Denver’s National Western Center lassos partners to build missing equestrian center, 200-room hotel

Officials overseeing Denver’s sprawling National Western Center say they have found a development team that can bring a hotel, a parking garage and an equestrian center to the campus that’s been undergoing massive redevelopment since 2019.

Thursday’s announcement marks a tentative step forward for a critical missing piece of the National Western Center landscape. While several new facilities have opened or are under construction — including a large livestock center — horse events still use outdated buildings on the eastern portion of the campus. A 17-acre plot to the west sits vacant.

The city still must negotiate a formal deal with the new partnership team, including designs, costs and financial details. The partners would be responsible for designing, building and helping to finance the project, which is where city officials previously have said the hotel’s revenue might play a role.

After construction is done, the team would deliver event programming and operate the hotel for three decades.

City leaders say an existing voter-approved tax stream —  2015’s 2C tax on hotel stays and rental cars — will help pay for the new facilities. The city and the new development team, collectively dubbed Community Activation Partners, have entered into what’s called a “predevelopment agreement” and will now embark on gathering more community feedback and continuing design work for the trio of facilities.

Once they negotiate a public-private partnership deal, the formal development agreement would need to win approval from the Denver City Council.

Thursday’s announcement did not set a timeline for that to happen, but it did provide a peek into the future project that city and campus leaders hope the new partnership will bring about. It describes the equestrian center as featuring a 4,500-seat arena and a horse barn with 550 stalls. The parking structure would contain at least 580 spaces, while the hotel would offer around 200 rooms.

“The city and our partners remain committed to delivering on priorities outlined in the (National Western Center) Master Plan and included in 2015’s Ballot Measure 2C,” Mike Bouchard, the executive director of the Mayor’s Office of the National Western Center, which oversees the redevelopment project, said in a statement. “The equestrian center is a vital part of campus infrastructure and supports current and future uses.”

Community Activation Partners is being led by Toronto-based development firm Fengate Asset Management, with Greeley-based Hensel Phelps Construction signed on as the lead contractor. Denver-based firms McWhinney Real Estate and Sage Hospitality would be involved in developing and operating the hotel, according to a news release.

The redevelopment of the 250-acre, city-owned campus has sought to transform the longtime home of the National Western Stock Show into a year-round exhibition, agricultural education and entertainment campus.

But city officials quietly took the equestrian center off the development plan in 2022. The project’s budget, which has exceeded $1 billion in city, state and private money, was too tight to pay for that facility at the scale city leaders wanted after construction costs skyrocketed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bouchard told The Denver Post last year.

Now the National Western Center, an independent quasi-governmental authority tasked with overseeing operations on the grounds, and the city have identified a team that includes several well-known Colorado companies that leaders say can bring the horse facility home.

A key portion of the plan includes developing a previously unplanned hotel that officials believe will generate activity and needed revenue on the property year-round.

“This collaboration represents a significant step forward in our mission to convene the world at the National Western Center to lead, inspire, create, educate and entertain in pursuit of global food solutions,” National Western Center CEO Brad Buchanan said in a statement. “Adding the equestrian center, hotel and parking garage to the campus will provide exceptional benefit to our customers and community partners.”