The District 6 police station on Colfax Avenue will get some new neighbors, including workforce housing and retail space, as part of an upcoming city project.
The police station has dominated the block at Washington Street for a half-century, and city officials originally planned to keep it that way. The city planned to remodel the station and use the rest of the block for automobile parking.
But now the city is changing course, as Mayor Mike Johnston told Denverite on Tuesday.
“We're going to go forward with a plan for that site that will include both housing and a police station and retail on Colfax, all at the same time,” he said.
It’s a response to pressure from local leaders.
Back in December, Denverite reported that Colfax Avenue Business Improvement District head Frank Locantore was frustrated that the city was skipping a rare opportunity to build housing. He said the city hadn’t done enough outreach.
He was frustrated that parking at the lot would not be accessible to the general public or concertgoers and would be limited to the police department's use.
At the time, plans showed the city intended to use the entire block for the police station and leave the abandoned city-owned Pharmacy Building intact — and likely empty because of asbestos contamination.
Last year, the Department of Finance said the police department needed the entire block to meet the growing community’s needs — an argument Locantore and members of Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods disputed.
The police department argued that adding tall housing buildings would endanger officers, hypothesizing that they could be ambushed by gunfire from apartment windows.
But by January, the city had paused its construction plans to consider adding housing to the development. Building housing on public land has been a priority for Johnston since his campaign for mayor.
Johnston maintains he met with neighbors many times.
“I think their feedback was pretty clear, and I don't disagree with it, which is we want more housing on Colfax, we want more housing density, and we think it makes sense to have it wherever you have public land,” Johnston said.
The administration also plans to build housing at other public sites throughout the city, including at libraries.
Safety first?
In the months since construction was halted, the city found a way to address police concerns about officer safety. The new plan will add a cover that shields them as they walk from the parking lot to the building.
Additionally, housing will be situated on the site of the old Pharmacy Building. That’s far enough from the station, Johnston said, to reduce the chances of a shooting. The building has been used for police training and is contaminated with asbestos. The city will pay for the demolition and cleanup. No developer has been selected.
Locantore is still frustrated that the plan is moving forward with swaths of new police station parking where housing could be built.
"Their story in effect is that the publicly owned land that could hold 500 units of housing or more will not be developed with 200 parking spaces not accessible to our music venues, and maybe include 50 units of housing from some unicorn developer," he wrote to Denverite. "I apologize for not jumping for joy."
The police station is set to break ground this year and will be completed by the end of 2027, around when the bus rapid transit project on Colfax is scheduled to be completed. Housing will be built later by a private developer.
“We’re trying to align as much of this construction with BRT so when the fences go down, pencils are down and everybody’s ready to roll,” Johnston said. “We’re really excited about this win-win for the neighborhood.”
Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods recently wrote to the mayor, asking him to include their registered neighborhood organization — and Locantore — in all public and private conversations about the block. Johnston told Denverite he would do so.
