Safety Worries Lead Credit Union to Close Branch in Denver
Partner Colorado to close a branch by a homeless shelter where two residents were killed earlier this month.
Partner Colorado Credit Union is planning on closing one of its two branches in Denver because of safety concerns after two residents of a homeless shelter next door were shot to death earlier this month.
Denver7 television station, an ABC affiliate, obtained an email Partner Colorado sent to its members Thursday announcing the branch would close May 3 “due to safety and security concerns for our employees and members.”
“Unfortunately, the housing crisis in Denver continues to impact neighborhoods throughout the city and the Central Park branch is no exception. There have been a number of incidents at and around Central Park branch that have raised serious concerns for the safety of our employees and our members,” the email said.
Krista Stafford-Evans, Partner Colorado’s vice president of marketing, said the Denver7 report was correct.
The decision followed the double homicide of a 43-year-old woman and 38-year-old man found dead from gunshots in a room at the shelter March 16.
The city purchased the former DoubleTree hotel in 2023 as part of homelessness initiative. Denver7 learned there have been more than 400 calls for help at the shelter’s address since Jan. 1.
Partner Colorado ($633.7 million in assets, 34,970 members) had opened the Central Park branch in 2002. Its remaining Denver branch is downtown in the Denver Water building.
Besides Partner Colorado, 14 other credit unions have 27 branches in the consolidated city and county of Denver. Canvas Credit Union of Lone Tree, Colo. ($4.4 billion in assets, 293,966 members) has the most: five of its 35 branches and other locations as of Dec. 31.
Partner Colorado is based in Arvada, a Jefferson County city seven miles northwest of downtown Denver. It has its headquarters and one branch in Jefferson County and two other branches in nearby Arapahoe County.
Colorado has been gaining branches over the past four years. It had 369 branches and other locations Dec. 31, an increase of 23 since December 2019, including six in the previous 12 months.