The board of the Five Points Business Improvement District will ask Denver City Council to extend its term for another decade — giving its new leadership a chance to build the momentum and trust some say it lost during the height of the pandemic.
While it represents one of Denver’s most storied neighborhoods, the BID is just finishing its first term, earning mixed reviews from business and property owners in its borders. It formed in 2016, succeeding the nonprofit Five Points Business District. The BID uses property taxes from commercial property owners to fund trash services, events, marketing and more.
After its leader, Tracy Winchester, left in 2019, the BID was run by the Downtown Denver Partnership, though Five Points is in a different neighborhood. During a public hearing on the BID renewal on Wednesday, Five Points business and property owners said that it led them to become skeptical about the effectiveness of the organization.
“I think it kind of languished for a good eight years where they did a lot of boneheaded moves, wasted a lot of money and did nothing for us,” Myron Melnick, a local property owner, said.
Others agreed. Many were unhappy with the BID’s direction, but just as many said the BID has turned things around and is showing promise after hiring Norman Harris, a local businessman and member of a longtime Five Points family, as its executive director in Jan. 2024.
Joshua Pollack, who owns Rosenberg's Bagels and Delicatessen, said the new leadership is on the right track.
“If a BID can take the voice of this community and tell the city what we need from them, we're going to get things done,” Pollach said.
Not everyone was sold.
Opponents of the BID renewal included several longtime Five Points residents and business owners, including Charles Foster, Maedella Stiger and Catherine Wallace.
Foster, a Five Points preservationist and history tour guide, said the leadership has lost sight of the neighborhood’s historic ties to Denver’s Black community.
“How can you start and say that you represent an African American historical district?” Foster said. “You’re not even understanding the roots of it. You have to understand the roots of it in order for it to be progressive.”
Wallace, who has owned the Five Points Beauty and Barber Supply since 1982, said she has not seen enough proof that her property taxes are being wisely spent by the BID.
“I do not think the board has adequately given us the respect and communications that it needs to continue,” she said.
Some brought up the fences that went up during the Five Points Jazz Festival, which deterred attendees from entering nearby businesses along Welton Street.
Dr. Renee Cousins King described Harris as a “visionary” but said the decision about the BID’s renewal should be left to the neighborhood. She and several others suggested shortening the BID’s next term to an abbreviated five-year period.
“The board will vote and then City Council will vote,” Dr. King said. “It makes me feel like people who actually are running the show down here don't have as much input, and I do think we should be able to provide input or they should take us seriously, and then they should take that to City Council.”
Ultimately, the BID board voted to ask the council for a term renewal.
The board voted 4-2 to forward the renewal proposal to Denver City Council.
Maedella Stiger and Nina Rupp both voted against the proposal. Rupp had previously read a letter stating she and other businesses at the 21st and Welton block would like to be removed from the BID’s boundaries. Stiger brought up her frustrations with the fences during several of Five Point’s jazz festivals when asked about her vote afterwards.
Haroun Cowans, the board’s president, said he voted to extend the term because he sees Welton Street’s potential.
“I think we're well-positioned in the next 10 years to see even much more momentum because the BID is not the same as it was pre-COVID,” Cowans said.
Harris, the executive director, said the BID will keep reaching out to local businesses and residents, even those who disagree with the renewal.
“We have a vision that this is one-of-a-kind neighborhood and one-of-a-kind place, and I think it really is a melting pot where so many different people come to enjoy the beautiful offerings of small businesses and the architecture, places like the Blair-Caldwell Library, places like Welton Street Cafe,” he said. “So we're going to just continue to advance this corridor equitably and continue to invest in its vibrancy.”
It’s shaping up to be a significant next few years for Welton Street. The city will soon study the future of transit along the corridor, even considering whether the Regional Transportation District’s L Line should be removed from the neighborhood.
The BID renewal is not yet on City Council’s agenda. Before a final vote, the council will hold a public hearing.
