Rocky Mountain Public Media plans to break ground in August on its $30 million new headquarters in Denver’s fast-developing Arapahoe Square neighborhood, the Rocky Mountain PBS (KRMA-Channel 6) and KUVO-FM (89.3) jazz-radio parent announced last week.
But that’s contingent on RMPM raising the rest of the money it needs between now and then. In the last 12 months, the nonprofit RMPM has collected about $14 million toward its goal. The project is 75 percent funded with $22.46 million, including new gifts that have helped planners update designs for the community-centric, state-of-the-art space.
“Really, nothing short of reconceptualizing the project has occurred,” said RMPM president and CEO Amanda Mountain, after her organization’s second major capital campaign. “And that’s led to all the changes that we’re now able to roll out.”
Updated plans for the 63,000-square-foot Buell Public Media Center, as it will be named, call for it to rise three blocks east of Coors Field at 21st and Arapahoe streets. It will feature shared offices and studios for public media radio and TV, as well as community resources that allow the public to understand and, at times, take part in RMPM’s operations.
The silhouette of the building has slimmed as RMPM adjusted designs to fit fundraising. It began with a price tag of $49.17 million, later revised down to $38.8 million. Planners then cut proposed office space from 80,000 to about 60,000 square feet, and shaved up to $9 million off costs by replacing a 500-seat proscenium theater with a “flexible space theater.”
RMPM officials also experienced a setback in June 2017 when the Colorado Economic Development Commission denied them a tax credit worth about $1.5 million, given that the project is just outside the boundary of an enterprise zone that takes in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood.
However, a proposed charter school for grades 6-8 — in partnership with the Denver Public Schools — that was cut from from the initial plans has now been re-envisioned as an area devoted to PBS Kids programming, thanks to a $1.5 million gift from the Metzler Family.
Other new gifts include $1 million from the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, for a performance studio that accommodates live broadcasts; $1 million from an anonymous donor to support its digital distribution infrastructure that gives it statewide technological reach.
“What we’re moving forward with focuses in on what we’re absolutely best at,” Mountain said. “It’s not as wide in scope as it was before, but it’s a demonstration of how this vision is really resonating with donors.”
New renderings also show a more modest architectural design, replacing a sleek, silvery vision of the Buell Public Media Center with a shorter, red-brick face that reflects the neighborhood’s historic character. Denver’s Tryba Architects, which RMPM has worked with for the last 2 1/2 years, remains the architect of record.
With 85,000 members, RMPM is the largest public-media organization in the state. But it’s not the only one.
“In Colorado there are 18 public-media licenses, and we really see (the Buell Center) as the public-media center for all of Colorado,” Mountain said, noting RMPM’s partnership with Colorado Public Radio on its arts coverage, investigations and podcasts. “We truly want to reach out to public media throughout the state to host events here and use our resources.”
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