Sandra Foushee, 57, loves her southwest Denver neighborhood. The owner of Brentwood Animal Hospital has lived in the College View area since 2007 and, despite the ups and downs, has a deep appreciation for her community.
“It’s not cookie cutter,” Foushee said. “It has its warts, but I love this neighborhood.”
The past several years have been tough, she said. The animal hospital has seen two break-ins in the past month. Even so, Foushee is hopeful that the redevelopment at Loretto Heights will bring “revitalization” to the neighborhood.
The redevelopment is several years in the making. The city is planning to turn the historical Loretto Heights campus into a cultural hub for southwest Denverites. It will include the May Bonfils Stanton Theater, which is currently under renovation, a new community center run by Commún, a community organization serving southwest Denver residents, and residential housing, including affordable and market-price housing options.
According to Denver Arts & Venues (DAV) Deputy Director Tariana Navas-Nieves, the theater will seat 750 people according to the latest estimate from DAV and will open for its inaugural season in 2027. Navas-Nieves pointed out that the smaller venue size fits a niche need within the Denver theater ecosystem.
“When you look at our other venues, they’re much bigger,” Navas-Nieves said. “This really addresses that gap.” Navas-Nieves argued that a smaller venue can be more ideal for cultural organizations whose house is “500 people rather than 9,000.”
The Loretto Heights campus has provided educational opportunities to the Denver community for more than 130 years. In 1891, the Sisters of Loretto established the Loretto Heights Academy on campus, which served as a girls’ boarding school before becoming a women’s college until 1988. When the Sisters faced financial difficulties in the 1980s, they sold the land to Regis University, which in turn sold it to the Teikyo Foundation in 1989.
The foundation sold the property for $16.5 million to Westside Investment Partners, the current developer, in 2018. Westside Investment heads several other major development projects in and around Denver, including the controversial Park Hill golf course. Before Westside Investment bought the property, Teikyo offered to gift it to the city to convert it into a Metro State University satellite campus. Former Mayor Michael Hancock turned down the offer due to the nearly $60 million needed to repair the historic buildings.
Mark Witkiewicz, a partner at Westside Investment Partners and the lead on the Loretto Heights redevelopment, said that was when his firm stepped in. “There was no solution other than to find a creative developer to come in and work with the community and the city to try and reimagine the project.”
Up until 2021, the campus was also home to a cemetery for the Sisters of Loretto. 51 Sisters were buried at the campus cemetery between 1898 and 1969, and the remains of eleven nuns were transferred to the cemetery in 1912 from Mt. Calvary Cemetery.
When the redevelopment project began in 2019, Westside Investment initially intended to plan the redevelopment around the cemetery to preserve its historical sanctity; however, the Sisters of Loretto, alongside the Archdiocese of Denver and the Catholic Funeral and Cemetery Services of Colorado, ultimately decided to move the remains of the Sisters to Mt. Olivet Cemetery to ensure their preservation in the future.
“I am sad that, in my conversations with the Sisters of Loretto and how much they wanted the campus to be a continuation of what it was, [that didn’t happen],” reflected Witkiewitz. “They also understood that there was just no option to continue on.”
According to the development agreement signed in 2021 between the city and ACM Loretto LLC, a related party of Westside Investment: “the developer seeks to redevelop the remaining portion of the property by celebrating the rich history of the campus core through preservation of significant historic buildings woven together with modern urban buildings in a manner uniquely positioned to deliver valuable community benefits.”
Community engagement has been at the forefront of the redevelopment, according to Westside Investment, Denver Arts & Venues (DAV) and Councilman Kevin Flynn. Westside Investment held monthly meetings with residents, put out flyers around the campus and attended neighborhood meetings to field community feedback. The city held four public meetings, including one in Spanish, and put together a steering committee to inform plans for redevelopment.
“This campus is a very special place,” Flynn said. “People expressed desire for open space preservation; they expressed desire for historic landmark preservation and designation; we had folks from one extreme to another.”
DAV also conducted a feasibility study on the commercial viability of the May Bonfils Stanton Theater and held interviews with Harvey Park and College View residents and organizations who would potentially use the theater to determine what the community wanted. This all culminated in the Department of Community Planning and Development’s Loretto Heights Small Area Plan in 2019, which the city used to draft new zoning regulations in the development agreement with Westside Investment.
“There were definitely a lot of conversations about a sense of pride and bringing back life to a beloved performance space,” said Navas-Nieves. “It’s bringing more cultural amenities and cultural offerings to the neighborhood, and southwest Denver is an area that, frankly, is underserved by access to arts and cultural opportunities.”
John Bowen, 18, has lived across the street from Loretto Heights for 10 years. His grandmother took classes at Loretto Heights College, and he remembered going to a city outreach meeting with his mom when redevelopment planning first started.
Now, Bowen is looking forward to the housing development’s new basketball courts. He also reflected that he wanted to see more activities and programming for youth.
“There’s a bunch of little kids around here so having a place where it’s really open where they can go hang out and stay out of trouble is a better [use],” Bowen said. “I wish I had that when I was growing up.”
Foushee, who also attended one of the city’s outreach meetings, echoed his concerns. “There’s nothing for the teenagers to do, which unfortunately lets them get drawn into gang activities more often, or graffiti activities, or drug activities. I’m hoping there will be more educational programs, especially for teens.”
The veterinarian also noted that she wanted to see more English language learning opportunities to improve access to services for Harvey Park’s Spanish-speaking residents. She was happy with the city’s outreach but felt that Westside Investment could have done more.
“They did a reasonably decent job with the original buildings and the performing arts center,” Foushee said, although she saw several discrepancies between what Westside Investment had promised and what they’re in the process of delivering. The initial drawings, she said, showed the trees remaining and more open space. Now, the trees have been cut down and Foushee’s “not seeing much in the open space department.”
Spotlight on the May Bonfils Stanton Theater
Councilman Flynn sees the theater as a much-needed outlet for kids in the College View and Harvey Park neighborhoods. As a kid, he remembers participating in theater being a pivotal moment in learning to express himself. Now, he wants the kids of his district to have that same opportunity.
“I know right now there are 10-year-old boys and girls in southwest Denver wondering who they are, what they can do with their lives and they’re going to find themselves on this stage,” Flynn said. “It’s not going to be the Buell; [it’s] not going to be the DCPA; it’s going to be a community accessible theater.”
Originally built in 1963, the theater is currently undergoing internal updates to remove asbestos and bring the facility up to safety standards. Navas-Nieves said that major renovations, including adding a second “mountain view entrance,” installing an elevator, heightening the ceilings and adding an orchestra pit, will begin late next year.
Navas-Nieves also emphasized the importance of accessibility to the theater, both in terms of cost and going above and beyond ADA standards. The deputy director said the DAV will cover additional amenities to “make the space welcoming to all” through fundraising and that DAV is looking to welcome a host of community theater groups, including Curious Theatre Company and Phamaly Theatre Company, as well as Denver Public Schools.
For now, the theater, like the rest of the campus, is encircled by 10-foot-high chain link fencing. Issues with vandalism, Witkiewicz said, had pushed Westside Investment to board up windows and install fencing around the historical structures. The developer has also encouraged Denver Police officers to drive by the campus more frequently.
“As the property becomes more populated with residents, I think it will become safer,” said Witkiewicz. “We recognize that it’s a problem and are doing everything we can to preserve the assets for future generations.”
Councilman Flynn echoed the need to “activate” the campus as soon as possible. While he was concerned about potentially serious damage to the historical structures, he remained enthusiastic about what the redevelopment meant for his district.
“This theater renovation is the single largest city investment ever in southwest Denver. There’s never been $30 million put into anywhere in my district, ever,” he said. “People are saying, ‘It’s about time we’re not ignored.’”
To Bowen and Foushee, whether the development delivers on its promises remains to be seen. Bowen, for one, is excited. “I’m definitely going to be over there,” Bowen said. “Me and my homies are definitely going to be playing basketball.”
While Foushee has her concerns, chiefly about the new parking lot’s lack of windows and whether low-income housing will lead to a bump in crime, she too remains hopeful, though much more cautiously than the councilman representing her district. “I really hope it will be good for the neighborhood,” she said. “It wasn’t going to stay forever.”
