The Denver City Council voted unanimously late Monday not to designate the Channel 7 building at 123 E. Speer Blvd. a landmark.

Though it’s likely the red, octagonal “brutalist” architecture-style building will be demolished to make room for an apartment building tower, the developer signed a memorandum of understanding with the Capitol Hill United Neighborhood association.

“I will find tonight that this designation doesn’t meet the criteria,” said Councilwoman Robin Kniech, at-large. “I’m concerned about the fact that less rigorous evaluation in attempts to designate marginal buildings will weaken our overall regime when we need to preserve better examples.”

Denver land use committee sends Channel 7 building landmark status to city council

Kniech spoke to the Landmark Preservation Commission’s report, and decision to designate the 51-year-old red-hued concrete building.

Though she thanked staff for the hard work, she said “adjectives matter,” and words such as “significant” and “substantial” should be used only when an example rises to that level.

About 40 people spoke at the public hearing, which stretched longer than two hours until almost midnight.

The number of those who supported, and opposed, the designation were about equal on each side. Those who submitted written comments opposing the designation far outstripped those who supported it, 46-5.

“We are relieved that Denver City Council saw fit to deny this application,” said KMGH general manager Dean Littleton via email after the meeting.

“Their decision tonight allows us the freedom to move forward with our plans to continue growing and serving the people of Denver. We appreciate the careful consideration council gave to this issue.”

The landmark designation would have prevented the sale of the property to a development company that wants to build multifamily housing there. KMGH wants to consolidate its operations at a new downtown site, Littleton said.

KMGH applied for a certificate of non-historic status in December, so the building could be razed.

But in January, three Denver residents filed a notice with the LPC that they thought the building deserved landmark status.

Bradley Cameron, Michael Henry and David Lynn Wise are common names in Denver historic preservation circles, especially around the Capitol Hill area. All three spoke in favor Monday night.

Scripps Media Inc., the station’s owner, said it couldn’t find a potential buyer that didn’t want to demolish the building. The station has signed a letter of intent with New York-based developer Property Markets Group.

PMG and a local architecture firm explored the possibility of reusing the building, but it “concluded that such repurposing or incorporation is not feasible.”

Mediation sessions yielded no agreements.

“There were a number of key issues CHUN raised that were a lot of issues we were interested in ourselves,” said PMG Managing Director Evan Schapiro. “We are all about engaging local businesses, sustainable building and practices, public art and an opportunity to see if we can pay homage to the history of that site.”

Potential landmark status on Channel 7 building challenged

“Our team looks forward to continuing to work closely with neighbors and local design partners to deliver a thoughtful, contextual and exciting contribution to the community with inclusive street-level activation,” Schapiro said in an email after the meeting.

Several of those who testified cited Denver’s housing shortage, and said anyone wanting to building multifamily housing with some density should be encouraged. Others accused those of petitioning for landmark status as improperly using the law to prevent apartment developments.

“123 Speer is a terrible candidate for some adaptive reuse,” said Denver resident Greg Home. “We’ve got the privileged elite trying to stop development of multifamily housing here.”

But others supported the designation, saying Denver’s history needs to be preserved.

Caroline Schomp, who used to work at the Channel 7 building, said Scripps Media could expand on the existing lot.

“The original plans called for building another building to expand,” Schomp said. “Scripps rejected that. They have a desire to walk away with a pile of money and leave us with another undistinguished building with luxury apartment homes.”

“This is a monumental building,” said Mary Chandler, Denver resident who used to write about architecture for the Rocky Mountain News. “The loss of this tower would be a loss of the great architecture of the building. There’s been a resurgence in Brutalism appreciation. I fear if buildings like this are lost, Denver will just be Anywhere, USA.”

Councilman Chris Hinds, District 10, encouraged PMG to work with the neighborhood on what he called an important gateway to Denver’s downtown. He and several other council members talked about applying more stringent standards to landmark preservation when the owner opposes it.

“The process should be beyond reproach,” Hinds said. “We could be a national model for how to do historic preservation.”