The Mosque of the El Jebel Shrine, which was constructed in 1907, on Monday, Dec. 12, 2023. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
The El Jebel Shrine building in Uptown is in foreclosure, again.
A firm that loaned the structure’s owner $8.1 million in 2023 submitted paperwork last week to force a sale of it and the adjacent parking lot, which for decades has been eyed for development.
The five-story Shrine building at 1770 Sherman St. and the parking lot to the south are owned by LLCs managed by attorney Robert Lubin, who lives in California. His entities bought the property for $12.4 million in 2016.
In January 2023, Lubin’s entities took out a bridge loan from Fairbridge Strategic Capital in January 2023. In filing for foreclosure, Fairbridge said it is now owed $9.1 million, after interest and other charges.
“We do expect to pay them off,” Lubin told BusinessDen Sunday.
The lender is represented by attorney Jeremy Rothstein of Denver’s Senn Visciano Canges. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Lubin has averted foreclosure before. In September 2021, a previous lender filed to force a sale of the Shrine property. That lender said it had loaned Lubin’s entities $7.93 million in November 2020. The filing was withdrawn in January 2023, after Lubin secured the current loan from Fairbridge.
A horseshoe-shaped theater on the fourth floor of the building. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
Lubin is managing member of a Virginia-based firm called American International & Immigration Law, which advertises that it helps EB-5 investors, foreigners who can get green cards by investing in job-creating projects in the United States. He said acquisition of the site was funded by EB-5 investors.
The El Jebel structure was built in 1906 by the Shriners, a fraternal organization that used it as a meeting hall. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Denver city landmark. Historic Denver, a local nonprofit, has a conservation easement for both the exterior and interior of the building.
The Shrine has been largely unused in recent years, but in December, San Francisco-based Non Plus Ultra said it had reached a deal with the owner to book events in the space. The company has similar arrangements for a handful of other Denver spots, including the former Broadway Market food hall and Sports Castle building at the edge of the Golden Triangle.
Lubin said the first event under NPU’s management was held earlier this month.
Developers have floated the notion of a tower on El Jebel’s 0.4-acre parking lot for years. Among them was Donald Trump in the mid-2000s, a decade before he became president.
Under Lubin’s ownership, plans for a 61-story apartment-and-hotel tower were submitted in both 2016 and 2018, city records show. Then, in 2021, a 30-story condo project was proposed on the parking lot. That proposal, however, is considered inactive.
Lubin said he and a joint venture partner, whom he declined to name, still intend to develop the parking lot. He said he expects to submit a new proposal to the city, and that the scale will likely be closer to 30 stories than 61.
“It probably wouldn’t be condos,” he said.
Lubin said he’d like to start construction next year, although that could be optimistic given city review times.
“We just look forward to getting them paid off and building our project,” Lubin said of his lender.
The Mosque of the El Jebel Shrine, which was constructed in 1907, on Monday, Dec. 12, 2023. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
The El Jebel Shrine building in Uptown is in foreclosure, again.
A firm that loaned the structure’s owner $8.1 million in 2023 submitted paperwork last week to force a sale of it and the adjacent parking lot, which for decades has been eyed for development.
The five-story Shrine building at 1770 Sherman St. and the parking lot to the south are owned by LLCs managed by attorney Robert Lubin, who lives in California. His entities bought the property for $12.4 million in 2016.
In January 2023, Lubin’s entities took out a bridge loan from Fairbridge Strategic Capital in January 2023. In filing for foreclosure, Fairbridge said it is now owed $9.1 million, after interest and other charges.
“We do expect to pay them off,” Lubin told BusinessDen Sunday.
The lender is represented by attorney Jeremy Rothstein of Denver’s Senn Visciano Canges. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Lubin has averted foreclosure before. In September 2021, a previous lender filed to force a sale of the Shrine property. That lender said it had loaned Lubin’s entities $7.93 million in November 2020. The filing was withdrawn in January 2023, after Lubin secured the current loan from Fairbridge.
A horseshoe-shaped theater on the fourth floor of the building. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
Lubin is managing member of a Virginia-based firm called American International & Immigration Law, which advertises that it helps EB-5 investors, foreigners who can get green cards by investing in job-creating projects in the United States. He said acquisition of the site was funded by EB-5 investors.
The El Jebel structure was built in 1906 by the Shriners, a fraternal organization that used it as a meeting hall. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Denver city landmark. Historic Denver, a local nonprofit, has a conservation easement for both the exterior and interior of the building.
The Shrine has been largely unused in recent years, but in December, San Francisco-based Non Plus Ultra said it had reached a deal with the owner to book events in the space. The company has similar arrangements for a handful of other Denver spots, including the former Broadway Market food hall and Sports Castle building at the edge of the Golden Triangle.
Lubin said the first event under NPU’s management was held earlier this month.
Developers have floated the notion of a tower on El Jebel’s 0.4-acre parking lot for years. Among them was Donald Trump in the mid-2000s, a decade before he became president.
Under Lubin’s ownership, plans for a 61-story apartment-and-hotel tower were submitted in both 2016 and 2018, city records show. Then, in 2021, a 30-story condo project was proposed on the parking lot. That proposal, however, is considered inactive.
Lubin said he and a joint venture partner, whom he declined to name, still intend to develop the parking lot. He said he expects to submit a new proposal to the city, and that the scale will likely be closer to 30 stories than 61.
“It probably wouldn’t be condos,” he said.
Lubin said he’d like to start construction next year, although that could be optimistic given city review times.
“We just look forward to getting them paid off and building our project,” Lubin said of his lender.
