Nightclub, restaurant eyed for building on downtown edge after $1M sale
The building at 2019 Stout St. has sold at least five times since 2008, been foreclosed on once, and currently isn’t much more than four walls and a roof.
“It’s basically a shell, they acquired a shell. It doesn’t have electrical, it doesn’t have plumbing,” said Matt Call of NavPoint Real Estate.
The latest sale of the 12,000-square-foot building on the edge of downtown Denver happened earlier this month, when records show Bernard Faraone paid $975,000, or $83 per square foot, to buy the property from Beacon Church.
Around the same time, Faraone’s architect at M Moser Associates submitted plans to the city proposing to turn the one-story, 92-year-old brick building into a nightclub and restaurant space.
Farone did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did the church, which operates in Uptown at 1615 N. Ogden St.
The plans call for three-pronged redevelopment of the space, which would be called Chapter. The main level would hold a 5,500-square-foot restaurant, while the 6,200-square-foot basement would house a club. A rooftop space also would be added.
Both the basement and main level have 14-foot ceilings with a “raw and industrial” feel, according to Call, who represented the church in the sale this month.
“I don’t know the last time someone operated there,” he said.
The church purchased the property in 2021 for $1.5 million, according to public records. Pastor CB Barthlow told Denverite in 2023 that the organization hoped to fix up and operate in the building, but ultimately determined that was too costly.
The building still bears the name of Carson Press, a onetime occupant that published guides and books about Denver’s early growth around the turn of the 20th century.
Call said he listed the property for sale about six months ago for $1.45 million. He had interest from retail, restaurant and office users, including another nightclub concept, and planned to speed up the process by putting it up for auction.
“The auction inevitably forces everything into a funnel and forces decision-making from anyone interested,” he said.
Faraone’s group sent over an enticing offer and “usurped” the auction, which would have started bidding at $250,000, Call said. He’d expected the building to sell “in the neighborhood” of $1 million.
“When you can take the chance of uncertainty off the table, that’s what you want to do.”
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The building at 2019 Stout St. has sold at least five times since 2008, been foreclosed on once, and currently isn’t much more than four walls and a roof. “It’s basically a shell, they acquired a shell. It doesn’t have electrical, it doesn’t have plumbing,” said Matt Call of NavPoint Real Estate. The latest sale…