The City broke ground yesterday for the controversial new City Hall. This project began in 2019, when Coors offered to sell their corporate headquarters to the City. The City was pleased, because they had been looking for more office space for City staff, hoping to build facilities for the City's museums and theater, and wanting affordable housing. The Coors building was big enough to accommodate all of those desires.
The City bought it for $12 million, but quickly decided that the building wasn't suitable—they would need to demolish it and build a new one.
The Coors building was demolished in 2021 and the process of planning a new one began thereafter. The project is expected to cost $60-65 million. It will not include cultural facilities or affordable housing. The "controversial" element of the project arose from City Council's decision to incur this debt without allowing taxpayers to vote on the issue. Review the Coors property/City Hall saga here.
