Kroenke Sports and Entertainment has submitted a concept plan for the first phase of a multi-use development around Ball Arena in downtown Denver that includes a 13-story hotel, two 12-story residential buildings and a 5,000-seat performance venue.
Documents submitted to the city Monday by the owner of Ball Arena and the professional sports teams that play there — the Colorado Avalanche and the Denver Nuggets — are part of a larger plan to turn 56 acres of land that is mostly surface parking lots into commercial and residential properties and open space.
The entire project is expected to include up to 6,000 new housing units, with 18% of those qualifying as affordable housing, as well as a new city recreation center, retail space and a park with walking and biking trails surrounding the sports arena.
The hotel, two residential buildings and concert venue would be bordered by Speer Boulevard on the east, Chopper Circle on the north and west, and Wynkoop Way on the south. The roughly 4-acre site would be just east of Ball Arena.
A two-branched pedestrian and bicycle bridge over Speer would connect the development to Lower Downtown. Each branch of Wynkoop Crossing will be 20 feet wide and the bridge, which would hover 18 feet above Speer Boulevard, is planned to start at a parking lot adjacent to the children’s playground along Speer, said Mike Neary, executive vice president of business operations and real estate for Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, or KSE.
Neary said in an email that the bridge’s design aims to evolve the existing arched bridges on Speer through a contemporary interpretation of the arches and “thoughtfully integrating” the color and materials.
The bridge would connect historic LoDo, home to the Coors Field baseball stadium, to the Ball Arena development.
“The redevelopment’s ability to stitch together the adjacent Lower Downtown neighborhoods is contingent on a safe, pedestrian-focused crossing of Speer Boulevard,” Neary said.
Wynkoop Crossing will connect the arena site to downtown and create a new destination in the area, Neary added. “It will also serve as a new iconic gateway and a symbolic and a vital physical connection between downtown and our dynamic new development.”
The hotel would have 244 guest rooms as well as eating and drinking spots, and retail. One of the residential buildings would have 160 units and the other would have 140.
Matt Mahoney, KSE’s senior vice president of development, told BusinessDen, that the company is “going through this submittal process with Denver, and a lot of the feedback that we’ll be receiving over the next few months will really help determine a final outcome.”
The plan says the performance venue would be 173,595 square feet. Mahoney told BusinessDen it would have about 5,000 seats and complement the 20,000-seat Ball Arena.
The city will have to administratively approve the concept plan before KSE can submit a site development plan, apply for building permits and fulfill other requirements, said Sarah Barwacz, spokeswoman for Denver Community Planning and Development.
The Kroenkes own 80% of the property included in the overall project area. The Auraria Higher Education Center, the Regional Transportation District and Xcel Energy also have interest in the land.
In 2024, Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche team president Josh Kroenke signed a deal tying the franchises to Ball Arena and the land around it through 2050. The Denver City Council earlier gave key approvals for a massive redevelopment on the site.
Billionaire Stan Kroenke — Josh’s father — bought the arena, then named Pepsi Center, along with the Avalanche and Nuggets, for a combined $450 million in 2000.
Updated April 22 at 7 p.m. to add comments from Kroenke and Sports Entertainment.
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