DENVER  The mauve mansion on Shangri-La Drive is decidedly more James Bond than John Hickenlooper, the mayor of Denver.

But the Cableland home, once the bachelor pad of the eccentric television magnate Bill Daniels, has served as the official mayoral residence here since Mr. Daniels gave it to the city in 1998.

No mayor has actually chosen to live at Cableland: the 12-foot fire pole in the master bedroom, the 88 television sets and the retro tanning bed may have been deal-breakers.

And now, Mr. Hickenlooper wants to sell the mansion to raise college scholarship money for poor Denver public school graduates. The decision has the blessing of Mr. Daniels’s private foundation, the Daniels Fund, but has prompted skepticism among some.