Owners give an inside look at crumbling El Chapultepec building
DENVER (KDVR) — The owners of the old El Chapultepec gave a rare inside look into the restaurant that sits at the corner of Market and 20th streets.
The building, which served as a historic jazz club for nearly 90 years, closed in 2020. In 2022, the property was bought by Monfort Companies and future plans for the site got underway.
“People remember ‘the ‘Pec’ for the live jazz music, the remnants of that are all gone,” said Matt Runyon, development partner with Monfort Companies. “What we inherited was really something that was in a dilapidated form.”
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The walls are starting to crumble on the inside and the floorboards are coming apart, which the owners say is a product of time and weather.
“The physical integrity of the building today is no longer saveable or preservable,” said Kenneth Monfort, executive vice president of Monfort Companies.
After working on several plans to save all or parts of the building, the owners determined it was no longer safe.
El Chapultepec sits on the corner of Market Street and 20th Street El Chapultepec, once a jazz club, now is closed as the owners seek new beginnings El Chapultepec
“It’s not in a place where it’s possible to save those four walls,” Monfort said.
The current plan will combine a new building with the building that houses the Giggling Grizzly next door. It will have a new name while maintaining some of El Chapultepec’s history, according to the new owners.
“What that looks like for us is very likely conserving and saving the historic signage you see here,” Monfort said. “Putting placards in various nods to the history and the legacy of what was El Chapultepec and who was inside there who played at the Chapultepec.”
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This comes as a petition set up by Historic Denver to “Save the ‘Pec” has received hundreds of signatures. On March 11, Historic Denver filed a landmark designation to save the building. That put a pause on the current project until a compromise can be made.
“If we’re not maintaining the structure you see here today and the four walls that have existed here for 130 years, what can we do that brings and breathes vibrancy to this neighborhood and to this corner?” Monfort said.
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