf of retail space in the building and 700 parking spaces on three floors. The newsrooms for the News and the Post would be on separate floors, each with 45,000-sf floorplates, which may be the largest Downtown in a class A building. The building also would include a 4,650-sf auditorium.

However, the DNA notes that these numbers are extremely preliminary and subject to change. The DNA has not even purchased the land yet and doesn't have a design. The land would cost $14.4 million, or about $220 per sf. The building would open in late 2006.The $750,000 rebate to the DNA is to cover a portion of improvements to the area in front of the new building that Mayor John Hickenlooper requested , which will reduce the potential building size by 92,000-sf. The only council member to object to the tax break and the new lease agreement is Kathleen MacKenzie. She contends that a "free press" should be truly free and not take any kind of a government subsidy that might influence it, even though she likes the idea of the building at that key corner.

But Councilman Charlie Brown, whose wife is the fashion editor at the Post, disagreed that the subsidy would influence coverage. And the city's economic development director, John Huggins, tells GlobeSt.com that he thinks the newspaper building is a wonderful use for that block, where there is now a parking lot. The entire city council is expected to discuss the lease amendment and the tax rebate at its March 13 meeting.