Colfax mainstay Video One sells building to gay nonprofit

We've learned that Video One, long considered Denver's most awesome independent video rental store, recently sold its building at 1301 East Colfax Avenue.

Winner of numerous Best of Denver awards, the store has been the go-to spot for movie geeks of all stripes since... well, since before the Gold Rush, we're guessing. Real estate records show that on May 1, Video One owner Richard Bunch sold the building for $985,000 to the Gay Lesbian Bisexual & Transgendered Community Center of Colorado.

Known simply as The Center, the nonprofit operates an office and gathering place at 1050 Broadway, where they offer services and run advocacy campaigns for the statewide GLBT community. Spokesperson Heather Draper writes via e-mail that the group plans to begin renovations on the 15,000-square-foot building in September to transform the space into "a more widely functional center" for their operations. They are currently in the "quiet phase of a capital campaign, but expect to go public with the campaign within the year."

It'll be a huge upgrade over The Center's current 9,000 square-foot spot, which may just be in Denver's ugliest building.

As for Video One, we couldn't reach Bunch, but a clerk at the store says that they are planning to move right across Lafayette Street into a space next to Fat Jack's Supersubs sometime this fall. It's a much smaller space, he admits.

Good, old-fashioned movie rentals may be way down in the Netflix era, but it's good to hear that Video One isn't out.