Former Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway took ownership of the onetime Tavern Uptown building at 538 E. 17th Ave. in Denver through a foreclosure auction Thursday, records show.
Elway took the property back from local restaurateur Frank Schultz after the latter defaulted on a loan Elway provided in 2022.
Elway didn’t respond to a request for comment on Thursday conveyed through Schultz.
Schultz opened Tavern Uptown in 2000, the first of what became a string of local Tavern-branded sports bars.
Schultz closed the bar in 2016, not long after he sold the building and lots to the south to an apartment developer, which originally planned to demolish the bar but ended up wrapping its project around it. In 2021, Schultz bought the building back for $3.6 million, records show.
Schultz took a $4.8 million loan out from Elway the following year, which was later increased to $5.4 million.
“He did me a huge favor. It was just impossible to get loans at a bank,” Schultz told BusinessDen in July, adding that he and Elway have been friends for about 20 years.
Schultz planned to open a new bar in part of the building and lease out the adjacent space. The building was an empty shell, Schultz said in July, so it needed a couple million dollars in work. But the loan seemed like it would work out fine, since the property had appraised at $8 million.
But Schultz ended up putting the property up for sale as part of a settlement agreement with Terry Papay, his mother and Tavern Hospitality Group co-owner.
“Haven’t even had an offer at $3 million,” he said in July.
Elway played for the Broncos for his entire 16-year career in the 1980s and 1990s and later joined the team as an executive. On the business side, he owns car dealerships and the steakhouse Elway’s, which has locations in Denver and Vail.
Schultz, meanwhile, is working to reopen Otra Vez Cantina, his Mexican restaurant along the 16th Street Mall. He said he’s targeting an opening between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve.
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