The money to revitalize Downtown Denver is finally on the table — and there’s high interest in it.

The city opened applications earlier this month for developers, artists and businesses to access the $570 million fund brought about by Mayor Mike Johnston’s major downtown initiative to expand the Downtown Development Authority (DDA).

Before the applications became public, the city sent out a voluntary registration of interest and received more than 70 submission forms.

More than half expressed interest in using the money for private redevelopment and “adaptive reuse” projects, according to the city.

“Some of these are expensive transformations that are being proposed. Good news is we have money for investment,” said Bill Mosher, Denver’s chief projects officer and a longtime downtown developer, at a public information meeting on Thursday for interested applicants.

“The bad news is we don’t have enough money for everybody,” he added.

Downtown Denver has struggled ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit five years ago, when governments shut down businesses and limited public gatherings. It’s dealing with rising office and retail vacancies, further strained by the years-long 16th Street Mall renovation construction project, homelessness, and some high-profile violent and drug crimes recently. Foot traffic has yet to fully rebound.

Officials are looking for projects that can bring people back downtown, whether it’s through events, art pieces, or converting downtown’s old office buildings into housing. But they’re also looking for ideas that are fleshed out and realizable.

Applications are primarily for downtown property owners or business tenants.

How will the money be given out?

The DDA is a financing tool sanctioned by state law to use property and sales tax money generated over time within a city’s urban core to invest in projects expected to generate more economic activity.

It’s not an extra tax, but, rather, a source of money coming out of potentially rising tax values from existing property and sales tax levels.

The authority was created in 2008 to pay for Union Station’s 2014 major restoration. The city has just about paid it off and looked for other ways to keep the funding mechanism and the tax money already generated from the project.

The tool made a $400 million investment into Union Station. The economic output of that project is worth more than $2.3 billion, said Dawnna Wilder, capital planning project manager for the city’s Finance Department, at the meeting.

Johnston’s administration began working in May to expand the authority to cover the rest of the Central Business District, especially Upper Downtown, where the pain has been felt more strongly.

The initiative was overwhelmingly approved by voters from the original district boundaries in November’s election.

The purpose of the DDA, Wilder said, is to support catalytic investments that accelerate economic revitalization and create a “family-friendly, thriving and diversified” downtown.

Some ideas that officials mentioned are converting office buildings, creating new developments on vacant land, attracting more retail or restaurant businesses, or funding companies desiring to move downtown.

“When we talk about impact, we are talking about jobs again, we’re talking about sales tax revenue, talking about increased foot traffic, and most importantly, ground level activation,” said Adeeb Khan, executive director of Denver Economic Development and Opportunity.

Khan also said there’s a large need to invest in Upper Downtown to fill retail vacancies.

While Lower Downtown (LoDo) projects will still be considered, he said: “We want to dedicate dollars to where they’re needed most and will have the greatest impacts.”

City officials said 2025 will be a “pilot” year for the tax-increment financing tool, and changes to the process could come in future years.

Applications will be open on a rolling basis, according to the city, though there will be two primary investment rounds in the second and fourth quarters of the year.

There’s currently no budget for how much money will be given out this year, Wilder said. It’ll depend on the applications they receive.

“We don’t anticipate awarding all of the funding upfront,” Wilder said. “We’re just sort of in the preliminary steps of figuring out what projects are out there and what those gap needs are.”

It won’t be first-come, first-served, she emphasized.

The money is primarily meant to be used as “gap funding” to cover costs traditional lenders may not finance. Office conversions are considered risky and expensive, and developers who want to convert buildings struggle to get enough support from banks.

The DDA will finance up to 20% of total costs for development projects, according to the city.

The board of the DDA will evaluate how ready the project is, its financials, how much economic impact it could generate, and how much it aligns with Denver’s policy objectives, such as supporting sustainability, equity and creating more housing at different price points.

Once an application comes in, city staff will review the project to make a recommendation to the board. It could take between 30 to 90 days, according to the city.

The board will then review the city’s recommendation to accept or deny the application, which could take another 30 to 90 days. Any financing above $500,000 will then have to go to the City Council for approval.

There are three different ways the money will be given out.

There will be a traditional loan for projects that gain little-to-no property or sales tax generation over time — such as an art installation — to cover upfront costs. Another option is to get annual payments over some time based on how much tax increment is created from the project. The last financing mechanism is a lump sum, which Wilder compared to a grant given out once certain milestones are met.

“It truly is a diverse base of projects coming in,” said Kourtny Garrett, CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership, on what she’s heard from private developers, citing office conversions, new construction and pedestrian-level activations.

When asked if the downtown organization would apply for DDA’s funding, she replied, “We have not determined our role yet.”

Mosher later told The Denver Gazette that he expects maybe about two to five office conversions to come out of it and there’s another two or three new construction projects that are “great” but still several years away.

“I’m not giving up hope that the market will just come back downtown,” Mosher said.

He believes in three to six years, Denver can become a destination again. While there are some changes needed now, he said, it could take a few years for some of the largest projects to happen and spark a turnaround.

The DDA is considering timing as one of the factors across applications. If a big project is close to coming together but lacks money, Mosher said the purpose is to get it to the finish line.

“If we can be the little push to make something happen,” he said, “that will be ideal.”