HQ Underground Turns Into HQ Underwater After Broadway Water Main Fiasco

Scott Happel was dining out with friends on the evening of August 15; he had a show at HQ, his popular live-music spot at 60 South Broadway, at 9 p.m. He'd been there earlier in the day to make sure everything was ready, but then came the bad news: The water main under the street out front had burst.

"We think it happened around 5:30 p.m. or so," says Happel. "I got a call from my landlord saying there was water coming through the wall of the place next door. I remember thinking, 'Oh, that's not good.' We cashed out — didn't even eat dinner — and got to HQ just before 7 p.m.

"Everything was flooded," recalls Happel, who snapped the photo above when he first arrived. "Right up to the top step."
And that would be the top step of HQ Underground.

"What we think happened was that the valve on the water main failed," Happel says, "shooting water directly toward HQ, pushing tons of dirt and water up against our basement wall." The wall finally buckled, filling up HQ’s lower level like a bathtub. The entire 3,200-square-foot basement — with ten-to-twelve-foot ceilings, no less — was completely submerged. And the ground floor was beginning to flood when Denver Water finally got the water shut off.

Eventually, the emergency crew found the source of the spill. "They ripped open a hole in Broadway," says Happel, "at which point we could see there was no dirt left under the road between the water main and HQ. Makes sense — it was all in our basement."

The entire block was without service until early on August 16.

Happel was there until about 1 a.m. that morning. "We had two crews come out that night to work to get the water out of there," he says, "but it was just beyond their means to do it. It was beyond the scope they'd ever seen."

By the next day, the water level had gone to a couple of feet of standing water. "But that's a problem, too," Happel notes, "or at least it's something we have to have checked out. It's not good for a foundation to have to absorb that much water. We won't know the sum total of the damage for some time."

So HQ, which was Westword’s choice for Best New Club in 2022, is now closed, and will be for three to six weeks, Happel estimates, until the damage on the first floor can be assessed and repaired. Shows that had been booked there have been moved to other venues — the Oriental and Herman's Hideaway, to name a couple — or at least temporarily scuttled.

But restoring the basement will take much longer. HQ Underground had hosted drag and burlesque shows several times a week, and Happel estimates that the area may not reopen until next year.

In the meantime, Happel and partner Peter Ore have started a fundraiser on Holdmyticket.com, where Denver music lovers can donate to help the venue get back on its feet. “While these are not tickets to a specific future event,” they say, “what you are buying is a ticket to help keep HQ alive so that YEARS worth of future events can still happen.”

Even though HQ has insurance, Colorado’s “water exception removes liability if ‘water from outside the building’ is the cause of the damage," Happel worries. "We're going to be talking with our insurance company, of course, but honestly, at this point we expect insurance to do close to nothing, if not exactly nothing."
He's not counting on the City of Denver, which has been doing various infrastructure projects along Broadway for months, stepping up, either. While Happel says his landlord has been the point person for communicating with Denver Water, he hasn't heard from anyone at the City of Denver about the situation. (Westword has reached out to the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure for comment.)

"Another part of this story is that the city has hired a construction company, Hamon Infrastructure, to do a bunch of work up and down Broadway," Happel says. "They started work in front of HQ two days before this happened. I'm no scientist, but I suspect they've got to be somewhat responsible for this water main breaking when and how it did. I just don't believe it's a coincidence."

Brad Davis from Hamon Infrastructure disagrees. The company's work was "unrelated to the incident that took place with the water main," he says, and refuses further comment.

Matt Megyesi is a co-owner of the nearby Mutiny Information Cafe at 2 South Broadway, and says the surrounding businesses support HQ, its owners and employees. "Not to mention the fans," he says. "The damage has been unbelievable. It’s so sad. There aren’t many venues that have been around as long as that spot has, under various names.” It was the Cherry Pit for a while, and then turned into Three Kings, which was partly owned by Mutiny’s Jim Norris.

But Megyesi is also concerned about Mutiny, as well as his neighbors. “I’m scared, quite frankly,” says Megyesi. “The city is about to work on my section of the street next. We are the main water source for that whole building — that includes the dance studio behind us, the bar next door, the barbershop down the way. We draw a lot of water, and I’m worried that there could be damage to the water lines near us and we’ll see the problems just move down the road to us.”

Meanwhile, Happel is worried about trickle-down economics. "Business expenses don't stop just because we're closed," he says. "The loss of income is bad and getting worse every day that goes by. It's a nightmare. I just want to wake up."

To help HQ survive, see the Holdmyticket.com website. For more information on shows and schedules, see the HQ webpage.