Denver could soon have a history museum.

The city is home to the History Colorado Center that recognizes the state’s heritage, but Denver is one of few cities without a history museum dedicated just to the city itself.

Aurora has one. So does Colorado Springs. Boulder and Breckenridge also have their own local history museums.

Denver Arts & Venues issued a request for proposals to find a partner for a Denver history museum at the McNichols Civic Center Building, the city agency announced Wednesday.

The museum would take up an 8,500-square-foot space — about the size of the new Cherry Cricket restaurant in Broomfield — on the second floor of the historic building located at Civic Center Park, the arts and venue agency said.

This next step is the city’s official process for accepting pitches from interested businesses or organizations, who must come up with a design for the museum and devise a plan on how it would run operations.

The city is accepting proposals up until 12 p.m. on Jan. 16.

“We’re excited to keep this transformational project moving forward with the release of the formal RFP,” Jen Morris, chief of staff for the agency, said in a press release.

Morris said the city saw a “tremendous amount of enthusiasm and energy” for the museum at the building during the [Request for Information] process that began last year.

“And we can’t wait to see the formal proposals that put us one step closer to making it a reality,” Morris added.

The McNichols Building is undergoing a revitalization project using money from the Denver Downtown Development Authority, the newly-expanded quasi-governmental organization that uses tax-increment financing to help spur investments in the city’s core and bring people back downtown.

The DDDA approved a $7 million loan in July to redevelop the McNichols Building to include a new restaurant with an outdoor patio, an arts marketplace, a potential artist-in-residence pilot program and an events space on the third floor.

Construction is slated to go through late 2027, according to the RFP.

The building, which has historic landmark status along with the rest of Civic Center Park, dates back to 1910 when it originally opened as the Carnegie Library. It was renovated in 2012.

“Connections to the building’s historical role as Denver’s former ‘center of learning’ are highly encouraged,” according to the RFP.

It also said exhibits may be permanent, semi-permanent, or rotating and highly encourages ideas that collaborate with local arts, historical and cultural organizations.

In 2023, community leaders including former City Council members created a nonprofit called Museum of Denver to push for the creation of a Denver history museum.

The nonprofit got support from all of Denver’s living former mayors such as Michael Hancock and Federico Peña to establish a museum celebrating the city’s history and culture.

“The extraordinary history of Denver, shaped by thousands of bold thinkers and doers, is unique in our nation and we need the Museum of Denver to memorialize our past to inspire future generations to continue to make Denver a Great City,” Peña said in a statement in September.

Earlier this year, the nonprofit said it was waiting for the next step in the process where the city would put out a formal request for proposals.

Now, that next step is here.

“The Museum of Denver has long been interested in establishing the first museum dedicated to Denver’s history,” said Kendra Black, former Denver City Council member and board chair of the nonprofit group, in an email.

The group already participated in the city’s Request for Information and will submit a proposal, Black added. “The Museum of Denver would help to activate the beautiful building, Civic Center Park and upper Downtown by attracting visitors who want to better understand how Denver came to be.”