The Denver Post has quietly piled up at least $5.2 million in unpaid rent to the City of Denver on the downtown office tower that still carries the paper’s name. The paper stopped paying the roughly $650,000 monthly bill in August and is still tied to a master lease that runs through October 2029. Denver purchased the 11-story building at Colfax and Broadway in April 2024, and city officials say they have not yet filed suit, even after sending a notice of default last year.
The latest tally, which does not include late fees or other penalties, comes from reporting by BusinessDen, which puts the bill at a minimum of $5.2 million after eight months of missed payments. BusinessDen reports the building is roughly 305,000 square feet and that the Post has subleased portions of the space, often back to the city itself, even after shifting most operations out of the building in recent years.
How the shortfall stacked up
The debt did not take long to snowball. After the Post missed its first payment in August, late fees combined with additional missed months to push the outstanding balance to about $2 million by October, according to Colorado Politics. City records obtained by reporters show Denver issued a notice of default on Aug. 25, 2025, a step that triggered internal budget talks at City Hall about how to plug the growing hole.
Mayor’s office and legal posture
Once the missed payments became public, Mayor Mike Johnston instructed the city attorney in late October to “institute appropriate proceedings in a court of proper jurisdiction,” although Denver still has not filed a lawsuit, according to CBS Colorado. City spokeswoman Laura Swartz has said Denver is working through its legal options and declined to offer more detail while those discussions are underway.
What the Post says it wants
The Denver Post and its parent company, MediaNews Group, say they offered to buy out the lease and insist they never planned to use the downtown space once they shifted operations to a printing facility outside the city, as reported by The Denver Gazette. General counsel Marshall Anstandig told local outlets the Post “stopped occupying this space while the building was under private ownership” and said there was no expectation the paper would still be operating there when the city bought the property.
Price tag for future months
City officials had highlighted the Post’s rent stream as part of the rationale for spending $88.5 million on the building, and BusinessDen reports that if the missed payments keep piling up, the unpaid balance projected through the end of the lease could top $20 million. That possibility has sharpened budget tensions as Denver tries to close a projected shortfall and juggle competing spending priorities.
Legal implications for leases
Under the master lease that is still in place, the Post remains responsible for the rent unless the two sides agree to terminate the deal or strike a buyout. City records show officials have been taking steps to protect Denver’s financial position, according to CBS Colorado. For now, the city is in the unusual position of being both landlord and a subtenant in portions of the same building, which has allowed Denver to collect some rents that otherwise would have flowed through the Post…