Victor officials have moved forward with concrete plans to transform the Miners Union Hall into a mixed-use property, with a key funding vote before the city council scheduled for this fall.
The hall dates to 1901 and survived labor violence and gunfire during the 20th century before a fire in the more recent past gutted the interior, leaving only the outer facade intact. The redevelopment concept calls for seven residential units and a pair of commercial spaces on the main floor.
The overall project carries an estimated price tag of $6 million and got its start with a $50,000 state affordable housing grant to assess the building's viability; the city's formal solicitation later drew 17 competing responses. Four firms were brought on under contracts awarded in the spring — a preservation services company, two architecture practices, and an engineering firm — to produce preliminary drawings and structural guidance.
City Administrator Bobby Tech, who is managing the project, said the building faces problems requiring immediate action, and he intends to bring a $320,000 request before the Victor City Council at its Oct. 1 meeting. That funding would cover early-stage work such as stabilizing the masonry walls, conducting structural and architectural assessments, and testing for asbestos. If the council approves the request, Tech said he would pursue additional dollars through grant applications to bodies including the state's historical preservation agency and a local affairs department. "There are several funding opportunities for grants that we have no guarantee of getting," Tech said. "So that makes it difficult."
With seed money in hand and the prospect of early grants, Tech expects the work to unfold over five to ten years, carried out in successive phases. He said the city hopes to save the structure or at least preserve a portion of its history, describing the hall as "a critical building, not only in Colorado but nationally, for the advent of unions, the role of labor disputes as well as the role of mining in the Gold Camp District."
The planning effort has engaged a range of community partners, with the contracted firms working alongside several local heritage organizations and a historian specializing in the area. Tech said those stakeholders put forward two distinct floor plan options, and the group chose one to move ahead with.
Tech acknowledged that the hall must compete for city resources against other pressing municipal needs, among them City Hall itself, a power and light building, a main replacement project, and a planned new wastewater treatment facility. He expressed confidence, however, that elected officials grasp the building's historic importance and the value residents place on it.
Should the project reach completion, rents would be pegged at 60 percent of the area median income at the time of opening, and Tech said the two commercial units are intended to inject economic activity into the downtown corridor and support the surrounding district.
The outcome of the Oct. 1 council vote on the stabilization funding request will determine whether the redevelopment effort advances beyond the planning stage.