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The Denver Broncos want their future home to be at Burnham Yard, the 155-year-old former railyard by the city’s La Alma neighborhood. Since Mayor Mike Johnston and Governor Jared Polis both support the idea, the team is likely to get what it wants…especially since the owners propose paying for the stadium, which will have a retractable roof.
In statements released September 10, the Denver mayor’s office and Colorado governor’s office expressed excitement that the new stadium will be privately funded and won’t require tax dollars. The Broncos’ ownership group, Walton-Penner, promised in September 9 announcement that it will fund the billion-dollar project to build a new stadium “in the spirit of true civic partnership.”
Denver is happy that it won’t lose the Broncos, since the team had been considering a move to Lone Tree or Aurora as an alternative. Plans to give the new stadium a retractable roof would allow “Denver to host a Super Bowl, a Final Four, concerts and more,” according to a city press release.
“The Broncos are staying in Denver,” Johnston says in the statement. “We will finally open up the historic Burnham Yard neighborhood for development, and we get to reimagine the Mile High Stadium site as a thriving community in West Denver.”
Here’s what else you need to know about the history and location of the Broncos’ future home:
Where Is Burnham Yard?
The railyard, which hasn’t serviced trains for nearly a decade, is immediately west of La Alma Lincoln Park off Osage Street, between Sixth and Thirteenth avenues.
The La Alma Lincoln Park neighborhood is arguably Denver’s oldest neighborhood, though Curtis Park and Auraria have also made that claim. Historic Denver noted in a 2019 report that the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes made seasonal encampments in the La Alma area more than 160 years ago.
La Alma is known for its Chicano residents and the activism that took place there, including at West High School. It’s also home to the Art District on Santa Fe, where local First Friday art walks began. Recently, the area has struggled with nearby homeless encampments, however.
The land south of Burnham Yard is in Baker, a historically middle-class neighborhood that Denver annexed in 1883. According to Denver City Councilwoman Jamie Torres, who represents the two west Denver neighborhoods, “today you may see abandoned land and abandoned buildings, but history lies beneath the surface.
“These neighborhoods are home to 13,000 residents, an incredible art district, business improvement district, cultural and historic districts of homes and buildings that tell the story of Denver,” Torres added in a press release.
The Burnham Yard grounds, where the new Broncos stadium will be built, is colored in purple.
CDOT
Burnham Yard History
Burnham Yard has been around since 1871, before Colorado was a state. The Denver & Rio Grande rail company purchased the land the year before and opened it as a place to build and service trains that ran west to Utah and south as far as Durango.
“Burnham Yard is one of the most important industrial sites in the city, if not the state,” Historic Denver CEO John Deffenbaugh told Westword. “It’s key to the existence of Denver. …It’s a really important space that tells the story of our city’s growth, of some of the unique things that happened in the city over the years.”
It’s named after George Burnham, the chief financial officer for the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, a company that had given the Denver & Rio Grande rail company seven locomotives.
Burnham Yard workers built and repaired almost all of the trains for the Denver & Rio Grande rail company until 1988, but the railyard hasn’t been operating since 2016. The Colorado Department of Transportation bought the 58-acre property in 2021.
While Burnham Yard is just 58 acres, the Broncos are planning to use an additional 25-acre area around it, according to BusinessDen.
The Environmental Protection Agency has designated Burnham Yard a brownfield site, meaning that it needs remediation and cleanup for future development because of its past use.
One fo the city’s most notable advocates for buildings and landscapes of historic significance, Historic Denver, celebrated the announcements.
“Historic Denver is thrilled that one of Denver’s most recognizable organizations plans to relocate to one of the city’s most historic sites. Other sports facilities across the country show that the old and the new can go hand-in-hand and we are excited to see how designers rise to the challenge of integrating the existing historic Locomotive Shop into a state-of-the-art new structure,” a statement from the organization reads.
And old women’s locker room and hospital building at Burnham Yard in Denver have been destroyed to make room for the Broncos upcoming stadium.
Historic Denver: Daniel Quait Photo Collection
Broncos Stadium Construction, Price Tag
Some historic buildings in Burnham Yard were destroyed over the years. A few remaining structures that might have qualified as historic were demolished in July by CDOT as more signs pointed to the location of Broncos’ future home.
The area around Burnham Yard is also home to Denver Water headquarters and facilities. According to Denver Water, buildings that currently house operations for maintenance, distribution, trades, fleet, meter shop, warehouse and health clinic workers will need to be relocated.
“While this is not something we sought, Denver Water understands the significance of this opportunity for the city of Denver and the economic importance for the larger community we serve,” Denver Water CEO Alan Salazar said in a statement. “Most important of all, accommodating a new stadium cannot be financed or subsidized by our ratepayers.”
According to the Broncos, the stadium is expected to be ready for the 2031 NFL season, which is still six years away. The current Mile High Stadium and surrounding parking lots, which total 80 acres, will come back under city ownership in 2030, after the ongoing lease ends.
“There is much more work to be done ahead of a targeted stadium completion for the 2031 NFL season,” the Broncos said in a press release. “Today is not yet a celebration but rather a meaningful checkpoint.”
According to the Denver Post, the project’s total cost could end up around $4 billion. The city’s release said it would work to add “affordable housing, public infrastructure, parks, open spaces, child care” and grocery stores around the stadium. The city also touted plans to build housing, parks and community spaces once it has the current Mile High Stadium back in its ownership.
