GES Community Has Reservations About National Western Center Hotel Deal

Denver City Council is being asked to greenlight access to $800 million in tourism tax revenue on Monday, May 12, to build an equestrian center and hotel at the National Western Center. In a time when our media reports that “Denver faces a budget freeze for years to come, but big projects are moving forward,” we must ask ourselves: Who are these big projects for? And when will true revenue-sharing exist, instead of the crumbs of charity that can never mend the wounds that call for true reparations?

In the Globeville, Elyria and Swansea (GES) neighborhoods, community members have been continuously harmed for generations by the destruction of their homes, the displacement of their friends and family, the toxicity in their air and soil, and the construction of new buildings for other people from somewhere else — people whose ancestors did not work in smelter plants, stockyards or slaughterhouses.

The GES Community Investment Fund (CIF) has grasped an important role for their neighbors: to redistribute power and resources by funding community-led projects and programs that disrupt inequity and foster generational well-being.

Currently, the GES CIF receives funding for its grantmaking cycles from “round up” dollars on the National Western Campus, where visitors who purchase concession items can round up their total and those funds are pooled for community grants — which have totaled only $176,000. The Round Up is the floor of what has been committed to the GES communities. We are seeking a true revenue-sharing model, as guaranteed in the Framework Agreement: a binding document describing the overall relationship among National Western campus partners.

In the Project Support Agreement (PSA) connected with the Equestrian Center and Hotel project, the National Western Center Authority is requesting from the City a deposit of $23 million a year over forty years and offering the Community Investment Fund about $150,000 a year from a 1 percent room fee, in addition to other unreliable Round Up predictions.

The GES CIF has two concrete, reasonable asks:

In addition to the 1 percent hotel room fee offered, we request $16 million in seed funding, 1 percent of what has already been invested in Phases 1 and 2 after the passage of 2C Lodger’s Tax and in addition to the $800 million requested today for the Equestrian Center and Hotel. We will use these funds to launch a revolving loan fund for the purchase of collectively owned land, homes and cooperative businesses.

We ask for this agreement to be memorialized in the Framework Agreement with a negotiator selected by the CIF. This would show true partnership. We are equity partners in this project and we would like to be treated as such.

This request is modest, visionary and has the potential to illustrate genuine effort to remedy harm to these neighborhoods. The GES CIF currently operates off of a $400,000 technical assistance grant, provided in 2023, with the approval of Denver City Council. So, the CIF is asking for seed funding to be on par with the pre-development seed funding that has already been provided and is currently being requested for this Equestrian Center and Hotel project. In the PSA, National Western Center Authority is requesting $9,976,000 in pre-development dollars in addition to the $5 million that has already been spent on pre-development.

The CIF seeks to negotiate an overall revenue stream mechanism across the entire campus, including all equity partners, that will provide the GES communities funding in perpetuity, as long as revenue is being generated at the National Western Center. There is a revenue-sharing model outlined in the Equestrian Center and Hotel PSA, except this revenue sharing is for the City. The PSA states, "excess Hotel and Housing revenues, as well as any surplus money on deposit in the construction account and unspent allowances upon completion of construction of the Project, which may be used to reimburse Fixed Payments made by the City." The City should look at investment in the CIF and in the GES  neighborhoods as a bill to be paid before it pays itself. Just like a utility bill or a grocery bill, these neighborhoods necessitate an impact fee, since we know that public investments can be a significant factor in the process of gentrification. These public investments can lead to increased property values and displacement of long-term, lower-income residents.

Despite claims from the National Western Center Authority that the “project is rooted in the voices and vision of the neighborhoods,” the CIF maintains that there was no true partnership in the negotiation of this PSA. The GES communities were again stonewalled and sidelined until the last possible moment — despite our own consistent and frequent efforts to engage in a real negotiation.

If this is truly a city that believes in equity, then we cannot keep calling GES a “partner” while treating us like an afterthought. Other institutions on the National Western Center campus have put real money in. Our communities have put in their homes, their health, their heritage. We’re not asking for charity — we’re demanding fairness. This decision will signal what and for whom this city is for. It will signal to suffering residents in a time of shrinking budgets, who and what we are willing to prioritize.


Shannon Hoffman is the project manager of the Globeville Elyria Swansea Community Investment Fund; volunteer committee members (above) are Alfonso Espino, Angela Garcia, Candi CdeBaca, Liliana Flores Amaro, Steph Frances and Tony Garcia.

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