The anecdote goes that Stan Kroenke visited the 289-acre future home of the SoFi stadium in California, fell in love with the Hollywood Park setting, and set in motion a $5 billion investment to create a modern marvel of a stadium serving two NFL football teams and a money-making redevelopment of surrounding land he scooped up.
As the Los Angeles Times reported in a detailed retrospective of how SoFi came to be, the competitors for the stadium – a proposal in Carson and one in downtown Los Angeles – lacked the “killer instinct” and lost out to Kroenke’s vision in Inglewood.
Perhaps that same killer instinct was missing in Oakland when the city lost the Raiders to a heavily taxpayer-funded stadium in Las Vegas, the Oakland A’s to Las Vegas where lawmakers could vote this week on a $400 million gift for a stadium on the Strip, and the Warriors to the $1 billion Chase Center in San Francisco.
Denverites must dig deep — from the new mayor and city council all the way to the baristas and bartenders — to find the urgency, the passion, and the cutthroat mentality that will keep the Broncos at home on the historic Mile High land.
Colorado doesn’t have to pull a Nevada, mobster-style deal to grease the wheels with a billion in taxpayers’ dollar bills but there are smart deals the city and state can cut to make staying at Mile High irresistible to the Broncos’ new ownership in the same dollar-churning, legacy-building way that the Hollywood Park site was to Kroenke.
The vision is already there
The Mile High location has immense potential as a booming hub of economic activity.
Taxpayers in seven metro-district counties own the 89 acres under and surrounding Mile High via the voter-approved Metropolitan Football Stadium District. These Colorado residents should not be opposed to a generous profit-sharing model that cuts the Broncos’ new ownership team — Rob Walton, Greg Penner, Carrie Walton Penner, Mellody Hobson and Condoleezza Rice — the lion’s share of revenue but holds something back for the public good as well. Similar to the payment the counties received as part of the deal when Walton purchased the team.
The City of Denver and the district have already adopted a master plan for the area that included a 55-acre redevelopment of surface parking lots into a mixed-use entertainment district that utilizes parking garages and public transit.
That plan, however, is outdated, and to be blunt, its scope was entirely too small.
Denver cannot be caught flat-footed as the new owners of the Broncos look seven years ahead to the end of their lease at Empower Field at Mile High. Act now to update the master plan to anticipate a new or remodeled stadium surrounded not by parking lots but by a bustling community of hotels, bars, restaurants, condos, apartments, small businesses, corporate enterprises, startups, and more.
Kroenke, who happens to be related to Broncos’ co-owner Rob Walton, owns a beautiful parcel of land in Denver that stretches from his Ball Arena, where the Nuggets are having a good run in the Western Conference Final games, southwest to where a pedestrian bridge crosses the South Platte River to the inviting Empower Field at Mile High esplanade. Kroenke and his partners are prepared to invest billions to transform the land from an existing amusement park into the River Mile redevelopment linking downtown to Mile High.
Seattle Seahawks fans may be able to take ferries to the urban Lumen Field and surrounding entertainment district, but Broncos fans will arrive by train, trolly, car, bike or foot along the River Mile to the historic Mile High.
Walton and his team have already shown their passion for the site with a more than $100 million investment to bring a bigger and updated scoreboard, renovated suites, concessions upgrades, and more. With this investment there are more than seven years of use left in the existing stadium, as we’ve said before, and we hate to see that investment of taxpayer dollars, resources and energy discarded too soon.
The owners won’t be compelled to stay because of nostalgia, civic duty, and urban planning alone.
The Broncos’ new ownership team sent out a survey to fans and ticketholders asking where they want the next stadium to be located and/or what amenities they want in a new or remodeled stadium. Such a survey compels urgency.
The money is already there, too
Denver City Council approved a special taxing metropolitan district on 55 acres of Mile High land, allowing the quasi-governmental stadium district to impose a 50 mil property tax on the property to fund the infrastructure needed for the redevelopment. The district also can levy a sales tax through a public improvement fee or PIF like those found at strip malls up and down the front range.
Estimates provided with the metro district’s service plan anticipated such a local tax on future property owners (both commercial and residential) could generate enough revenue to cover $146 million in bonds. And that was only on 55 acres of the larger plot; the possibility exists to generate far more revenue to pay for the needed streets, water, electricity, grading, and other public infrastructure.
That deal would obviously need to be reworked to cover the entire 89 acres but we like that the metro district and its taxing authority would be in the hands of a quasi-governmental authority with an arms-length distance from the developer.
The site also is in an opportunity zone, meaning the Broncos’ ownership could write off capital gains owed on any money invested in the project, and their investment would grow federal income tax-free, as long as the assets are held for 10 years. Because the land will remain owned by the Stadium District, it will remain property tax-free.
Such a deal would be a win-win. Walton would get already existing tax breaks while benefiting immensely from future taxpayers in the area fronting the cost of his development’s foundation with an already anticipated metropolitan district. The city would see a major investment in an area that has suffered a disparity of resources and connectivity for generations and could share in profits as the land owner.
The Stadium District could leverage its taxing authority, the city’s master plan for the development of the surface parking lots and the opportunity zone, to craft a perpetual profit-sharing agreement with the Broncos ownership for a new or completely renovated stadium and mixed-use development of the surrounding land.
The stadium itself could also be partially funded using the seat-licensing taxes that have been used to construct other new stadiums across the U.S.
What was once the most destitute and isolated community in the city – Sun Valley – is seeing revitalization just south of the stadium as the Denver Housing Authority and other entities have invested heavily in the community creating a mixed-income neighborhood full of density and promise. The Front Range has invested in the light rail that drops visitors off between Kroenke’s land and Mile High land.
The new Colorado Department of Transportation headquarters was built on the Stadium District’s land and the new Rude Recreation Center along the Lakewood Gulch trail and stream presents a great opportunity for recreation and walking or biking commuters to downtown.
We know Walton and his team are civic-minded men and women and their $100 million investment in Mile High indicates they believe in this site, believe in this neighborhood, and believe in downtown.
The future of Denver is bright as a thriving city that bleeds blue and orange.
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