DALLAS - Denver is considering improvements to Boettcher Concert Hall with bonds that were sidelined for seven years by the Great Recession.
The city is submitting a request for qualifications from architectural and engineering firms for $19.3 million of repairs to the concert hall that anchors the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in the heart of downtown.
The budget is about a third of what was approved by voters in 2007 under the Better Denver Bond Program. Plans to spend more than $60 million were discarded after the Colorado Symphony Orchestra failed to raise its $30 million contribution in 2009.
Current plans call for interviews with short-listed qualifiers on May 6, with a contract expected to be signed later that month. Construction would begin in the summer of 2015 and end a year later, according to the RFQ.
Boettcher opened in 1978, and improvements to acoustics were made in 1993. The city wants to spend money on upgrading the original heating, cooling and plumbing.
The $550 million Better Denver Bond Program approved by voters in 2007 provided funding for numerous city projects. In 2013, the city refunded $60.8 million of certificates of participation for the Buell Theater that is part of the DCPA. The certificates carried ratings of AA-plus from Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings, and Aa1 from Moody's Investors Service, all with stable outlooks. Denver's general obligation debt is rated triple-A.
