AURORA SOUP KITCHEN SAVED
After facing likely closure, Friends of St. Andrew will continue thanks to a local businessman buying the building
A Catholic soup kitchen in Aurora that faced likely closure or relocation has been saved by a local businessman who purchased the building that serves lunch to up to 150 hungry people a day.
“The man said, ‘You are going to stay here,’ ” Father Felix Medina Algaba, pastor of Queen of Peace Catholic Parish, said Monday. “‘You aren’t going anywhere.'”
Medina-Algaba, whose parish oversees the Friends of St. Andrew’s hospitality center at 1525 Dallas St., said the buyer didn’t want to be identified and the Adams County assessor’s website hasn’t posted details from the transaction, which closed last week.
“It’s amazing someone would want to do this without any credit,” said Siobhan Latimer, director of Friends of St. Andrew. “It’s a wonderful feeling because we were getting nervous.”
Things looked bleak for the soup kitchen last month, when the building’s owner, Regis University, was asking $650,000 for the 6,000-square-foot property. That was too expensive for Queen of Peace. But Regis, a longtime Jesuit Catholic university in Denver, said it couldn’t come down too far on price as it was trying to honor the wishes of the man — Ralph Friend — who bequeathed the building to the school after his 2016 death.
“The estate explicitly directed that the property was to be sold to establish an endowed scholarship fund for deserving students,” Erika Hollis, vice president and general counsel for Regis, told The Denver Post in July. “Regis University has a fiduciary obligation to honor its donors’ wishes.”
According to Regis, the final sale price for the double-lot property a stone’s throw from Colfax Avenue was $575,000.
The situation created an unusual conflict between two Catholic entities in Colorado. On Monday, the Archdiocese of Denver told The Post it is “very thankful that an anonymous hero stepped up and wanted to save Friends of St. Andrew and enable Queen of Peace to continue to minister to the less fortunate in Aurora.”
Friends of St. Andrew was worried that if it was forced to vacate the building on Dallas Street, it would no longer be able to serve a community that had grown to rely on the facility, which not only serves hot lunches but features a food pantry and provides an address for those without a home to get their mail.
“I’m glad that we can continue serving the poor,” Medina-Algaba said.
Jennifer Forker, a Regis spokeswoman, said the school was “pleased that the Aurora businessman who purchased the property intends to have the soup kitchen continue its operations at the site.”
She said both Friend and the buyer “beautifully exemplify our Jesuit mission of serving others. Our community is blessed by their generosity.”