John Deffenbaugh, president and CEO of Historic Denver, says he can hardly imagine the city without its first and oldest power plant.

The Zuni Generating Station, located at 1335 Zuni Street and owned by Xcel, was shut down in 2015. The plant has been placed on the list of Colorado’s most endangered places.

“It has been a prominent feature of the Denver River for over 123 years,” Deffenbaugh said. “Its existence was critical to Denver and its westward expansion. It is literally the building that fueled Denver’s growth.”

Deffenbaugh says his group now wants to redesign the system.

“These buildings convey a sense of scale that is very unusual for buildings today that are so well suited to a wide range of uses,” said Deffenbaugh.

He says other communities have converted their old power plants into everything from recreation centers to parts of a football stadium to offices and commercial buildings.

But time has not been kind to them. Deffenbaugh says that is not a big obstacle for them.

“We recognize the magnitude of what lies ahead, but big cities do big things,” Deffenbaugh said.

The biggest obstacle is that the building is currently owned by Xcel and Historic Denver knows what it plans to do with it.

“We hope it’s not the wrecking ball,” Deffenbaugh said.

He says they have been trying to organize a forum with Xcel that involves the community and the city, and they have written to the mayor’s office to request a meeting with the city to discuss the issue. They hope to get something done soon, because in an area where a lot of private development is happening, he wants to see at least something done for the community.

“Local residents would like to flip the script and turn this building that has polluted the environment into a community asset,” Deffenbaugh said.