Stan Kroenke files plan for massive changes around Ball Arena
May 3, 2022, 12:55 PM
Stan Kroenke already had plans to redevelop the land Elitch Gardens sits on, now Kroenke has plans for a redevelopment project of the parking lots around Ball Arena, according to Thomas Gounley of Businessden.com.
The two projects, The River Mile and the Ball Arena redevelopment, could potentially expand downtown Denver by 40%, according to a “large development review” submitted by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment to the city in March that Businessden.com wrote about in a story on Monday.
Kroenke is the owner of the Colorado Avalanche, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Mammoth Colorado Rapids and Los Angeles Rams. By trade, he is a real estate developer. He owns Ball Arena, Elitch Gardens amusement park and the land around each.
The document did not reveal any changes to the 23-year-old Ball Arena. The plans also did not detail any training facilities for the Avalanche, who practice at Family Sports Center in Centennial—a glorified arcade, or the Nuggets, who practice inside of Ball Arena in a facility that was last updated when Raef LaFrentz played for the team.
The 55-acre site anchored by the area would be filled with millions of square feet of multi-use buildings that include housing, office and retail spaces. The plan also shows that about 10 acres would become a park or open space, directly west of Ball Arena. As well as a bike and foot path over Speer Boulevard.
Across the train tracks at Elitch Gardens, a 62-acre site that Kroenke bought in 2015, no visible work has begun on The River Mile which was rezoned to allow for construction in 2018, Businessden.com reports.
In order to conduct the massive construction project, the site will need to be rezoned, which gets approved by the Denver City Council. Businessden.com says a rezoning application could be submitted this summer and be voted on early in 2023.
But the plans are far off, with the full project taking 20 to 25 years to complete.
The trend both locally and around the country is to redevelop areas around stadiums, turning them into entertainment spaces and housing.
Around Colorado, Dick Monfort turned a parking lot across from Coors Field into McGregor Square, a block filled with a hotel, restaurants and office space. In Colorado Springs the minor-league Switchbacks have built housing adjacent to their downtown stadium. While the City of Denver has okayed redeveloping the parking lots south of Empower Field at Mile High Stadium.
The story states that one of the reasons for the project is the island feel to the arena surrounded by parking lots and that on non-event days there’s not much going on.
