Denver Sports Castle sold
Buyer plans to renovate Broadway icon into retail, office space
The Denver Sports Castle, a prominent feature on Broadway for about a century, has been sold to construction executive Tom Mclagan, who wants to place the building on the National Register of Historic Places.
The sale announced Thursday includes a parking lot across the street. Gart Properties has owned the building since 1971 and operated a sporting goods retail business there until Sports Authority bought the business in 1993.
The building has been vacant since Sports Authority went bankrupt in 2016.
Mclagan and Gart Properties declined to disclose the sales price. The public records weren’t available early Thursday afternoon.
In early August, Austin, Texasbased apartment developer Cypress Real Estate Advisors paid $11.5 million for parcels immediately north of the three-story Sports Castle. The company has proposed a 15-story housing project.
Mclagan said in a statement that he intends to renovate the Sports Castle and have it placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Current plans are to have ground-floor retail outlets and office space on the upper levels.
“The interior of the building is as unique as the exterior, which we can transform into an incredibly creative office experience” said Mclagan, executive chairman at Hyder Construction Inc.
The Sports Castle building was originally the Cullen-thompson Motor Co. building and opened in 1926 as a Chrysler automobile showroom. The building still has a curving ramp the cars drove on. Prominent Denver architect Jules Jacques Benois Benedict designed the Beaux-arts style building, which is clad in terracotta and has stained glass windows.
In 1971, Gart Bros. Sporting Goods took over the building, transforming it into a sporting goods business with 100,000 square feet of space and a rooftop tennis court.
“We’re very proud of the property. My dad bought the building in 1971. I was 15 years old at the time,” said Ken Gart, a partner in Gart Properties. “It was an important part of our family. It was an important part of our family busi
ness.”
Gart said he believes Mclagan will maintain “the charm and the history” that makes the building unique.
A new penthouse level will be constructed for use as office or event space with a large rooftop outdoor for use by building tenants, Mclagan said.
The purchase was brokered by Evan Makovsky, Hayden Hirschfeld and Dorit Fischer of NAI Shames Makovsky and required coordination between the Gart family, Mclagan and Cypress Real
Estate Advisors. It was important to the Gart family to sell the properties simultaneously, according to the statement released by Mclagan.
“This truly is a collaborative effort between all parties involved,” Mclagan said. “We have been working together for more than 12 months to bring together a deal to reactivate this beloved Denver building and the entire block.”
Renovation on the Sports Castle likely won’t begin until 2023. Until then, the building will be used for events by Non Plus Ultra, a California company.