A lease dispute at Denver’s historic Horizon property is preventing the Denver Urban Renewal Authority from deciding whether to release more than $1 million for improvements at the Holly Shopping Center in Northeast Park Hill. The immediate question is not only what business should occupy the gutted bar, but whether the parties have established the ownership and tenancy arrangements needed for public investment.
According to Denverite, Ty Allen, a co-owner of businesses on the block, is proposing a community bank, ice cream parlor, veterinary clinic and boutique market for the space. Dawn Owens and Rhonda Banks have proposed Shenanigans at the Horizon, a venue with live music, dancing, drinks and food. Owens closed the Horizon in March after her liquor license expired.
The disagreement escalated in August, when Allen entered the property with a locksmith and a city inspector, according to Denverite. The inspector posted a stop-work notice after reporting unpermitted construction. Allen later submitted his own redevelopment proposal to DURA, while Owens and Banks, along with Deloris Wilson, submitted a proposal for Shenanigans and later backdated leases to July 6, the report said. The parties continue to dispute the validity and effect of leases involving the Horizon and Blazing Chicken Shack.
Why the funding decision is stalled
DURA’s hesitation places a local lease conflict inside a longer public redevelopment program. The Denver Urban Renewal Authority says DURA and the city created the Northeast Park Hill Urban Renewal Area in 2001 to support redevelopment of Dahlia Square and the nearby Holly Shopping Center. The agency has withheld approval of the Holly project grant while questions about ownership and tenancy remain unresolved, according to Denverite.
That threshold issue matters because the available records do not establish which proposed use should receive the money. They show an agency waiting for the parties’ property and lease questions to be clarified, not a final public determination that a grocery-oriented plan or an entertainment-oriented plan is preferable.
A redevelopment history shaped by vacancy and violence
The current dispute follows earlier efforts to stabilize commercial property in the area. The city’s Park Hill Neighborhood Plan recorded residents’ concerns about vacant commercial properties, the need to find suitable tenants and the risk of further deterioration. DURA also says the former Dahlia Square shopping center was dilapidated and less than 15% occupied by the 1990s.
A separate redevelopment effort followed the 2008 arson that destroyed Holly Square. The Urban Land Conservancy says it and Denver’s Office of Economic Development acquired the 2.6-acre site in 2009 for community redevelopment. The organization also says the Holly Area Redevelopment Project gathered input from local residents and hired a local, Black-owned planning group. That history provides a precedent for community-centered planning, but it does not resolve the present Horizon leases.
The block’s recent safety history is part of the debate over the venue’s future. Denverite reported that a 3 a.m. shooting outside the Horizon in November 2023 left two people dead and five injured. 9News identified the dead as Joshua Batts, 39, and Michael David, 43. The incident helps explain why Allen opposes renewed nightlife at the site, but one shooting does not establish that any particular future use would be safer.
What remains unresolved
Allen has invested about $700,000 in improvements on the block and operates Mississippi Boy Catfish and Ribs beside Blazing Chicken Shack, according to Denverite. Blazing Chicken Shack co-owner Leola Gant and Banks have operated the restaurant at the site since 2017, the report said. Those businesses are part of the practical stakes in the funding dispute, but their continued presence will depend on the lease questions, DURA’s eventual decision and any required city approvals.
The parties also disagree about the neighborhood implications of the competing proposals: Owens and Banks have characterized Allen’s plan as gentrifying, while Allen has argued for services he considers community-oriented. Those claims remain positions in an unresolved dispute. Until ownership, lease validity, construction compliance and resident input are clarified, the public record does not show which plan will move forward or whether the Horizon will reopen at all.
