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Ball Arena isn’t getting left behind as Kroenke Sports & Entertainment plots to redevelop the acres of parking lots surrounding it.
The latest submission from KSE detailing work around where the Kroenke family’s professional sports teams play contained a hint at future changes to the arena itself.
In a formal site development plan for the first phase of the Ball Arena development, Ball Arena and the area directly surrounding the home of the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets is labeled with “Arena Expansion.”
There are no descriptions as to what arena expansion means in the plan. KSE said the company is identifying the best use of the arena and the space around it.
“The ‘Arena Expansion’ designation could turn out to be a lot of things,” Mike Neary, executive vice president of business operations and real estate, said in a statement. “We aren’t far enough along to know exactly what would go there but this allows us to move forward as soon as the best use has been identified.”
KSE could expand the arena itself or add long-desired practice facilities to Ball Arena. NBA athletes who have departed Denver have regularly said the team’s practice court and other training areas are not up to par.
As part of a development agreement with the city related to the reworking of the area around the arena, KSE agreed to keep the Avalanche, Nuggets and Colorado Mammoth in the city until 2050.
A site development plan identifies grading, preliminary transportation concerns, landscaping and utility needs for proposed development projects while giving a general sense of where buildings will be located and how large they will be. The arena expansion reference is included in the portions of the plan discussing water utilities and grading.
The Ball Arena development will eventually cover nearly 70 acres of prime real estate next to downtown and include a new city park, affordable housing, retail and residential space.
The first phase, which is expected to be completed in seven years, will include a performance venue, a hotel and two residential buildings along with a pedestrian bridge that will span Speer Boulevard, connecting the development to downtown. Those structures will all be built north and east of Ball Arena, close to Speer.
According to previous KSE submittals to the city, the performance venue will be around 128,000 square feet and include space for a restaurant on the ground floor. The venue, the hotel and two residential buildings will be connected by an underground parking structure. The new submission shows 225 spaces in that parking structure with a plan for 326 housing units and 481,672 square feet of commercial space. KSE has committed to designating 18% of the new housing units as affordable housing.
The new plans show a restaurant or bar will also be included as part of the hotel, as will a rooftop terrace.
There are extensive bike racks planned for the area, with over 150 bike parking spaces scattered around the four proposed new buildings; there will also be bike parking options inside the buildings, totaling 367 indoor spaces for bikes.
According to a transportation demand management plan submitted alongside the site development plan, KSE plans to subsidize at least 50% of the cost of transit passes for tenants who live on the site.
The intersection of Chopper Circle and 11th Street will also be reworked, according to the SDP.
The plans show that to complete streetscaping upgrades, 46 trees will be removed from the site, most of which are honey locusts. However, several currently paved areas will be converted to tree beds or other open space, the plans show. At least 40 trees will be added back into the area.
On the elevated promenade connected to the Wynkoop Crossing bridge, there will be even more plants and landscaping, according to the submission.