Historic Denver hopes to preserve old power plant to benefit community

John Deffenbaugh, the president and CEO of Historic Denver, says he can hardly imagine the city without its first and oldest power plant.

Owned by Xcel Energy, the Zuni Generation Station at 1335 Zuni Street shut down in 2015. The plant was added to the Colorado Most Endangered Places list.

"It's been a prominent fixture by the river in Denver for over 123 years," said Deffenbaugh. "Its existence has been critical to Denver, its western expansion. It's literally the building that powered the growth of Denver."

Deffenbaugh says his group now wants to see it revamped.

"These buildings, the sense of scale they have, which is very unusual for structures in this day and age that's so compatible for a great range of uses," said Deffenbaugh.

He says other communities have turned their old power plants into everything from rec centers, part of a soccer stadium, offices and commercial buildings.

But time has not been kind to it. Deffenbaugh says that isn't a huge obstacle for them.

"We appreciate the magnitude of the scale ahead, but great cities do great things," said Deffenbaugh.

The biggest obstacle is that Xcel Energy currently owns the building and Historic Denver knows what they want to do with it.

"We hope (it) isn't the wrecking ball," said Deffenbaugh.

He says they have tried to work with Xcel Energy to organize a forum involving the community and the city and they've written to the mayor's office to seek a meeting with the city to discuss the issue. They're hoping to get something set up soon because, in an area that is seeing a lot of private development, he wants at least one thing to be for the community.

"The local neighborhood would like to flip the script and have this building, which has been a polluter, turned into a community asset," Deffenbaugh said.