20
/ BUILDING DIALOGUE / DECEMBER 2014
by
Joy Spatz, AIA
Looking back over nearly 30 years, you have made a
significant mark on downtown Denver, both as the
executive director at Denver Urban Renewal Authority
(1987 to 1998) and then as a developer. How did you find
your way to the DURA executive director position?
I have a degree in city planning and went to grad school
in Tucson, Arizona. I actually went to school with Bill Mosher
– small world. Then, after six years in Nevada, a friend, Sam
Mamet, who was working at the Colorado Municipal League
at the time, encouraged me to apply for the city of Englewood
planning director position. So that’s how I came to Colorado.
I had been at the city of Englewood for about seven years
when the DURA executive director position became available.
At that time, I had a 6-month-old and a 3 ½-year-old, so I didn’t
apply for it. I considered it but wondered how I could handle
that job with two young children.
DURA had been searching and a headhunter kept calling
me, asking me to apply. So I came downtown for an interview
and met John Moye, who was on the board at that time, and I
fell in love with him!
How could you not?
He just said, “We can do this together, We can do this!”
In the late ’80s and early ’90s, downtown wasn’t a family friendly
place. Under your watch, DURA launched 18 projects, which was
quite an achievement. Did you know the work you were doing
was going to precipitate a rebirth for the 16th Street Mall?
It wasn’t just me; we had a group of amazing people who all
came together with dedication and commitment to each oth-
er and to downtown. We knew the work was important and
necessary. Peña was mayor at the time, and he started to re-
place boardmembers onmy board with new people – and the
board became this group of energetic and thoughtful leaders
who shared my a commitment to turn downtown around,
without tearing it down (which had been DURA’s past).
We looked at what we had and knew we had these
incred-
ible buildings!
There was a lot at stake. At that time, a third of the buildings
downtown along the mall were vacant and boarded up, and
most were empty upstairs.
We can’t say “that’s an incredible park-
ing lot” and get anything meaningful
from that. But you can say “that’s an in-
credible building” and garner commitment
to bring it back.
For example, the Denver Dry Goods de-
partment store building was an asset and one we all agreed
we needed to capitalize on. It was 350,000 square feet, and at
that time there wasn’t any single user who was going to occu-
py the building, so we had to figure out how to fill it up. We
ended up breaking it into seven distinct projects, each with its
own financing and use.
That project took many years to complete and 23 lenders.
There were several times when we didn’t know if it was going
to come together. We assembled a blend of public and private
investment for a project that was a mix of retail, housing and
office space to make that project work.
In the early ’90s, no one could imagine this could be
the
downtown of the country – failure was not an option! There
was an energy and a sense of responsibility to make this hap-
pen.
There is something about the public responsibility that
came with the DURA job and, with it, a fantastic group of peo-
ple to work with: Mayor Peña and Mayor Webb, John Moye,
Jerry Glick, Bruce Alexander, Cathy Reynolds, Jennifer Moulton
with the city of Denver, a great team at DURA and countless
others at the time giving their all to make downtown come
alive again.
All of these people woke up every morning saying, “We’re
going to make this happen. We can’t screw this up. There is
too much at stake”
Most of the 18 projects in downtown were incredibly complex
and challenging: Elitch Gardens’ relocation from the Highlands
to the Central Platte Valley, the conversion of two city blocks
to create the Pavilions, etc. What defines the most challenging
projects? What do you draw upon to make it through them?
Looking back on it now, I would say that the financing was
the toughest part of the projects, but there were incredibly
stubborn people involved who were determined to figure out
how to make the projects pencil out.
The most challenging projects were ones with difficult de-
velopers who challenged my value system.
How many times did it take for a “values conflict”
to bring you self-awareness that values were important?
I think you pick up a person’s values pretty quickly.
I know that there’s a world out there that I’m not going to
agree with all the time and that’s fine, but I always hope that
a community as a whole shares some common values about
what kind of city we want to be. I think the current debate
about affordable housing in the city is one example of how
our community’s values are reflected in public policy.
We have a problemhere andwe can’t just ignore it anymore.
It’s not good for our community to not have diverse housing
stock and for people, to not have a choice about where they
want to live in the city.
We don’t want to become San Francisco – I’d love to be-
come San Francisco in many ways, but in terms of housing
and housing pricing and inclusion, we do not want to emulate
San Francisco. I’d like to live in a city that has opportunities
for all to live here. For the first time in Denver’s history, the
Sages & Stars
Susan Powers
When we think about our current prosperity and abundant
development opportunities for contractors and architects, it is
hard to overlook the last 30 years of changes Colorado’s real
estate leaders created for us. Those changes enabled Denver to
recover from the recent recession and achieve a vibrancy that
fuels our future.
Who were the people who had a hand in the projects that
opened the door for our current prosperity and what are
their stories?
Who among us will be meeting the challenges of tomorrow
and blazing trail ahead for Colorado’s future?
They are the Sages whose stories offer us wisdom. They are
theStarswho see thepotential for our futureandwhose tireless
commitment offer opportunities for future generations.
We invite you to enjoy our interviews with Colorado’s Sages
and Stars andwelcome your nominations for future interview
candidates.
