Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Little Richard. Jimi Hendrix. Megadeth. Sarah McLachlan. The Harlem Globetrotters spinning basketballs on their fingers under the same roof that later hosted boxing matches, professional wrestling, roller derby, political rallies and a few decades of high school graduations.
All of that happened inside one building in downtown Colorado Springs. And for the last couple of years, that building sat closed. Empty. Waiting.
That is the City Auditorium, near North Nevada Avenue and East Kiowa Street, and the real story right now is that it is finally getting rescued. Denver-based AVA Presents is putting $3.5 million into a first round of renovations to bring the century-old place back up to code, according to CPR News reporting dated Aug. 28, 2026. Events could return as soon as early 2027.
So buckle up, because the road to get here was long and expensive and nearly did not happen at all.
The City Auditorium went up in 1923 and cost $424,910 at the time. Above the stage there is a plaque that reads "USUI CIVIUM DECORI URBUS," which translates to "For the use of the people and the glory of the city." I love that. They carved their intentions right into the room.
The building landed on the National Register of Historic Places on Nov. 7, 1995. So this is not some forgotten shed. This is a designated piece of Colorado history sitting in the middle of downtown.
Here is the part people miss, though. Historic designation does not pay for a new roof. And over the decades the City Auditorium racked up an estimated
That is a brutal number for any building, historic or not. And it is exactly the kind of thing that kills these projects.
This is actually the city's second swing at saving the place.
The first attempt came from a nonprofit called the Colorado Springs Community Cultural Collective. Their plan started at $53 million. Then it ballooned to nearly $87 million. And in 2023 the whole thing paused amid fundraising shortfalls.
I mean, watch how fast that grew. Fifty three million to eighty seven million. That is the story of restoring old buildings in a nutshell, honestly. The wall you open up always has three more problems behind it.
So the city went back to the drawing board and ran a year-long search. In June 2025 they picked AVA Presents as the managing operator, and the two sides signed a lease on a building that had already been dark for two years.
Here is the detail that makes this whole thing click for me.
AVA Presents is led by principal Jesse Morreale, and Morreale is a Colorado Springs native. He went to Palmer High, which sits just blocks from the auditorium. And in the 1990s he worked in that building as a concert booker.
So this is not some out-of-town operator parachuting in with a spreadsheet. This is a guy who booked shows in the room he is now trying to save. That matters.
The lease structure is smart too. It runs a five-year initial term with four optional five-year renewals. That is up to 25 years of partnership. The City keeps ownership the whole time, and AVA funds the renovation, the restoration and the day-to-day operations. The public keeps the asset. A private operator carries the risk and the bills. If you ask me, that is the model that actually gets these buildings open again.
Now for the fun part, because the plans are legit.
The venue has a stage that runs 68 by 50 feet. That is the same size AVA builds inside arenas. So this little 1923 room can handle a real touring production.
Phase one includes seven star dressing rooms with in-suite showers, roughly 7,000 square feet of green room space, and a game room. Phase one is targeted for completion in Q4 2026. Morreale and the city are aiming for a reopening around the end of 2026 or early 2027, with holds sought as early as fall 2026.
And here is a very Colorado Springs footnote. There is a model railroad club called the Pikemasters housed in the auditorium's basement. Been down there for years. So while everything upstairs gets torn apart and rebuilt, the trains keep running below. Nobody is kicking them out.
One more thing worth your attention. In July 2026, AVA put the building's roughly 1,500 original 1923 chairs up for sale. Prices ran from
Think about that. You could have taken home an actual seat that watched Jimi Hendrix play. For a hundred and fifty bucks, or nothing. Hayley would have made me stop the car.
The bigger picture here is the one every Front Range city keeps running into. What do you do with a beautiful, expensive, historic building that nobody wants to pay to maintain? Colorado Springs found an answer that a lot of towns are still looking for. A local operator who grew up in the room, a lease that protects public ownership, and a first check big enough to actually turn the lights back on.
For the use of the people and the glory of the city. That plaque has been waiting a hundred years for someone to mean it again.