BUILDERS, NOT BULLS
Canceled 2021 Stock Show leaves room for National Western Center project
Normally, the National Western Center campus would be teeming with people and animals this week. Instead, with the stock show canceled because of COVID19, construction on the CSU Spur is moving ahead.
Right: And crews were also working on Stockyards Events Center on Tuesday on the north end of the complex.
This time of year, the Denver Stockyard Saloon should be packed with ranchers, ropers, 4H show judges and an extended cast of other western characters.
Located in the Livestock Exchange building on the National Western Center campus, the stock show is go- time for the storied restaurant and bar. Owner Dean Maus said Tuesday that the business makes between 60% and 70% of its income during the show each year, going through about 250 pounds worth of ground beef in burgers daily.
“Usually during the stock show, we’re open from 10 a. m. to 2 a. m. for those 16 days with bands every night,” Maus said, sitting in an empty overflowdining room. “So it’s going to be an ugly year.”
Organizers canceled the 2021 National Western Stock Show in September because of the ongoing COVID- 19 pandemic. It’s the first year the show hasn’t been held in north Denver since 1922.
In place of rodeos, dog shows, livestock auctions and other trappings of Denver’s annual agriculture extravaganza, the National Western Stock Show is putting on a series of virtual events. Staff members are also participating in “16 Days of Service,” volunteering their time this month.
“As heartbroken as we are to not be hosting the National Western Stock Show, the staff and I chose to utilize this downtime and serve with fellow nonprofits in Colorado,” Paul Andrews, the stock show’s president and CEO, said in a news release last week.
Officials have pointed to a silver lining around the cancellation, and it’s playing out on the National Western Campus right now. No stock show means more time and flexibility to make progress on the $ 1 billion redevelopment project underway on the 250- acre, city- owned property.
“We’re turning it into an opportunity,” said Tykus Holloway, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of the National Western Center, the entity overseeing the massive public improvement project.
In a typical year, the stock show would alter the way crews work from October through March, Holloway said. The pandemic has shifted protocols — making health screenings and other precautions a daily part of the work on the campus — but hasn’t delayed the project or driven up the costs. The first two phases of the project are still on pace to wrap up in 2024. In 2021, as long as the weather permits, everything is full steam ahead.
“2021, for us, is a really big year because it’s completion of some major things but also the start of some major projects,” Holloway said.
Officials on the campus Tuesday celebrated the recent completion of testing for two located Denver Rock Island Railroad lines. Consolidating those lines with the BNSF and RTD lines that already pass through the property “allows the whole campus to come together,” Patrick Riley, the city’s horizontal
construction manager, said.
Next on the docket comes the start of construction on an updated National Western Center Drive, a bridge that will carry 51st Avenue over the South Platte River and a project to bury two 72inch sewer lines that run along the west side of the property. Once those sewer lines are out of the way — and also producing thermal energy to help power the campus — the National Western Complex will have access to 6 acres of open space along the river.
The city and its partners are discussing shaking up the sequencing of construction, possibly moving some projects back and others forward depending on the impact each could have on boosting state and city tax revenues in the wake of the COVID- 19 driven recession, Holloway said. That includes possibly getting an early start on a new arena on the southeastern portion of the campus known as the triangle. In May, the city put a bidding process on hold for a private development partner for the triangle area because of plummeting tax revenues.
One key building on the campus is well underway, the 40,000- square- foot Stockyards Events Center. The building will be the centerpiece of the campus’ relocated 20- acre stockyards, hosting livestock auctions and international guests, Riley said. The building and the yards may also host concerts and other special events when not serving its primary purpose in January. Officials with Adolfson & Peterson Construction say the building is on pace to be completed this summer and will be ready for the 2022 stock show, assuming it happens as scheduled.
“It’s an incredibly flexible facility that we think is in position and in a setting that is going to make in unique to other facilities in the city,” said Brad Buchanan, CEO of the National Western Authority, the agency tasked with managing and programming the campus yearround outside of the stock show.
Colorado State University’s three- building “Spur” campus on the southern end of the property is moving along with all buildings expected to be completed before the end of 2022. The Vida animal and human health building is expected to be open in time for next year’s stock show and there is a chance the Terra food and agriculture building may be, too.
Dean Maus, meanwhile, is just hoping for some activity on the campus in 2021 that can fill his dining room beyond the handful of construction officials and employees from neighboring businesses who occasionally stop in for lunch. The city sold the Livestock Exchange building in December to a group that includes the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association and the National Western Center Authority. The Stockyard Saloon is in the second year of a five- year lease there and has already been granted a deferral on three months worth of rent amid the pandemic.
“Hopefully, we’ll get some events,” Maus said. “Any little bit helps.”