Denver voters refused to acquiesce to Westside Investment Partners’ very first lowball offer and now the developer is threatening to take their ball and … play golf alone.
The word “childish” comes to mind.
Let’s remind readers that the investors and partners at Westside bought the 155-acre golf course in Northeast Park Hill out from under the city of Denver, aggressively buying out the golf course management company’s right of first refusal.
Westside knew the land was under a conservation easement that prohibited development. Westside knew the city had struck a deal to purchase the land for a regional park. And still, Westside paid an undisclosed amount to buy the right-of-first refusal and then paid $24 million for the land.
In other words, Andy Klein and his partners and investors forced Denver to play a game with them, knowing they were underdogs, and now are playing the role of poor loser in dramatic fashion. A spokesman told Westword just before the election that they would consider putting a Topgolf structure on the land if they lost. That’s laughable because, again, the easement expressly prohibits development (i.e. a large two-story building) but does permit an 18-hole golf course on the land.
Ballot Measure 2O would have lifted the easement on the Park Hill course, allowing Westside to develop and then sell land to a builder for a mixed-use project. Denver’s mayor and city council members were almost all on board with the plan, but voters had the final say. They said no.
“With historically low turnout, Denver has rejected its single best opportunity to build new affordable housing and create new public parks,” Bill Rigler, the spokesman for the Yes on 2O campaign, told The Denver Post after disappointing results came in Tuesday night.
Forever. Really?
Also, not to nitpick, but turnout wasn’t historically low. One-third of registered voters turned out, which is more than in 2015 and 2011 the last time Denver had an open mayor’s race.
As I tell my children when they are throwing board game pieces at each other with tears running down their faces, it’s never too late to be a good sport.
The sporting thing to do after a defeat – like the 60% of Denver voters who refused to lift the conservation easement for Westside’s first plan – is to learn from your loss and try again.
There was much to like in the proposal from Westside, but as The Post’s editorial board said in an editorial, the deal lacked financial accountability and we suspected that the value of the city-owned easement far outstripped the value of the land Westside had agreed to donate to the city for a park and to Habitat for Humanity for a massive affordable housing project plus $20 million for park improvements.
Fortunately, the two candidates likely to face off for mayor in a June 6 runoff both pledged to The Denver Post editorial board that if 20 failed, they would appraise the value of the easement upon taking office.
Once the city knows the value of the easement, then good-faith negotiations can finally begin. Until now, we’re not sure what the city has been engaging in but it certainly hasn’t been based on the actual dollars and cents calculations that any first-year MBA student would demand. There is an election in November and given that so much of the agreement has been hashed out already, after slight modifications, Westside can try again.
We are glad the city has a chance to get this right.
And if Westside wants to quit playing, I know the city would gladly take the land off their hands for the unbelievably generous offer of $24 million.
Wait, Westside thinks that sounds too low given the appreciation of land since 2019, and would like an appraisal?
Huh, funny how that works.
Megan Schrader is the editor of the Denver Post’s opinion pages. She can be reached at mschrader@denverpost.com.
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