DENVER — Denver is writing some pretty big checks for a city that's also making cutbacks to pay for the ongoing migrant crisis.
On Tuesday, Denver city council pushed forward a plan to buy two buildings for more than $100 million.
On the agenda were presentations from the Department of Finance on a $90 million plan for the city to buy the Denver Post building downtown, and a $25 million proposal to buy a hotel in south Denver to house the homeless.
As the mayor asks every agency from the police department to the animal shelter to collectively cut $180 million from the city budget this year, Denver isn’t stopping its spending.
"I want to acknowledge that we recognize there is a $180 million budget reduction that the city is considering and that we’re all working together to try and figure out how to address," Jessica Skibo with the Denver Department of Finance said.
The plans, the finance department says, would save Denver money in the long run compared to leasing space.
"That actually reduces the general fund costs by a million dollars in 2024," Skibo told council.
But the timing still raises questions from people like councilmember Amanda Sandoval.
"It seems like there’s this contradiction. We’re facing a $180 million budget fall. We’ve barely recovered form COVID. Why are we doing this transaction now? Why not within a year?" City Councilwoman Amanda Sandoval asked.
The former Embassy Suites hotel in south Denver is now being used for the mayor’s homelessness initiative. Denver is paying $825,000 a month to lease it, nearly $10 million a year. The plan is to buy it now for around $25 million and sell it in three years.
"We would’ve paid $30 million to lease the property versus approximately three million in interest, at which point in time we’d be able to resell the property," said Guadalupe Gutierrez-Vasquez with the finance department.
Last year, Denver bought the Best Western hotel for almost $26 million to house the homeless. It leases the Radisson for more than $10 million a year and the Doubletree for around $1 million. This deal would add another $25 million to the spending on the mayor’s homelessness initiative.
The city is buying the Denver Post building, which is currently about 50% empty. The plan is to eventually move some of the courts into the building. The deal would save the city about a million a year compared to leasing, but Denver has to fork over a lot of money to buy the building in the first place.
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