Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche team president Josh Kroenke signed an agreement Tuesday morning that ties these franchises to Ball Arena and the land surrounding it through 2050 — just hours after the City Council granted major approval for a massive redevelopment on the site.
By signing a revised agreement with Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, the Kroenke family added twenty years to their legal commitment to the city. It came at a time when sports owners and city officials regularly engage in protracted battles over stadium financing, and even teams with decades of history in their cities, like the Oakland Athletics, are willing to divest from communities willing to take on more dough.
All it took was for the City Council to pass legislation Monday night that paved the way for lucrative development in the decades to come. The acres of parking lots that surround the 25-year-old arena today are expected to transform into a mixed-use urban neighborhood over the next thirty years.
Under the terms of that legislation, it would have more than 1,000 affordable housing units (out of a total of 6,000 units), a childcare center, a public arts space, and ample job opportunities for people from Denver’s low-income neighborhoods. These plans were partly supported by the municipality exempting the site from the restrictions of a nearby sight area which would have limited building height in some places.
“This project will bring together our expertise in sports and real estate development in a way that will help us deepen our connection to the city and the community at large as we continue to impact the region,” Josh Kroenke said during a club-level press conference of the arena. “I would like to personally thank Mayor Johnson, the City Council and the citizens of Denver for trusting us with such a massive project.”
Fresh off a public hearing that lasted nearly four hours the night before, Kroenke Sports and Entertainment senior vice president of development Matt Mahoney said in an interview that he expected the multi-phase project to begin with a focus on better connecting the 70 hectare land. building with existing city center neighborhoods in the east.
“Resolving the Speer Boulevard barrier is a priority for (property) and for us,” Mahoney said, referring to the arterial road that separates the arena site from downtown to the east.
He emphasized that while the parking lots will eventually disappear, KSE expects parking structures to add even more event parking spaces than the 4,000 spaces the company offers to visitors today.
Terms of the larger deal include the right for KSE to build a new arena on the same site or nearby, on the site now occupied by the Elitch Gardens theme and water park – which is slated for a separate redevelopment project .
Tuesday’s event was less about delving into the details of development plans and community benefit agreements and more about celebrating the completion of a planning and negotiation process that dates back years.
Billionaire Stan Kroenke – Josh’s father – bought what was then the Pepsi Center, along with the Avs and Nuggets. for a combined amount of $450 million in 2000, just months after the arena opened. As the younger Kroenke noted Tuesday, both teams and the family’s Colorado Mammoth lacrosse team have now won championships while calling the building home.
In Denver, the Kroenkes plan to combine their talent for building winning sports franchises with their penchant for landscape-changing urban development, as they did with SoFi Stadium and its surrounding area in Southern California.
“I think this could be one of the most important days for sports fans in Denver history,” Johnston said prior to the deal signing.
The mayor, a die-hard Colorado sports fan, brought his own jersey — that of Avalanche star and reigning NHL MVP Nathan MacKinnon — to the event.
“Our shared vision is to say that not only is this a place where you can come and see a great game, but there will be a sea of parking around them,” he said. “This will now be a fully activated neighborhood where people can live, come and play in a park and come and see concerts. And yes, you can see three of the best sports franchises in the country, all in the same location.”
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