The former Cathedral High School building in Uptown, which the city considers to be neglected and derelict, has a new owner.
Local developer Brian Toerber said in an email to BusinessDen that he bought the 20,000-square-foot building at 1840 Grant St. on June 30.
No public records detailing the price were available as of Wednesday. The previous owner, New York-based GFI Development, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Toerber, of Inspire Investment Group, declined to comment further. But last year, he applied for financing from the Denver Downtown Development Authority to help turn the property into a 40-room hotel with a full-service restaurant.
“As a hotel, the site would be open to the public to appreciate the incredible architecture of the building. It is a signature building in downtown and is the sole blighted site in an otherwise well developed area of Denver,” Toerber wrote in his March 2025 application.
He said the project would cost $21.5 million and asked for $4.5 million from the DDDA, which generally provides support in the form of loans.
Toerber has transformed a run-down property before. He recently completed the redevelopment of the All Inn Hotel along Colfax Avenue. In his application, he said the Cathedral High project features many of the same challenges that the Colfax project faced.
The Cathedral High property has been eyed for a hotel for years — although plans previously called for far more rooms.
GFI purchased the building in 2016 for $6.8 million. That deal also included a parking lot behind the school at the corner of 19th and Logan and a former gymnasium facing Logan street.
Toerber’s plans do not involve the parking lot or gymnasium building.
In 2017, GFI proposed turning its entire site into a hotel with 188 rooms, most or all of which would be within an 11-story building constructed on the parking lot. Plans show the former Cathedral High building being fashioned into a bar, dining and meeting space. The room count later dropped to 170.
In September 2020, six months after the onset of the pandemic, Denver City Council and the Denver Urban Renewal Authority agreed to give the project $14.25 million in tax-increment financing. DURA director Tracy Huggins said the project would cost $143 million.
“The capital stack is not completely assembled at this point,” Huggins said. “Yes, they absolutely intend to continue to advance the project.”
But the project never broke ground. GFI’s attorneys recently said in a court filing it was “derailed by planning delays, COVID-19, and rising interest rates.”
In August, Denver fined GFI $140,000 for letting the building become a magnet for vandals, vagrants and urban explorers who trespass and post videos on TikTok.
GFI sued in response. That lawsuit is ongoing. In March, the city asked the judge to appoint a receiver to oversee the property, although that has not happened. GFI said at the time it was under contract to sell the property.
Cathedral High School was built in 1921, according to local nonprofit Historic Denver. The Spanish Renaissance Revival complex was designed by Denver architect Harry Manning and features a three-story building wrapped around a center courtyard.
The high school closed in 1982, according to Historic Denver, and the building subsequently housed a convent, a homeless shelter, a housing community for AIDS patients and the Grant Street Art Studios. It has been vacant for the past 14 years, according to Toerber’s application.
