An artist's rendering of what Dazzle will look like at its new location.
Jazz will move under the iconic arches of the Denver Performing Arts Complex with tonight's announcement that Dazzle supper club is moving out of the historic Baur's Building and into the involuntarily vacated club space at 1080 14th Street – the corner of 14th and Arapahoe streets.
The lease agreement will make Dazzle a tenant of the city of Denver, which owns and operates the downtown arts complex, for at least the next nine years.
"This move will make us officially part of Denver’s cultural hub," the club said in a rare late-night news release attributed to Donald Rossa, Matt Ruff, Jan Cleveland and Austin Andres.
It will also officially make Dazzle part of Denver's unfortunate cultural alphabet soup.
For the record: Dazzle is not becoming a part of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. The Denver Center is not a physical place. Rather, it is the largest of several nonprofit tenants of Denver Arts & Venues. The physical space is the Denver Performing Arts Complex – which will now make room for Dazzle in the former home of the troubled Onyx Ultra Lounge on the bottom floor of the city's massive parking garage.
The now-closed Onyx Ultra Lounge below the city's parking garage at 14th and Araaoe streets will be the new home of Dazzle.
Two Onyx security guards were shot in an October 2019 incident that came just one month after the Denver City Council already had voted to end the nightclub's lease two years early. By that time, there already had been 37 calls for police assistance at Onyx in 2019 alone, according to Denver police.
Dazzle's home for 20 years had been a small storefront space on Lincoln Street before moving downtown next to the Sam's No. 3 diner in 2017.
"The first 25 years established Dazzle as the premier independently owned venue and a solid part of Denver’s cultural fabric," the Dazzle statement continued. This new long-term lease agreement "is dedicated to solidifying our place in the wider history of jazz and the new sounds that grow from its roots."
The move will most likely take place in late November, but the club is waiting on permit approvals before setting an official opening date. Until then, "Dazzle at Baur’s" will continue business as usual at 1512 Curtis St.
The new Dazzle will be designed by the architectural firm of Perkins+Will, whose biggest challenge will be transitioning from the iconic high ceilings in the old Baur's building to the much lower ceiling at the former Onyx.
In its own statement, Denver Arts & Venues promised that "Colorado’s premier independent-owned venue" will continue its commitment to "showcasing Colorado artists as a celebration of our state’s rich and talented pool of musicians, with a few national acts sprinkled in to spice things up."
It also promised "a continued commitment to diverse bookings, reflecting Denver’s jazz community and rich heritage.
"Denver Arts & Venues welcomes Dazzle as an iconic, local cultural organization that brings a new musical flavor to the Arts Complex and widens its breadth of shows."
An artist's rendering of what the Dazzle stage will look like at its new location.