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Two schools of thought flitter through the streets just behind the Denver Broncos’ planned future home, separated by just one block but standing an entire world apart.
On a sunny Tuesday morning, 35-year-old Rita Guerrero stepped out from her door on North Mariposa Avenue, lively pup Olive barely contained by her leash. Guerrero bought her home in the La Alma Lincoln Park neighborhood five years ago, and smiled when she thinks of the wealth of possibilities that now exist a quarter mile away at the defunct Burnham Yard.
The Broncos just announced their plans to construct a new stadium in her backyard, and it could mean a livelier neighborhood. And exciting features for families. And increased property values.
“This is very exciting,” Guerrero beamed. “I’m very happy. It’ll be great for the team, great for the neighborhood. I really see that there’s, probably — I mean, there really can only be upside.”
Broncos name Burnham Yard preferred site for new stadium development
On a cloudy Tuesday afternoon, a few hundred feet away, 46-year-old Nicole Jones and 51-year-old Desiree Maestas crossed onto North Lipan Street, discussing the change to come. Jones has lived all her life a few houses up the block, and frowned when she thinks of the wealth of possibilities that now exist with the Broncos’ professed plan to develop at Burnham Yard.
It could mean more traffic. And more construction. And increased property values.
“I think it’s going to change everything,” Jones said. “Because everything’s going to go up. Especially in this neighborhood, everything’s going to go up. And a lot of us ain’t even going to be able to afford to live here anymore. Because the stadium is going to be right in our neighborhood. Right in our backyard.”
“So, yeah,” she repeated, somber. “We’re not going to be able to afford to live here no more.”
Residents of La Alma Lincoln Park who spoke to The Denver Post on Tuesday were split on the complicated reality that now awaits, after the Broncos officially announced that they’ve zeroed in on Burnham Yard as the planned site of a privately-financed mixed-use stadium district.
Some residents lamented the change that continues to rattle the historic Denver neighborhood, one that has already experienced generations of displacement. Some residents championed the city’s efforts to keep the team local: they are the Denver Broncos, 39-year-old Barbara Ott emphasized from her porch, not the Lone Tree Broncos.
The general median is a sort of cautious optimism, as community leader Simon Tafoya put it.
“Maybe a little bit more than optimism,” Tafoya said. “But I think from what they’ve said… that they were working to and developing a community benefits agreement, that’s ultimately the goal for the community — to ensure that the benefits match what the community wants to see.”
That community benefits agreement, or CBA, will be the most important piece to ensuring satisfaction in La Alma Lincoln Park and the surrounding neighborhoods. Broncos owner Greg Penner told The Post the organization will start working on a CBA “right away” and said he wants to have a “really positive relationship” in the area. Team spokesperson Patrick Smyth said fellow owner Carrie Walton Penner spoke with multiple neighborhood leaders prior to Tuesday’s announcement.
That’s encouraging to Tafoya, who served on the CBA committee for redevelopment at nearby Ball Arena. That committee specifically negotiated for 18% of all connected housing to be affordable, an issue Tafoya sees as similarly key to a Broncos redevelopment at Burnham Yard.
“The community has always been part of the solution for (Denver) affordable housing,” Tafoya said. “I think the challenge is, as we move forward, making sure it continues in that commitment without falling into the trap of concentrated poverty.”
Some residents are excited, too, for the Broncos’ plans to bring a mix of housing, retail and entertainment venues to the surrounding stadium district. Look at Coors Field’s effect on the Lower Downtown neighborhood and the walkability of the stadium, Guerrero said.
Neighborhood leaders, though, emphasize the need for specific community-facing uses so it doesn’t become a “ghostland,” as Tafoya previously told The Post. Perhaps that’s basic residential services. Perhaps that’s open green space, as planned at Ball Arena. Perhaps that’s public art.
“We’re hopeful that NFL teams have learned a lot and they aren’t just looking to plop down a stadium and surround it by parking lots,” said Nolan Hahn, president of the La Alma Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association. “We’re hopeful they turn what is currently an empty railyard into a real part of the neighborhood.”
Denver City Councilwoman Jamie Torres said the city will develop the community benefits committee to begin conversations with the Broncos. Land-use planning must begin to deal with the industrial area, she said.
Plus, she said, the city needs more information from the Broncos to share their vision.
“This is an exciting opportunity to redevelop what’s been a vacant railyard for too long and have really thoughtful ways about how it’s connecting to the neighborhood it’s in,” Torres said.
Residents interested in getting involved in the future planning can connect with Torres’ office to find out what path suits them best and attend monthly neighborhood association meetings, she said.
Local business owners, too, are anticipating the need to advocate for themselves in the coming years. The Santa Fe Art District, the hub of Denver’s art scene, sits on a strip just a half mile from Burnham Yard. It’s the kind of area where art-gallery owners put out a plate of homegrown peaches at the cash register.
The potential of a new football stadium and accompanying entertainment complex is an interesting fit with the “funkiness and uniqueness” of the art district, local gallery owner Michael McDowell said.
Bill Thomason, who owns the Bitfactory Gallery on Santa Fe Drive, is already concerned about pre-existing traffic nearby. Construction could come as new properties are built with the Broncos’ move, he said. That could decrease business.
“I might get forced out here,” Thomason said. “Because I can’t afford to lose the last little bit of (foot) traffic I do have.”
McDowell and wife Sharla Throckmorton-McDowell just opened their POP Gallery on Santa Fe Drive a few months ago. They pay $6,000 a month for the space; at present, they’re just scraping by, McDowell said. And the Broncos’ move is a “genuine concern,” he said, if it sends property values skyrocketing and landlords thereby increase the rent on local businesses.
Everything you need to know about the new Broncos stadium planned at Burnham Yard
McDowell, though, hopes that businesses in the district can work with the city and the Broncos in tandem.
“Everything I’ve read about them as an organization, a group, seems to me that they’re not just ones that are going to come in here and try and — ‘(expletive) everybody, we’re gonna do what we want to do because we’re billionaires,’” McDowell said of the Broncos’ Walton-Penner Ownership Group. “They seem to be really respectful and love Denver, and I think it could really work out to be a win-win situation.”
“What is it now?” he continued, speaking of Burnham Yard. “It’s a run-down trainyard that’s not active, that’s non-existent, it’s dilapidated. It’s not serving any purpose.”
This, ultimately, was the main argument from local supporters of the Broncos’ move. To some, like Jones and Maestas, there’s no possible mixed-use-district benefit that could outweigh rising property costs. But Burnham Yard and its 50-plus acres of land have sat abandoned for nearly a decade. Guerrero and others want to see that used. For something.
That something, though, comes with plenty of strings attached.
Connie Buckley, 82, has lived in the neighborhood for three decades. She might not live long enough to see this Broncos stadium come to fruition, she joked. But she — and plenty of others — are still protective over a community that’s been mistreated, as she said, for “eons.”
“This is a neighborhood with real people who live here,” Buckley said. “And I hope nobody forgets that.”
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Luca Evans, Elizabeth Hernandez
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