8 JUNE 20-26, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | a buyer. So in 1967, they leased the Rossonian to Jerry Roseman; the next year, he passed the deed to Vera and Joseph Hamilton, who considered selling the hotel to the city so that it could be converted into a Denver County Jail work-release facility or halfway house. How- ever, the renovation would have been too costly. So the Rossonian stayed open as a hotel until 1973, even as business slowed to a trickle. The Hamiltons then sold the build- ing to Harry Goens Jr., a longtime city health inspector and developer. Goens sold it to his son, who sold the property to a business called PSTAR ONE Properties in 1986. Despite the building’s downward trend, the City of Denver wasn’t ready to call it quits on the Rossonian. In 1986, the Mayor’s Offi ce of Economic Development —- under the supervision of Federico Peña — loaned $378,000 to PSTAR ONE to improve the place. Less than a year later, the company defaulted on the loan, and the City of Denver became the Rossonian’s owner. In 1990, developer Tom Yates bought the property using a $350,000 MOED loan; two years earlier, he’d built and opened the nearby Five Points Plaza. By then, it had been announced that the city’s fi rst light-rail line would be built along Welton Street, as part of a revitalization plan. “We’re getting the boards off the windows,” then-Mayor Webb told the Rocky Mountain News of Yates’s plan to reopen the Rossonian as a jazz supper club. By 1994, when the RTD station on Welton Street fi nally opened, the City of Denver had loaned Yates almost $2.2 million. Though he’d gutted the inside, installed new plumbing, elec- tricity and carpeting and added an elevator, the Rossonian still hadn’t reopened for business. Part of the delay stemmed from unan- ticipated problems, including when a large section of the decorative cornice over the door fell off during a rainstorm. Asbestos was discovered, costing about $30,000 to remediate. But there were also concerns about Yates’s business practices. Several of his companies had gone bankrupt, and an investigation revealed he had misused insurance payments. The State of Colorado helped to form the Five Points Community De- velopment Corporation, which took over Five Points Plaza and became a partner in the Rossonian Limited Partnership, which was soon the Ros- sonian’s new owner. Things weren’t much better along the rest of Welton Street, where the light-rail line was proving a disap- pointment for Five Points, with peo- ple complaining about lost parking and a lack of stations. In 1993, the Denver Housing Authority helped bail out the Ros- sonian by signing a fi ve-year lease for around $12,000 per month, but the DHA moved out in 1998. The city again foreclosed on the property, af- ter losing around $1.5 million overall. Demolition of the building was out of the question; the Rossonian had been designated a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. In 2002, Five Points was named Denver’s fi rst cultural historic district, which offered fur- ther protection. But while the Ros- sonian was protected, it continued to deteriorate. Finally, longtime Five Points de- veloper and resident Carl Bourgeois, who’d founded the company Civil Technology, bought the hotel for $800,000 in 2006, according to tax assessor records. Bourgeois, who passed away last year, said he used to sneak out as a teen to visit the Rossonian in its prime. Bourgeois wanted to open the Rossonian as a jazz venue and upscale res- taurant, but in 2007 the development was halted due to infrastructure issues and fi - nancial infeasibility. The hotel continued to sit empty. In 2015, an idea was fl oated that Sage Hospitality, which runs the Crawford at Union Station and played a major role in the station’s revitalization, would become the operator of a luxury hotel at the Rossonian, but that never came to pass. Instead, Civil Technology began work- ing with developers Palisade Partners and Confl uence Companies to form a new entity called the Rossonian Partners. In 2017, Bourgeois sold the Rossonian for $6 million to an LLC created by Palisade Partners. In 2018, Palisade Partners un- veiled plans to reopen the Ros- sonian as a 41-room hotel, with a basement jazz club and fi rst-fl oor restaurant named for hometown hero Chauncey Billups, who would be part of the project. Although Billups soon dropped out, Palisade just piv- oted and kept planning. In 2022, the company submitted an appli- cation to renovate the Rossonian and add an annex with a new hotel connected to the historic one; Craine Architecture is the fi rm involved in the design. The plan would keep the Ros- sonian’s historic facade intact while demolishing the three buildings next to the Rossonian, which are also owned by Pali- sade. The result would be a hotel, restaurant and bar with some sort of music component; there’s also talk of a speakeasy lounge in the basement of the existing Rossonian. Palisade operates the Hooper, a hotel just down the street; the proposal calls for connecting the Rossonian development with the Hooper. Palisade submitted a presentation to Den- ver’s Landmark Preservation Commission in April with updated drawings and plans. “The historic Rossonian hotel, once an acclaimed jazz venue, is being rehabilitated to include a neighborhood-oriented restaurant, a new speakeasy music lounge, and a hotel addition (infi ll project),” the presentation notes. The plans propose replacing many of the worn-down existing elements of the building with in-kind treatments that meet current code while maintaining historic character. The developers also say that they will restore elements when possible, such as the historic neon sign over the door and cornice at the top of the building’s front entrance. In May, Landmark Preservation staff found that the plan for the annex hotel meets the Five Points Historic Cultural District Design Stan- dards & Guidelines, and suggested approval. The rehabilitation of the existing building is a separate matter, but the fi rst step of that rehabilitation — demolishing the roof — will be discussed at the public hearing on July 9. “Ownership remains fi rmly dedicated to the vision,” says Krystal Shores of Palisade Partners. And Five Points is eager for that vision to materialize. But in the meantime, the neigh- borhood just celebrated another Juneteenth, at which Billups was honored with a lifetime achievement award...a block from the still- boarded-up Rossonian. Email the author at [email protected]. News continued from page 6 The Denver Landmark Preservation Commission will consider these plans on July 9. PARADISE PARTNERS The Rossonian has seen a lot of history...and hard times. HISTORIC DENVER
