Thomas Mitchell
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Kroenke Sports & Entertainment just announced plans to renovate some of the luxury suites at the 26-year-old Ball Arena, raising questions from suite-owners who worry that their prices are going sky-high.
But Preston, who lives in Jefferson Park, has a different question for the Weekly WTF: “Tell about the house on top of Ball Arena.” So, for the second edition of our Weekly WTF series, we looked into the mysterious pad at the top of downtown Denver’s most active sports arena.
Who Lives in the House at the Top of Ball Arena?
That’s not a house, it’s a castle — and it’s the in-town quarters for the king of KSE, Stan Kroenke, who’s married to Ann Walton Kroenke, the niece of Sam Walton.
“It’s unreal,” says one person who’s visited the very private pad.
After Kroenke’s $404 million purchase of the Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Avalanche — as well as the Pepsi Center where the teams played — back in 2000, Kroenke went on to purchase the Colorado Rapids and Colorado Mammoth. He’s now the country’s largest private land owner, but with all those Denver-based investments, he needed a place to stay while in town, and the first iteration of the 12,000 square-foot, two-story penthouse on top of the arena was added in 2003 as “corporate housing” with four bedrooms, an exercise room and an outdoor hot tub.
Thomas Mitchell
At the time, a KSE exec warned the Denver Post, “Don’t expect pictures of it to show up in Architectural Digest.”
And they haven’t. Not then, and not when the already palatial space was expanded before the facility was renamed Ball Arena in 2020.
Luxury Updates Coming to Ball Arena
Current Ball Arena renovation plans call for sixteen suites on the first level (100 level) to be upgraded and rebranded as Ball Arena Legacy, and eight on the Club Level (200 level), rebranded as Signature Suites. You can see the designs on the Ball Arena Suites website, where views of the facility’s exterior are carefully positioned to not include the penthouse.
The new, improved Legacy Suite at Ball Arena.
ballarenapremium.com
According to KSE, “Renovated suites will include new quartz countertops and walls, all new finishes and appliances, additional branding opportunities for annual suite holders, and new high-end seating.” Construction will begin following the NBA Playoffs and Stanley Cup Playoffs, with the first set of suites slated to be finished in July. The remainder of Ball Arena’s 89 luxury suites will be upgraded in small groups to minimize impact on available in-season inventory.
“Our expectation is for Ball Arena to offer a gameday experience that rivals any in the country,” says Mike Neary, executive vice president of Business Operations and Real Estate, in an announcement of the deal. “This is an important first step in reimagining our building to ensure we are giving Denver sports fans and our teams the world-class home they deserve.”
This is all part of the redevelopment of KSE’s 55-acre property, which is expected to include a hotel, a mid-size entertainment venue, a park, shopping, dining, and residential and office towers, as well as Ball Arena.
And “Stan’s Place” will overlook the entire kingdom.
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