KEEP UP ON DENVER NEWS AT WESTWORD.COM/NEWS NEWS Club Scout THE MUSIC CAN CONTINUE AT NUMBER THIRTY EIGHT — WITH LIMITATIONS. BY CONOR MCCORMICK- CAVANAGH Following a lengthy fi ght with neighbors over noise, Number Thirty Eight, an entertainment venue at 3650 Chestnut Place, will be allowed to continue hosting live performances, albeit with restrictions. “The Director fi nds that reasonable conditions may be placed on the license to ensure that the Applicant will op- erate lawfully and in a manner that does not adversely impact the neighborhood,” Molly Duplechian, executive director of the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses, wrote in her May 5 decision, granting the renewal of Number Thirty Eight’s cabaret license. Duplechian’s ruling overrides a recom- mendation by Macon Cowles, a hearing offi cer hired by the City of Denver, who’d concluded that Excise and Licenses should not renew Number Thirty Eight’s caba- ret license. The hearing occurred after a handful of neighbors complained about “unbelievable” noise emanating from the 31,000-square-foot RiNo venue when it hosted live performances outdoors. “Over 90 percent of those providing input on the Renewal stated that they desired that the license be renewed. With this level of FROZEN OUT Despite months of planning by two local music entrepreneurs, the historic IceHouse at 1801 Wynkoop Street won’t become the home of a new electronic-music venue. “At the end of the day, we want to 8 have a positive, collaborative relation- ship with our neighbors,” says Ryan Si- monds, who had hoped to open Kulture Music Hall, an electronic-music club, in the 11,400-square-foot basement of the IceHouse. “With so much opposition, we really didn’t see that happening. We didn’t want to be in a situation where down the road we’re continuing to battle with people who don’t want us to be here.” On May 2, hours before a scheduled hearing before the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses on a proposed tavern liquor license with a dance cabaret, Si- monds and partner Jonathan Trahan pulled their Kulture Music Hall application. The partners’ decision came after a fl ood of complaints, especially from residents of the IceHouse who said that an electronic-music club was a terrible fi t for the basement of the circa 1903 building, once home to Littleton support for a license, the Director cannot fi nd that the neighborhood does not desire that the license be renewed,” Duplechian concluded. Among those voicing support for the renewal was the RiNo Art District. “The owners of Number Thirty Eight are pleased to have their cabaret license renewed and will continue to welcome their loyal guests and contribute to the community as part of RiNo’s vibrant arts scene,” says Ste- fanie Jones, a spokesperson for the owners, Spencer Fronk and Andrew Palmquist. Without a cabaret license, Number Thirty Eight, which opened in October 2020 and quickly won Best New Venue honors in Westword’s Best of Denver 2021, would have struggled to stay in business. Although it still would have been able to offer food and drink, a cabaret license allows a venue to host live musical performances and let patrons dance. But although Number Thirty Eight will be able to keep its cabaret license, Duple- chian put some restrictions in place. “The Director concludes that while the Applicant has made attempts to mitigate issues and concerns experienced by its neighbors, it has nonetheless been operated in a way that negatively impacts health and welfare of the neighborhood,” she wrote. The most signifi - cant restriction is that Number Thirty Eight can only host live amplifi ed musical perfor- mances and acts with drums indoors, when the venue’s windows and doors are shut. For outdoor performances, the venue must fi nish construction on a cement wall to help with noise mitigation. Once that wall is complete, Number Thirty Eight can again host acoustic Creamery and the Beatrice Foods Cold Storage Warehouse. “Our concern was always that the Ice- House is a historic building, and it was built long before technology and architecture al- lowed for soundproofi ng in buildings. Our building has concrete columns that go up from the basement all the way up the fl oor, so vibrations resonate all the way up the col- umns. There are things you can do for sound mitigation, but you can’t do that for vibrations, and bass causes vibrations. And this was going to be a bass club,” says Lynda Baker, a resident of the Ice House Lofts who used to serve as board president of the building’s homeowners’ association. Aside from the approximately ninety units in the Ice House Lofts, the IceHouse also houses the Icehouse Tavern and Rodizio Grill on the ground fl oor. Posting QR codes that led directly to the Kulture Music Hall website — which stated that “The underground has returned to Denver” — Baker and other IceHouse residents were able to rally opposition from a wide range of groups. The Lower Down- town Neighborhood Association attempted to craft a good-neighbor agreement be- Number Thirty Eight can keep its cabaret license, but with restrictions in place. music outdoors, but still cannot offer ampli- fi ed music or music with drums outside. The venue — whose name refers to Colo- rado’s status as the 38th state in the union — started receiving complaints from neigh- bors about noise not long after it opened. In particular, nearby residents said they felt misled by initial guarantees from Number Thirty Eight’s ownership, who’d promised that most of the musical performances would be acoustic. But almost from the start, the venue hosted loud concerts. tween all of the parties; after LoDoNA was unable to work out mutually agreeable terms, it notifi ed Excise and Licenses that it formally opposed the cabaret license ap- plication. Denver City Councilwoman Deb- bie Ortega, an at-large representative, also sent a letter stating her opposition, focusing specifi cally on potential safety issues that could arise from having an electronic-music club in the area. She’s not opposed to music clubs, Baker says, but the genre matters. “If there was a jazz club or a different kind of music venue, that would be a wonderful addition to that space,” she explains. “But electronic dance music has such high bass and high vibration.” The basement of 1801 Wynkoop Street has been home to other restaurants and clubs, including the Boiler Room speakeasy. It’s a “beautiful space” and was the “exact right size” for the club, according to Simonds. “It felt like a natural fi t for us.” But the rest of the neighborhood was not. Simonds says he has sympathy for what resi- dents of LoDo have gone through in recent years, including some fatal shootings that have taken place in the early-morning hours when And the music wasn’t just loud; it reached an illegal level, according to measurements taken by Paul Riedesel, the City of Denver’s noise and acoustic expert. Riedesel inspected Number Thirty Eight on multiple occasions because of noise complaints and at the venue’s invitation. In June 2021, he measured the noise coming from a concert at Number Thirty Eight from the deck of one of the neighbors’ homes; the peak noise measurement hit 76.7 decibels, which is around three times what is allowed by Denver’s noise ordinance. fi ghts spill out from clubs into the streets. “Even now, I feel like there’s a lot of demand in that area, but I think they have to recover a little from recent events,” says Simonds. “We’re not a known quantity. We’re asking them to take us on face value. I think that they’re not ready to do that.” Part of the demand for a new electronic- music venue was created when Beta, once the top electronic-music club in Denver and located just a few blocks away, at 1909 Blake Street, was transformed into a hip-hop club by new owner Valentes Corleons. Now it’s closed altogether. “The reality is that most people in this scene know that Beta hasn’t been the same ever since it changed hands. I think a lot of people in the electronic-music scene felt the loss of what Beta used to be,” says Simonds. Simonds and Trahan say they have their funding and equipment ready, and are now looking for a new venue for their club. “We don’t need to be in a specifi c part of town. The biggest thing for us is being con- venient,” says Simonds. “It really depends on the space. There are so many variables in picking the right spot. We’re very choosy.” — MCCORMICK-CAVANAGH MAY 12-18, 2022 WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | westword.com JON SOLOMON
