Back when Denver was a true cowtown and well over half a million cattle, sheep, hogs and horses moved through the city’s bustling livestock center each year, the Livestock Exchange Building was the grand red-brick heart of the city’s agricultural industry.

With an $8.5 million sale that was finalized Monday, that ornate, turn-of-the-20th-century building is set to become a key part of Colorado’s agricultural-related future and an iconic centerpiece of a billion-dollar overhaul of the National Western Center complex.

“Now, we’re going to make some new history,” said Brad Buchanan, the CEO of the non-profit National Western Center Authority, one of the partners in a consortium that purchased the exchange building from the City of Denver. “This exemplifies the huge economic impact agriculture has had and will have for the state of Colorado.”

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The new owners, which include EXDO Development, Elevation Development Group and the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, have big plans for a building that is currently empty except for the authority’s office, a temporary construction contractor’s headquarters, a saloon — and heaps of history. They hope to fill it with food- and ag-related businesses and agencies, just as it was more than a century ago.

The exchange building was constructed in three phases and three wings between 1898 and 1918. It was a time when “cowtown” was a proud moniker for Denver. The no-expenses-spared, million-dollar building reflected the high-flying agricultural industry of the period – an industry that buoyed Denver after gold let it down.

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In architectural embellishments that remain to this day, floors in the exchange building gleamed with terrazzo-tile. Walls were decorated with marble wainscoting. Cherry wood lined windows and doors. Intricate wrought-iron railings accented a grand staircase.

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