Business, Arts, Workforce, & Aeronautical Services Committee - Regular Meeting

Welcome back to this monthly meeting of the Parks, Arts and Culture Committee of Denver City Council. Join us and the Parks, Arts and Culture Committee starting now.

Parks are in closure committee this morning, September 1st. I would like to welcome my colleagues, if Councilman Watson wants to start with introductions.

Daryl Watson, Fund, District 9.

Hi everyone, Serena Gonzalez Gutierrez, council member at large. Hi, Amanda Sawyer, District 5. And I'm Flora Alvarez. I'm stepping in for Chair Lewis at the moment. But we can go ahead and get started with our wonderful presentation, which everyone is very excited about, about the Vibrant Bond Projects. Go ahead, take it away.

Awesome. I'm Patrick Riley. I'm the program director for the Vibrant Denver Bond Office.

I'm Tad Bowman. I'm the venue director for Red Rocks Amphitheater and the Denver Coliseum for Arts and Venues.

Excellent.

So we have four actions that we're bringing forward today. We have the design contract with Short Elliott Hendrickson for the Red Rocks Backstage expansion and accessibility improvements. We have a funding assignment agreement for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, funding assignment agreement for the Denver Zoological Foundation, the Denver Zoo, and then a funding assignment agreement for the Denver Center for Performing Arts. So jumping right into Red Rocks. I'm going to take a slight moment here. Red Rocks was one of the projects we talked a lot about during the bond and the lead up. Music is this wonderful, amazing thing and Red Rocks gets to be this incredible venue that we have as a city where you can go and you can be absolutely alone in a sea of 9900 people and you get to experience this unique individual thing. with 9900 strangers and you get to be completely alone and somehow in tune with all of these other people at the same time. For me personally, my first show up there was in 2014 for Nine Inch Nails and got shocking and I got to watch Chris Cornell in his last show in Colorado before his passing. I got to experience that with all these strangers and it was like this beautiful moment. You might have got to watch Stevie Wonder close with Superstition, his first time playing. You might have been at the only show that Jeremy Hendrix ever played, which there's no photos or videos of. You could have been there when Miss Diana Ross came out too, coming out. It could have been there for Fish in 94, Dave Matthews in 95. You could have been there for Zach Bryan in the Snow Rock Show. U284. You two in 1983, sir. The only time that they've ever played.

Last show ever.

Yes. At Red Rocks. June 5th. To 4,400 fans and a half full venue in the cold. The day that I always say Red Rocks became Red Rocks. But what's amazing about Red Rocks in particular is I've been to hundreds if not thousands of shows and... I don't remember a lot about a lot of them, but I remember every single time I've walked through the doors of Red Rocks for a show. And my guess is my experience is no different than a lot of yours. So it's a fantastic venue that is this icon that we are so, so grateful to have. And I'm so personally pleased to see this finally come to fruition. I don't know if you want to say anything and prepare you for this. I'm not sure what else to say over all of that.

I've gotten to be there for probably 1,600 or 1,700 nights, night after night after night. So I appreciate everything that Patrick just said.

What this project is, is an expansion to the backstage area. Right now, there is a parking lot there. We plan on building a five-story building there, a good chunk of it underground. We understand that the building needs to be subordinate to the stage. It has to disappear. Right now, the existing backstage was built in the 40s. It is under the stage. It is not ADA compliant. It just does not fit the needs of this level of venue. We did a basis of design back in 2018 into 2019 with the hopes that one day we'd be able to do this, and we are fortunate enough to now be able to do that. We received a outpouring of support from the design community, 19 total proposals, over 100 people at the pre-bid, and we are now bringing forward this contract for your approval. As we said earlier, the backstage is not accessible from an ADA standpoint. There's no elevators. The ramps to get to and from the stage that we ask our staff to go up and down in early seasons and late seasons can get pretty slick and uncomfortable. We also ask our performers to go up and down these same ramps.

I'll mention a story about those ramps is when the building was designed, it was made so that horses could get up and down. So that's where our performers have to get up and down. So it is tough. I've seen some of the performers have trouble getting up and down those ramps and needing assistance to get to the stage.

Additionally to that, you can kind of see in the pictures, while we are expected to be able to meet catering needs, basic needs of a venue of this purpose, it is very cramped, under ventilated or in some cases non-ventilated. We sometimes have to feed quite a few people on these tours and it's just insufficient. which leads to what the new expansion would do. First and foremost, it would give us ADA compliance. We would get an elevator, we would get proper tie-ins into the rest of the building, we'd be able to get to the stage without going up those ramps. It would let our workers be able to move things around, sometimes very heavy pieces of equipment and carts, without having to push them up those ramps. It would give us Covered parking and a more secure environment for us bringing performers in. Right now, performers park outdoors and we have to shuttle them in, sometimes in full view of the patrons. It would also give us production offices and storage facilities that we just lack. It would give us a proper kitchen and dining room that we obviously lack right now. In the construction of this, we will make sure that we maintain all the sight lines that are so critical to the Red Rocks experience. So no sight lines will be impacted. We will make sure that we maintain the sight lines from the amphitheater. So this contract is a $4.73 million contract to run through December 1st of 2030. That will include the construction administration timeframe during the construction to not impact the seasons at Red Rocks. We will be building this in the off seasons over multiple years. So it's going to be a build, kind of put it back in place so that way the season can happen as we get into the next year, take it back apart, continue our build. So that's the longer timeframe for the build. Again, it is a challenging place to work, and we are prepared for that. why SEH was successful and why they're the right contractor for us. They have a history here. They did the feasibility study. They did the roof replacement a couple years ago, which was very well balanced with the historic nature of the venue while also being subordinate again to the stage. It just kind of blends in. It doesn't stand out and have you know, very look at me moments. They understand what it means to do work up there. They understand what the stage access looks like, what all the challenges that we already face there. They understand that this is a National Historic Landmark and the amount of eyes that will be on this. They understand that this is about the venue and not about themselves. So anything that I missed there?

Nope.

Okay. into the funding assignment agreements. So during the bond process, it was decided for the tier one culturals to give them each buckets of roughly three million a piece. So we asked the tier one culturals to come back to us with project ideas. So each one gave us slightly different things. Obviously I have different needs. For the Museum of Nature and Science, they chose to really focus on the deferred maintenance needs at the facility. They said that they have a harder time fundraising for those things. So they are focusing on their life safety systems, their fire alarm and fire suppression, as well as their HVAC equipment that is at end of life. For the zoo, they are focusing on their guest experience hub. That is their kind of entry plaza. They'd like to bring in some new food and beverage options there and really improve some guest circulation. That's right at the front. And then for this Denver Center for the Performing Arts, they would like to address some security issues right at their front, really relocate their box office, consolidate their front entry, do some wayfinding and exterior signage improvements, and really work on their lobby activation. So they're really focused on that lobby area. Always going to plug our dashboard. All of this information can be found on our dashboard, denvergov.org slash vibrantbond. We're very proud of it. Please go visit. And with that, we're done with our presentation and hand it over to you.

Thank you so much. We have a few members in the queue. The first being Councilwoman Alvidrez, followed by Councilwoman Sawyer.

Thank you, committee chair. Great, exciting, since you shared your first and favorite Red Rocks. I've had a ton of amazing Red Rocks experiences, but my first was as a kid waking up at an ungodly early hour going to Easter Sunday at Red Rocks, which is a very special thing to experience. So that's a fun one. Um, one of my questions, just thinking about, first of all, thanks for having us, Mr. Bowen moment. When we went down there, it was very helpful to get backstage since I've never had that privilege before and see the upgrades that were needed. It's also the coolest backstage. I feel like with the actual rocks, uh, visible back there. And it was interesting to see the food service. I didn't think about that need. Um, but one of the things that strikes me about what you said, Mr. Riley was that, um, You want to do this just in the off season and then we have to do it within six years and we're adding five stories? Tell me more of how that's a realistic expectation. How long is that off season?

So the off season is typically about four and a half, five months. And the idea is to get the first season, get excavation, utility, all of that kind of work done. And then we just need to make sure logistically we can make sure that the season happens because obviously the Red Rocks shows really generates the revenue for Red Rocks, but for the whole agency. So I think part of the process is to really figure out construction wise and we're going to be working with a CMGC to help work through all of those details to make it happen. I think there's going to be some determination on do we get the first off season work done and then stop and then pick up the next off season or Is the site contained enough that we can continue to do some work during the days even without impacting the show? So I think even worst case scenario you're talking about probably two and a half, three year period to get the construction done.

And this season will just be design or is the design already done?

This is for the design now, so this will be really pushing for design through this year to to hopefully get to a place where we can do foundation permits and start construction next off season.

So 27, so in like fall winter of 27, we'd start excavating. That does make me nervous, especially doing things like excavating and leaving soils exposed over the summer. I don't know exactly what that looks like, but I appreciate that we want to keep Red Rocks open to the public, but just on the surface, that sounds concerning. Then the overall budget, if you could remind me, for the Red Rocks particular project is?

Do you want to stand up at the mic and introduce yourself?

Chris Adams will be the project manager for this project and the vibrant bond funding for this project is $35.1 million.

So then it'll be about $30 million for construction since almost $5 million is going to design?

Yes, that's correct. OK, great. Well, good luck with that.

Thank you. But I hope to get more updates as this project unravels because I am very concerned about leaving a construction project a third of the way done or a quarter or a fifth of the way done every single year for the next few years. And staying within budget with the uncertainty of that. So I'll flag that issue. That's all I had. Thank you so much.

You did ask about, I think, the number of stories. Did you ask that question? Yeah. So as Patrick said, two of the floors are below grade. So what you see above is just three that are, I'm going to say, subservient to the existing building.

So this is because backstage is not that many stories.

Because what you see backstage is all above ground. So yeah, but the stage itself, it is at least three stories going up for sure.

The stage itself is also getting construction.

No. So you said the current backstage. Current backstage is underneath the stage area. And then we have the towers that go up on either side. And those are three levels going up. Correct.

And those are also being renovated.

Nope. But it's the new backstage expansion is going to be subservient. Like it's not going to be as tall as the current towers are so that it's not as imposing.

But it will come above ground.

Yeah. There are some floors that come above grade from the backstage parking lot.

So will there be more rooms?

Yes, which are desperately needed.

Okay, great. Well, definitely feel like we need to have more updates along the road, but I'm excited to see what happens. Thank you so much, Committee Chair.

Thank you so much, Councilwoman Svigg.

Thanks Madam Chair. Thanks you guys. I am also super excited about this. Love Red Rocks and really appreciate you taking us on our budget retreat around a tour of it. It was really valuable for me to see the challenge of getting the performers up the hill. Maybe I'm old, but there's a challenge for me to get up the hill. And I certainly don't think I could pull off like a two and a half hour show on top of that hike. So I have a lot of empathy for that. But one of the most amazing pieces of Red Rocks is the backstage piece, the fact that the Rocks, The rooms are actually built into the rocks and like if it rains or the snows, like the water runs down through the rooms. And I don't want to lose that in this. So can you just tell me a little bit about, and I know the design is not done yet, the conversations that you're having around how we're going to make sure that we maintain that sort of amazing and unique Red Rock experience while also upgrading it because it needs it?

Absolutely. I'll tell you. So we did a feasibility slash concept design a handful of years ago when we were also doing the work on the stage roof. One of the key elements in that design is to make sure that you still have that rock experience in the dressing rooms and in the dining room. So the rock that will be abutting will continue to have that rock exposed. So when you come to Red Rocks, you're still gonna have that Red Rocks experience when you're an artist. You're gonna feel like you're connected to the rocks. It's a key point of the project.

Okay, that's great. I'm really glad to hear that because I think that that's incredibly important and something we don't...

It's so unique, right, out in the industry. I just had a chance to go to a couple of other venues a couple weeks ago and really great backstage areas at Wolf Trap in D.C. And really nicely done, but it doesn't have that uniqueness to being backstage at Red Rocks. So that's really important to us and for all the shows that come through.

Okay, that's really great. And I will say I'm not special, so I don't get to go backstage at concerts. So I haven't seen a lot of backstages, but the backstage at Red Rocks is something else. how does that like logistically how does that work right does that uh is landmark involved is through cpd or is historic denver involved or is it the federal is it shipbo like how do we get the approvals that we need in this case it is a denver landmark it's a national historic landmark as well um but really the process goes through denver since it's a denver landmark that that's the um

jurisdiction having authority kind of thing, right? So all of this will have to go through Denver Landmark and get their buy-off on what we're doing.

Okay, got it. So is that through? You may not know this. Patrick, you might know this. Is that through the Landmark Commission that needs to review everything, not just... Like Kara and her team within the commission commission.

Cool. Okay.

Great. Really appreciate that. And I will just say for the cultural who are getting the 3Million dollars each, I really appreciate you walking through what each of those organizations are using those dollars for. I think it's great. Obviously, I think we all wish we could have given each of them more, but really appreciate that at least we kind of know where those sellers are headed and what they're going to do with them. And I think that's great.

Fully supportive. Thanks, Madam Chair. Thank you so much, Councilman Watson.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair. I want to share, my first concert isn't what I want to highlight about Red Rocks. I'm a Syntomian, a West Indian. In 1980, Five, I believe, I snuck downstairs. I was in 10th grade. I snuck downstairs on a Saturday night and watching Saturday night videos. Any folks that are old as me knew on ABC at late night, they had this thing called Saturday night videos, at least in the islands we did. And I saw this video came on screen and these folks were performing on this place that looked like Mars. was red and the wind was blowing from the ground up and this band that I loved that had a record out that I loved album out and they were jamming like crazy in this rain and the folks are going nuts and I sat there mesmerized and at the end of the video I came up U2 at Red Rocks and that's why I said 84 it was 1983 their concert and That sealed why I applied to University of Colorado, because I wanted to see Mars. I wanted to see that space and place. And a dumb 17-year-old, I got up here in June. Within a week or so, I hitchhiked. Children watching, don't do this. I hitchhiked to Red Rocks. Didn't have a car, didn't know a soul, but I hitchhiked to Red Rocks to sit there and to, someone drove me up there and drove me back. Very nice person. And I got to see Red Rocks for myself. So it was what brought me to Colorado and why I have such a great love. I'm always out there watching concerts and Thank you so much, Tad and team, for really working to make sure that we had West Tracks up and running for a free shuttle service to Red Rocks connecting to the W. I know it's our first season doing it. The hope is to bring it to the Red Rocks Amphitheater for concerts. That has nothing to do with today's presentation, but I want to say I so appreciate the thoughtfulness of building that back area. Why we bands still come to Red Rocks is because of who we are, but it's not because of the comfort. we provide to them and there is very little comfort, but they come by the hundreds and they're fighting to perform here because we have the best theater. And so this $35.1 million that you will be, your hands will be on and we're gonna hold you accountable. We're gonna be calling you day and night to make sure you hit the, the the stuff for the next six years but we love this amenity and it's so great that we have mountain parks that we can celebrate and have communities come to so thank you for presenting this i'm honored to serve the fine district nine i have two amazing facilities that are receiving bond dollars and we have the amazing the talented crystal de herrera And I'm wondering, do you want to share a little bit as to why these bonds of dollars are so important to Denver Zoo? And if you don't mind coming up to the mic and introducing yourself and explaining to folks beyond the great presentation that Patrick did, why this is so important to you.

Absolutely. Thank you all so much. I would also say the zoo just celebrated its 130th anniversary or birthday, if you will. So, so exciting. When you think about 150 for the state, 130 years for the zoo, it's pretty amazing that Coloradans have really grown up with a zoo that they love. And also important is that we're a community asset. So when we think of being 130 years old and all the community that we serve, when you guys come to the zoo, America's at the zoo. They look like all of us. It's everyone from all walks of life. It doesn't matter how much money you make, who you love, what you believe, everybody's there. And it's just this incredible place of joy and belonging for our entire community. So for us, these bond dollars are so critical, both as we take care of an aging facility and invest in our future. And so for our project, it's in the oldest part of the zoo. where the zoo was actually started. We call it Bear Mountain and that plaza right in front of it. And it's really to renovate that and create an incredible gathering space right next to the train and the carousel right there by Bear Mountain where people can have new food and beverage and a place for communities to gather. But As you guys all know, we take care of thousands of animals. And so just being able to reinvigorate this space and protect our legacy and be this incredible gathering and spark community is something that the Vibrant Denver Bond Dollar has helped us do. So thank you all for that investment. It's just so essential for all the culturals. So we appreciate you.

Thank you so much. Thank you for the flock party. What an amazing event that y'all just held. And then the Denver Museum for Nature and Science. I'm not sure if someone is here from that organization, but even though maybe someone isn't here because they're opening their east entrance and their event is happening right now. Right now. invited to go there. I chose to come here because the bond piece was so important, but they're opening that east entrance right now. So everyone that's involved with the Denver Museum for Nature and Science, those bond dollars are so essential. Thank you for breaking that down for the maintenance for the HVAC and all the stuff that they absolutely need to make sure that our kiddos and folks that go there and our schools that spend so much time there that are there so i'm excited i don't get a vote on this committee but i am ecstatic and i appreciate the presentation from both of you and from the leaders and folks here in the audience from both of those culturals thank you manager

I don't know if it's acceptable. George Sparks, who's the President and CEO of the Museum of Nature and Science, did write a letter. I can read it to the group if that's acceptable. I'm not sure how this normally works. It came in yesterday, so it was a little late to get it in to you all. On behalf of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, I want to express our gratitude for the City's continued partnership and support through the Vibrant Denver Bond. Each year, more than 1.3 million people visit the museum, making it essential that this city-owned facility remains safe, reliable, and welcoming for generations to come. The $3 million in bond funding will support critical infrastructure improvements, including the replacement of aging fire detection and suppression systems and mechanical systems that have reached the end of their service life. These investments protect an important public asset and help ensure the museum can continue serving the citizens of the City and County of Denver. Yours respectfully, George Sparks, President, CAO.

Thank you so much. With that, we don't have anyone else in the queue. And if there's no objection to moving these in a block, I would appreciate that. So moved. Thank you. Second. Number one. Thank you. And do we need a roll call vote? With that, we have one item on consent. And with that, we are adjourned. Thank you all for being here. Thank you.