Denver soccer stadium deal moves to full council after owners, mayor’s office appear to assuage concerns

A city stake proposal that would help bring a -seat women s soccer stadium to Denver cleared a key hurdle Wednesday when a skeptical City Council committee advanced the million deal to help move the concept forward Members of the South Platte River Committee had grilled the unit s owner and the mayor s office over the idea earlier this month saying they felt rushed and worrying about the financial impact of the deal But Wednesday the temperature was much cooler as council members demanded questions largely about the details of the proposal and ultimately decided to push it through to the full council I think in the last meeting they just didn t have enough information and weren t at ease declared Rob Cohen the not-yet-named organization s owner The intergovernmental agreement which will go through two more rounds of votes in the next several weeks lays out a million assets from the city to own the -acre Santa Fe Yards property in Baker and pay for site and access improvements The band s owners would then pay the full costs of a million to million stadium on the land The stadium set to open in is part of a deal with the National Women s Soccer League released in January to make Denver the home of its next club The city s Department of Finance proposed paying for the project investments indirectly through a reallocation of interest dollars raised through a bond activity voters approved in that shift would free up capital improvement money in the city s budget If the council approves the proposal the city would be able to spend up to million for the on-site progress and up to million for off-site improvements Between the two committee meetings this month Cohen and Jeff Dolan the chief strategist for the mayor s office met with council members individually to answer questions about the project They organized a site tour of the lot last Saturday They also tweaked the fine print of the agreement to make the deal more favorable to the city they declared There are a scant things I definitely became more assured with because of the time that was put in Councilwoman Sarah Parady reported The Wednesday meeting wasn t all smooth sailing though Councilwoman Jamie Torres the chair of the committee took issue with Dolan characterizing the day s action as a conditional vote I don t think council would be digging in as deeply on the details if this was inconsequential to future votes she disclosed This is a big deal because we re talking about establishing a commitment to use taxpayer dollars for something Related Articles An investor paid for a Denver family s foreclosed home Now a judge has ordered him to give it up Hotel residential buildings and concert venue planned around Ball Arena in Denver Denver releases new details for million equestrian complex plan at National Western Center Denver inches toward sidewalk improvements with million contract which includes master plan Denver s surveillance-state must be balanced with our freedoms letters Several council members also expressed interest in the crew engaging in a population benefit agreement with the surrounding neighborhood Cohen reported he wasn t prepared to provide a figure for how much the ownership group would commit to such an agreement Eleven of the council members were present in the South Platte River Committee meeting Committees can t kill act and can decide only whether it is ready for the full council to vote on Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer emphasized her hope that with the city s proposed expenditure the crew would include the word Denver in its name We re working on the name We are still gathering information from the area at large Cohen declared We heard you loud and clear He added the group plans to announce the group name later this year Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter The Spot