Golden Triangle theater company lists 130-year-old building for sale

A Denver theater company has listed its Golden Triangle converted church for sale, months after the company reported being in a “financial crisis.”

Constant upkeep on the nearly 130-year-old building at 1080 Acoma St. has become too much to manage for Curious Theatre Co., according to Jeannene Bragg, the nonprofit’s managing director.

“The building is our biggest asset, but it is also our biggest liability,” she said.

Bragg said Curious spends nearly $10,000 per month on the mortgage and utilities, and then has to deal with the additional expenses of repairs and renovations.

The listing comes months after Curious launched a public emergency fundraising campaign in March, saying it needed to raise $250,000 by July. In a video posted online, Artistic Director Jada Suzanne Dixon described the situation as an “unprecedented deficit” and that the company could face existential consequences.

Curious has raised about $100,000 from that campaign, Bragg said this week.

“We’re still pushing to the end of the month, but likely will not make the full goal,” Bragg said. “We knew it would be a big challenge.”

Across the U.S., theaters have seen a decrease in attendance since the pandemic. Ticket revenues nationally since 2018 are down 55 percent.

Curious saw $1.37 million in revenue in fiscal year 2022 with about $1.19 million in expenses, according to tax filings. In fiscal year 2023, Curious was in the red, with $960,000 in total revenue and nearly $1.3 million in expenses.

“A lot of us are struggling,” Bragg said. “It’s a really hard time because audiences just haven’t returned from Covid as quickly as any of us would have liked. And same thing with donations.”

Since the pandemic, Curious’ ticket sales have been down about 20 percent and donations are down more than 30 percent, according to Bragg.

“We have significant equity in the building, which would be helpful to us in these hard times,” she said.

The building, about 9,500 square feet, was originally built for the Swedish Evangelical Free Church in the late 1800s and was later used by other churches, including the Upper Room United Pentecostal Church through 1995.

The church was then converted to a theater space and was used by various companies, including Curious Theatre, which bought the building in 2008 for $800,000, or about $85 per square foot, from Zeppelin Development founder Mickey Zeppelin.

The property is now valued by the county assessor at about $2.85 million. The structure is not a protected city landmark or in a historic district.

“We love the building,” Bragg said. “We love the space, it’s so cool. It’s a little heartbreaking to think about leaving.”

Though the space was already built out as a theater when Curious Theatre bought it, the nonprofit renovated the front entrance lobby, built accessible bathrooms and had to update or replace plumbing, lighting, the boiler and roof. The upkeep, Bragg said, was just too much.

The auditorium has a balcony with seating and a bar area as well as access to an apartment-style room upstairs with views out original stained glass windows.

The back half of the building has dressing rooms, lounge space, a workshop, offices on the second floor, a kitchen and a reception area known as Mamie’s. It’s named after First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, who is said to have attended the church when it was the Swedish Evangelical Free Church.

Curious still plans to move forward with its 27th season, which starts in September. Bragg said the hope is that the company can finish the season before moving out — or stay longer, and lease the building back from the buyer.

The listing does not include a price. Bragg said an acceptable figure is dependent on other things in the offer, and if and when the group would need to vacate the building. Similarly, Bragg said the amount of rent Curious Theatre could pay a buyer willing to let the group stay depends on how much the building sells for.

Curious’ board and administration is brainstorming its next move if staying isn’t an option, whether that means renting or sharing space with another theater company or finding its own theater in Denver, hopefully near the Golden Triangle area.