The California company that renovated Denver’s historic Mosque of the El Jebel Shrine and turned it into an event venue can now pursue a liquor license after the city changed its mind last month and determined the 120-year-old building is not within 500 feet of a school.
Non Plus Ultra, which operates four other venues in the city, has spent more than $300,000 refinishing floors and repairing plumbing at 1770 N. Sherman St., according to court documents. It has been hosting events there this year under short-term liquor permits.
It has also been trying, and failing, to acquire a more permanent license since February 2024.
Denver does not allow liquor sales within 500 feet of a school and the far northwest corner of El Jebel is 494 feet from one corner of Downtown Denver Expeditionary School and Emily Griffith High, two public schools that are within the same building at 1860 Lincoln St.
So, in April of 2024, the city denied Non Plus Ultra’s request to serve booze. The company appealed, a city hearing officer recommended NPU be granted a liquor license, the city still denied the company’s request, and Non Plus Ultra sued Denver this summer.
NPU and Denver’s Department of Excise and Licenses agreed that the starting point for the 500-foot measurement should be the closest corner of the school building but disagreed over the ending point. Denver believed it should be the exterior corner of El Jebel closest to the school; NPU thought it should be the place inside El Jebel where liquor is served.
While the dispute was playing out, Non Plus Ultra reached out to the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Liquor Enforcement Division to get its opinion on the 500-foot question. Surprisingly, the division determined that both the city and the event company were using the wrong starting point — the southeast corner of 1860 Lincoln — when the southwest corner was best.
“It is unclear what, if any, binding or precedential authority any informal opinion issued by the division holds over a local licensing agency,” Molly Duplechian, executive director of Denver’s Department of Excise and Licenses, wrote in an order Sept. 22. “…Nonetheless, the director acknowledges that even an informal opinion may have some weight.”
With that, she withdrew her denial of a liquor license at 1770 N. Sherman St. That does not mean NPU is guaranteed a license, however. Neighbors can now weigh in on the idea and, if necessary, a public hearing will be held, followed by a hearing officer’s recommendation and then a final decision by Duplechian. But proximity to a school will not be a consideration.
Accordingly, Non Plus Ultra dropped its lawsuit against the city on Oct. 2. It and its lawyer, Adam Stapen of Dill Dill Carr Stonbraker & Hutchings in Denver, declined to comment.
El Jebel, meanwhile, is in foreclosure and being run by a receiver who plans to auction it.
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