Fittingly, the building where DURA is housed, the Denver Dry Building, is one of its successful redevelopment projects and one of the first photos on the timeline. The wall held before and after photos of the authority’s modern-era projects in chronological order, starting in 1992. On a recent Friday morning, Huggins sat next to a wall inside a conference room at DURA headquarters in downtown Denver. ![]() They were the first places the city found to have “slum conditions.” Its first four projects were Avondale, Blake Street, Jerome Park and Whittier. As the executive director at Denver Urban Renewal Authority (DURA), a quasi-governmental organization, her job is to explain how it works and why she deems the designation necessary.ĭURA was created in 1958 by the City Council. “Urban renewal” has been ongoing in Denver for seven decades. When that decision was made, it opened up the possibility for new tools, like tax increment financing, which uses sales taxes and property taxes to help pay for new development and make it more attractive for potential developers. “Definitely no more bars,” she said, before adding another thing to her list: High-rise buildings, which she thinks would look weird among car repair shops and the local Dairy Queen. There’s really only one thing she no longer wants to see. She would like to see some help for people experiencing homelessness, perhaps some aid to folks with mental health illnesses. She thinks new stuff would be nice, but so would updating existing buildings. She has some ideas on how to improve the area rife with vacant lots - and buildings that look vacant but still house businesses. “Interesting, to say the least,” she said to describe this stretch. ![]() ![]() In the late 1980s and early 1990s, her father owned now-shuttered bars including the Drift Inn and Mr. Plessinger works at the Ranch House Cafe at Colfax and Syracuse Street. Kellie Plessinger lives in Aurora now but she grew up in Denver around a notorious strip of East Colfax that, back in the day, may have inspired conservative columnist George Will’s infamous line comparing this street to a warzone.
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