Council to vote again on city sublease of Post building’s top floor

denverpostbldg

The building at 101 W. Colfax Ave. opened in 2006. (BizDen file photo)

Let’s try this again.

An agreement that would have the city sublease the top floor of the Denver Post building at 101 W. Colfax Ave. goes back before City Council Monday evening, weeks after its first appearance resulted in a 6-6 deadlock.

Councilwoman Kendra Black approved placing the item back on the agenda. In a Friday text message, she said the city’s finance department has met with council members and “it is expected to pass.”

“We desperately need the space to accommodate staff,” Black said. “Some new staff and also some who have to temporarily move out of current offices due to construction.”

Jeff Steinberg, the city’s director of real estate, previously said the city plans to gradually renovate the adjacent Webb building, which will involve moving employees to another location temporarily.

Black was among the six council members who voted in favor of the agreement at the Jan. 6 council meeting. The others were Stacie Gilmore, Chris Herndon, Paul Kashmann, Robin Kniech and Jolon Clark.

Voting against the agreement were Candi Cdebaca, Debbie Ortega, Kevin Flynn, Chris Hines, Amanda Sandoval and Amanda Sawyer. The measure needed majority approval to pass.

Councilwoman Jamie Torres was absent from the Jan. 6 meeting. She did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

The city would sublease the office space from DP Media Network LLC, an entity affiliated with the newspaper. Employees of the Post’s parent company, MediaNews Group, have been using the 11th floor. Other components of the Post, including its newsroom, already have left the building for the newspaper’s printing facility in Adams County.

The city would pay $32 a square foot gross initially to sublease the 25,193-square-foot floor, for a total of $9.88 million for the lease term, which would run from May 2020 through October 2029. The city would get a tenant improvement allowance of $151,930.

Steinberg has described the lease terms as “significantly below market.”

The city already subleases four other floors of the building — floors one, seven, eight and nine — from the Post, with the oldest of those deals dating to 2016. The city will spend about $32 million in total for those other leases.

Explaining her nay vote earlier this month, Ortega said the city needs to be “more methodical about how we are leasing space.”

“I have asked for a comprehensive real estate master plan,” she said at the Jan. 6 meeting. “I’ve gotten some piecemeal information. And I think this is something that is important for us to have some clarity and understanding of what our short-term and long-term space needs are, and where we have land that we could be using.”

denverpostbldg

The building at 101 W. Colfax Ave. opened in 2006. (BizDen file photo)

Let’s try this again.

An agreement that would have the city sublease the top floor of the Denver Post building at 101 W. Colfax Ave. goes back before City Council Monday evening, weeks after its first appearance resulted in a 6-6 deadlock.

Councilwoman Kendra Black approved placing the item back on the agenda. In a Friday text message, she said the city’s finance department has met with council members and “it is expected to pass.”

“We desperately need the space to accommodate staff,” Black said. “Some new staff and also some who have to temporarily move out of current offices due to construction.”

Jeff Steinberg, the city’s director of real estate, previously said the city plans to gradually renovate the adjacent Webb building, which will involve moving employees to another location temporarily.

Black was among the six council members who voted in favor of the agreement at the Jan. 6 council meeting. The others were Stacie Gilmore, Chris Herndon, Paul Kashmann, Robin Kniech and Jolon Clark.

Voting against the agreement were Candi Cdebaca, Debbie Ortega, Kevin Flynn, Chris Hines, Amanda Sandoval and Amanda Sawyer. The measure needed majority approval to pass.

Councilwoman Jamie Torres was absent from the Jan. 6 meeting. She did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

The city would sublease the office space from DP Media Network LLC, an entity affiliated with the newspaper. Employees of the Post’s parent company, MediaNews Group, have been using the 11th floor. Other components of the Post, including its newsroom, already have left the building for the newspaper’s printing facility in Adams County.

The city would pay $32 a square foot gross initially to sublease the 25,193-square-foot floor, for a total of $9.88 million for the lease term, which would run from May 2020 through October 2029. The city would get a tenant improvement allowance of $151,930.

Steinberg has described the lease terms as “significantly below market.”

The city already subleases four other floors of the building — floors one, seven, eight and nine — from the Post, with the oldest of those deals dating to 2016. The city will spend about $32 million in total for those other leases.

Explaining her nay vote earlier this month, Ortega said the city needs to be “more methodical about how we are leasing space.”

“I have asked for a comprehensive real estate master plan,” she said at the Jan. 6 meeting. “I’ve gotten some piecemeal information. And I think this is something that is important for us to have some clarity and understanding of what our short-term and long-term space needs are, and where we have land that we could be using.”

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