The Colorado Economic Development Commission declined a request from the Colorado Transportation Investment Office for a two-year extension on a loan used to purchase the Burnham Yard in Denver, approving a one-year extension instead.
The CTIO, formerly known as the High Performance Transportation Enterprise, is an investment arm of the Colorado Department of Transportation. It purchased the Burnham Yard, a decommissioned railyard, from the Union Pacific Railroad in May 2021 for $50 million.
With state funds tight during the pandemic, the CTIO asked to borrow $7.5 million from the state’s Strategic Fund, which is normally used to provide incentives for corporate relocation and other job-creating projects. At the time, the fund had $9.5 million set aside to land a big corporate relocation.
The railyard, with historic old brick buildings, covers roughly 59 acres in the La Alma-Lincoln Park area. Its purchase was pitched to the commission in 2021 as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to secure valuable land in the heart of Denver.
CDOT said it wanted to reserve 15 acres of the land to straighten out and widen a curvy stretch of Interstate 25 that is prone to jamming up. It also wanted to provide RTD more options in routing its rail lines through the area and see if the Front Range Passenger Rail project could use the corridor as it plotted out a route connecting Fort Collins to Pueblo.
The remaining land would be resold for development, paying off the initial investment. After months of study, CDOT said late last year it doesn’t need any of the acreage and that it planned to sell it to a private developer. The goal for a sale is by May 2026, but the loan made by the state’s economic development office is coming due on June 21.
“The main takeaway was that CDOT determined it really wasn’t going to retain any of the initially identified 15 acres,” Piper Darlington, CTIO head, told the EDC, after detailing how rerouting rail lines and the highway proved more complex than anticipated.
When CTIO’s request for a two-year extension to repay came before the commission, members hesitated in an awkward pause, resulting in commission chairwoman Carrie Schiff saying “No motion, no action.”
The commission eventually settled on a one-year extension after board member Chris Franz emphasized the importance of “protecting taxpayer dollars.”
As long as the money is tied up, it can be used for state economic development efforts, which could become more critical if the economy enters a recession in the coming months. The land also hasn’t been appraised since the initial purchase, Darlington confirmed. Commissioners wanted to know what the collateral backing the $7.5 million loan was worth and what position their loan held when it came to repayment.
If the CTIO sells the land for less than what it paid, the Strategic Fund, and by extension, taxpayers, could lose money. If it sells for more, a more likely scenario, the fund won’t receive any upside. Waiting around doesn’t benefit state economic development efforts, especially since CDOT isn’t going to use the land that it once claimed it so urgently needed to obtain.
Burnham Yard is considered one of the few developable parcels within central Denver that is large enough to hold a new stadium for the Denver Broncos and it checks many of the boxes that the team’s ownership might require, including tracts of developable land nearby and light rail and highway access.
Burnham Yard also is adjacent to The River Mile, an ambitious redevelopment project proposed by Stan Kroenke, owner of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche, and developer Rhys Duggan. The plan would convert the area occupied by Elitch Gardens and the parking lots of Ball Arena into a mixed-use urban neighborhood, with a park buffer along the South Platte River.
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