Airline submits first plans for 113 acres near DIA

United Airlines wants to have the first facility on a 113-acre site it purchased near Denver International Airport up and running by fall 2027, according to plans submitted to the city.

The company and ZGF Architects said in a “large development review” document submitted to Denver in late December that “an immediate need exists to establish a new simulator building, supporting approximately 12 full flight simulators” on the site northwest of Tower Road and 64th Avenue.

It’s that building that the company hopes to have operational 31/2 years from now. United announced in August that it had paid $33 million to buy the undeveloped land from Denver-based L.C. Fulenwider Inc.

United trains pilots in Denver. Its existing f light training center is on about 22 acres along Quebec Street in Central Park, near where Denver’s Stapleton Airport used to be. That campus is “the primary pilot training facility for United’s global operations” and trains 16,500 pilots annually, according to the document.

The Quebec campus is “projected to grow consistently through 2040,” according to the document. United broke ground in 2022 on a new $100 million facility there that will be fully operational this quarter, United spokesman Russell Carlton told Businessden on Tuesday.

It brings the campus to 44 full-motion flight simulators.

The company, however, is considering more growth.

United said in the document submitted to Denver it bought the site closer to the existing airport because of “the maximum capacity constraints of the Quebec campus.”

The 12- simulator facility is one of two things that United will build as part of Phase 1A at the new site, according to the document.

The other is a central utility plant. The structures will be built on just a fraction of the site, at the corner of 64th and Yampa.

Beyond that, “the new flight training center campus will evolve over time,” the company said in the document.

“The complete implementation of Phase 1 is projected to extend beyond 2027, including additional flight training facilities and associated ancillary uses,” the document states.

“Concurrently, alongside the FTC, United is actively investigating programmatic needs to support corporate campus activity accommodating 5,000 employees in future phases of the project.”

Denver requires large development review documents be submitted for sites larger than 5 acres.