The Museum of Ice Cream will not be scooping into Lower Downtown anytime soon. Denver's Downtown Development Authority has rejected a request to help finance the pastel-pink, Instagram-ready attraction, shutting down a plan to convert two long-empty Market Street storefronts and leaving the sugary proposal out in the cold.
Developers had pitched the selfie-friendly museum as a way to jolt foot traffic in LoDo. Instead of advancing the loan request to a public vote, the authority quietly sent the applicants a formal notice that it would not back the deal, signaling both the limits of its cash and its risk appetite.
Board Freezes Out Loan Request Without a Vote
According to The Denver Post, the DDA declined the application by notifying the developers outside of a formal vote at its meeting. The team behind the bid, Dan Huml and Garrett Baum, had sought roughly $6.6 million at that session. In an earlier October filing, they requested about $7.6 million and said the full project would cost about $25 million, as previously reported by BusinessDen.
City Calls It Pricey, Worries About What Comes After
Bill Mosher, Denver’s chief projects officer who oversees the DDA program, told The Denver Post that he understood the landlords' frustration but described the Museum of Ice Cream as "an expensive proposition." DDA staff also flagged concerns that the highly customized buildout and layout could make the century-old storefronts tough to repurpose if the concept underperformed, a real headache if the sprinkles stopped selling.
Developers Pitched a Year-Round Sugar High
Huml and Baum told city reviewers the Museum of Ice Cream would operate as a permanent, year-round immersive attraction, with a cafe and retail component open to people who were not buying tickets. They argued that the setup would draw families and tourists into the area, even outside peak event hours. BusinessDen reported that the partners secured a letter of intent for a long-term lease and that Huml bought his Market Street building in 2019. Baum’s neighboring property, by contrast, is only partially occupied and has an unusual layout that has made it harder to land tenants.
Tight Downtown Dollars Make This a Tough Sell
The DDA is working with finite tax-increment and bond resources and has been prioritizing projects it believes will deliver durable downtown activation, according to city materials and prior coverage. As outlined by The Denver Gazette, recent presentations put the authority’s remaining award capacity in the low hundreds of millions and highlighted other major conversion proposals that are also seeking large sums from the same funding pool.
Next Moves For a Melted Scoop
With the DDA stepping back, the developers now have a few options, and none are guaranteed. They can chase private financing, return with a scaled-down request for public money, or try to plant the concept in another Denver neighborhood that might be more open to the splashy attraction.
The Museum of Ice Cream already runs locations in New York, Chicago, Miami, Boston, and Singapore, per the Museum of Ice Cream, so the backers are not exactly starting from scratch. For now, though, the Denver version’s fate hinges on whether the owners can shrink their ask or scoop up new investors willing to bet that LoDo is ready for a permanent dessert-themed playground.
