7 AUGUST 1-7, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | Sometime early on April 24, the Clocktower Cabaret experienced a literal shitshow. It wasn’t discovered until 9 a.m., when the venue manager arrived to receive liquor deliveries and found the basement-level establishment fl ooded with untreated city sewage. The backup — which also fl ooded the boiler room for the entire D&F Clocktower at 1601 Arapahoe Street — was caused by an error on the part of PCL Construction, which had been awarded a $149 million contract for the 16th Street Mall Project...but didn’t realize that the Clocktower was tied to city systems. Local businesses have already been complaining about all the obstacles that the lengthy construction project has created, but this mess was particularly crappy. “Supporting local businesses is a top priority for the city,” says Laura Swartz, communications director for the Denver Department of Finance, which is helping to oversee the 16th Street project. “We are com- mitted to working closely with all businesses to ensure any issues caused by construction are mitigated quickly and effi ciently.” After learning of the backup, she adds, the city fi led an initial claim with Zurich Insurance within 24 hours of the incident. The D&F Clocktower is divided into con- dominiums; the basement level is owned by Selene and Jefferson Arca, who purchased it in 2006 and turned it into a performance space with then-partner Lannie Garrett. While waiting for PCL and the city to cover the damages, the Arcas called HRS Restora- tion to clean the place and canceled shows in the meantime. “HRS Restoration did an amazing job,” says Selene Arca. “It was such a mess. Inches of standing raw sewage. Thousands of gal- lons of it, everywhere. Once they’d done their work cleaning everything — not just the fl oors, but every chair, every table, every- thing — we had to then replace pretty much anything that was fabric. We had to rebuild the booth. We’d just put down new carpet in November, and that was obviously ruined.” In the interest of time, the Arcas paid for everything so that the Cabaret could reopen, and soon. They saved receipts, since they’d been promised that they’d be reimbursed by representatives of the construction company, the city and their insurance adjusters. By the time the Cabaret fi nally did reopen, the Arcas had roughly $22,000 in repair and cleaning invoices, along with an estimated $50,000 in lost income for the ten days — including two weekends — that the Clocktower was closed. But as of late July, the Arcas had not seen a penny of reimbursement. “The insurance carrier has since mailed reimbursement checks to Clocktower Caba- ret twice, although Clocktower Cabaret re- ports that they have not received the checks,” says Swartz. “The city is currently working with the insurance carrier and Clocktower Cabaret to get to the root of this issue, and ensure Clocktower Cabaret is fully reim- bursed.” Contacted for comment, Robyn Ziegler, Zurich’s senior manager of External Com- munications, says that the company has no record of the case. “I am not fi nding anything with the name you have provided,” Ziegler says. “Possibly identifi ed differently. That said, it is not our practice to provide infor- mation about a claim to anyone other than the parties involved.” Two of the parties involved are getting tired of waiting — not just for a check cover- ing the site damage, but also reimbursement for the loss of income. That’s supposed to be handled by Crawford & Company, a claims management firm, EVAN SEMÓN continued on page 8
