Denver credit until to close branch next to hotel shelter

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Partner Colorado Credit Union sent an email out to customers on Thursday. Employees will be relocated to other branches.

DENVER — A credit union in Denver’s Central Park neighborhood has announced it will close, citing safety concerns due to a nearby homeless shelter.

Partner Colorado Credit Union’s location at 4000 Quebec St. is next door to a hotel that the city turned into a shelter a few months ago. The business said it was a difficult decision, but in an email to customers on Thursday, officials said the safety of customers and employees is their top priority.

Partner Colorado is not the only business that has safety concerns. Sergio Calderon works at Viejo Liquor, just around the corner from the credit union.

“Stealing everyday, confrontations, it’s like once a week,” he said. “[The business] had to hire two more people in order to like just to keep watch, basically.”

The credit union said the opening of a neighboring shelter led them to close their doors. Earlier this month, two people were killed inside that shelter on Quebec Street. According to data from Denver Police, they’ve received 446 911 calls to this shelter since Nov. 1.

While Partner Colorado officials would not speak on-camera, they told 9NEWS via email that they have not kept track of how many times they’ve called the police or the nature of the calls.

In an email to customers announcing the closure, they said, “There have been a number of incidents at and around the Central Park branch that have raised serious concerns for the safety of our employees and members.”

“No it doesn’t really surprise me. I can see why,” Calderon said when he heard about the closure. “There’s not one day of work where I’m like oh yeah if its going to be calm. There’s always something happening.”

9NEWS reached out to the Denver Mayor’s Office in response to the credit union closure. In a statement, the office said Mayor Mike Johnston is committed to safety for residents of Denver shelters and their neighbors.

“The city established safety protocols from the beginning of the initiative and will continue to work closely with service providers and neighbors to make safety improvements, like the recent changes to the former DoubleTree,” the statement says. “Some of those changes include a badge reader system so only residents can enter the site, one point of entry, adding additional security cameras and door alarms, and hiring private security on site 24/7.”

Partner Colorado Credit Union officials said they did not reach out to the city about their concerns prior to announcing the closure. They added that no employee would lose their job due to the closure. All employees will be relocated to other branches.