Denver Secures $13.5 Million From The Denver Post in Back Rent Deal

The sign says The Denver Post. The building says The Denver Post. But for eight years, the newsroom has been gone, the editors are in Commerce City, and the rent has stopped flowing.

Here’s the thing though: the city of Denver just won a quiet victory that most locals didn’t even know was happening.

On Tuesday, officials announced that DP Media LLC, the company that owns the newspaper, agreed to pay $13.5 million in back rent and remove the iconic name from the curved white facade at 101 W. Colfax Ave. It sounds like a simple eviction notice. It’s not. It’s the final chapter of a messy, expensive divorce between the city and the legacy paper that defined Colorado journalism for over a century.

The dispute wasn’t about whether the rent was owed. It was about who held the leash.

Despite the massive nameplate on the outside, The Denver Post moved its editorial staff out of the downtown building in 2018. They left the printing press behind in Commerce City. But DP Media kept the master lease. And when the city bought the building in 2024 for $88.5 million, they didn’t just become the landlord; they became a tenant, too.

That’s a lot of overhead for a municipality.

In August, DP Media stopped paying its $650,000 monthly rent. They wanted out. The city wanted them to stay until the money was paid. By May, the debt had ballooned. DP Media was in default on approximately $6.5 million, plus late fees that added up to about $32,000 a month.

Mayor Mike Johnston didn’t mince words in an emailed news release Tuesday. “When we said we would recover every cent owed we meant it,” Johnston said. “This agreement is a great deal for Denver, and we look forward to forging a new future for the property that serves the city and preserves this building’s iconic place downtown.”

It is a great deal, but not just because of the $13.5 million check. It’s about the cash flow.

Once DP Media’s lease ends on June 30, the city stops paying its own rent there — a total of $6.8 million through October 2029. That’s money that stays in the municipal coffers instead of flowing back to the company that no longer uses the space.

City spokesperson Laura Swartz pointed out the broader financial picture. The city stands to gain another $8.4 million from parking revenue and rent from other tenants, specifically Enova and T-Mobile. It’s how they get to break even on that $88.5 million purchase price.

“ This tenant and parking revenue, …not having to pay for our own lease there anymore, and the ability to now pursue new revenue opportunities is how we get to break even,” Swartz said in an email.

The building itself is a relic of a different era. It opened in 2006, originally housing both The Denver Post and The Rocky Mountain News under a joint operating agreement. That deal combined business activities like advertising sales while the papers competed for news. The Rocky, owned by E.W. Scripps, eventually folded, leaving the Post as the sole tenant until the newsroom moved out.

Now, the sign is coming down. No final date has been set for its removal, but the lease ends June 30. DP Media officials have not responded to requests for comment, leaving the city to manage the transition alone.

Picture the corner of Broadway and Colfax Avenue. The white curve of the building still catches the afternoon sun. The name on the wall will change, or maybe it will stay for a while longer, a ghost of the paper that once ruled the airwaves and the print stands. But the money is settled. The rent is paid. And the city is finally, truly, in control of its own house.