Downtown Denver's LoDo Neighborhood Is About to Change Big

Let me walk you through what's coming, why it matters, and what's actually at stake — including whether the Denver Broncos end up staying in Denver at all.

The River Mile

The River Mile is a massive redevelopment project centered on the land currently occupied by Elitch Gardens, right along the South Platte River near downtown. The idea is to replace what is, let's be honest, a pretty underutilized amusement park footprint with an entirely new walkable neighborhood — residential buildings, parks, retail, and public river access all built from the ground up.

This is not a small tweak to the area. If it gets built out the way it's been described, it would create a new urban neighborhood that connects the river more meaningfully to the rest of downtown. Denver has been trying to activate the Platte River corridor for years with mixed results, and this would be the most ambitious attempt at that yet. The timeline on something this scale is long, and development projects in Denver have a way of moving slower than announced, so temper expectations on when you'd actually see this finished. But the land is there, the plans exist, and Elitch Gardens' days at that location appear to be numbered.

The Sports Mile

This one is tied directly to Ball Arena — home of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche — and the area stretching between the arena and Empower Field at Mile High, where the Broncos play. The Sports Mile concept is about turning that corridor into a connected entertainment district rather than the somewhat disconnected stretch it is now.

Right now, going to a Nuggets game at Ball Arena and going to a Broncos game at Mile High are two experiences that don't really talk to each other. There's not much pulling you between them on foot. The Sports Mile would change that by building out the space in between — restaurants, bars, plazas, green space — so the whole zone becomes a destination on game days and, importantly, on non-game days too. That last part is key. Arenas and stadiums that only activate their surrounding blocks a few times a week are a waste of urban real estate. A properly built Sports Mile would mean that area has daily life, not just event-night crowds.

Stan Kroenke and Ball Arena

Stan Kroenke owns the Nuggets and the Avalanche, which makes him the driving force behind whatever happens with Ball Arena and the Sports Mile on that end. Kroenke is not a developer who moves slowly when he sees financial upside, and a built-out entertainment district around Ball Arena has real upside. The arena is already pretty well-positioned in the city — it's walkable from a lot of downtown, there's transit nearby — but the blocks immediately around it have always felt like they could be doing more.

What Kroenke decides to invest in here will set the tone for how the Sports Mile actually develops. If Ball Arena's end of the corridor gets serious attention, it pulls the whole project forward. If it stays mostly surface lots and scattered bars, the connective tissue between the two stadiums never really forms.

Rob Walton and Empower Field at Mile High

Rob Walton bought the Denver Broncos a couple of years ago for a number that was, at the time, the highest price ever paid for an NFL franchise. He's not a local in the way some owners present themselves — Walton is Walmart money, Arkansas-based, and the purchase felt to a lot of Denver fans like an acquisition more than a homecoming. That matters for the Sports Mile because what Walton chooses to do with the land around Mile High will determine whether the western end of that corridor becomes something real.

And here's the part that has actual stakes: there are real conversations happening about whether the Broncos could eventually relocate to Aurora if a new stadium deal and surrounding development don't come together in Denver. I'm not saying it's likely. But it's not a fringe idea either. A new stadium with mixed-use development around it in Aurora is a real alternative being considered, and if Denver can't put together the right combination of public support and private development to keep the team and build something worth building, Aurora becomes more attractive. The Broncos leaving Denver for the suburbs would be a significant loss for LoDo and for the Sports Mile concept specifically — you can't have a sports mile with one anchor.

Elitch Gardens

Elitch Gardens deserves its own mention because it's the most concrete near-term change most Denverites will actually notice. The park has been at its current South Platte location since 1995, and it's been a fixture for a generation of Denver kids. Losing it will feel like something, even for people who haven't been in years. But the River Mile can't happen without that land being cleared, and the honest assessment is that a new walkable neighborhood with real river access is a better long-term use of that real estate than an aging regional amusement park.

If you have kids who love Elitch's, take them before the timeline on this moves forward. The park is still operating, but its future at that location is genuinely uncertain.

What This Means If You're Thinking About Moving to Denver

I get questions all the time from people considering a move to Denver, and they usually ask about specific neighborhoods. LoDo and the surrounding downtown area come up constantly. My honest answer right now is that what LoDo looks like in five to ten years could be pretty different from what it looks like today — in a good direction if these projects deliver, in a stagnant direction if they stall.

The bones of this neighborhood are already strong. You've got the 16th Street Mall, Coors Field, Union Station, the Platte trail system, and genuine walkability that most Denver neighborhoods don't have. The River Mile and Sports Mile, if they come together, would add significant density, housing, and daily-use infrastructure to an area that already functions well.

The risk is that these are big, expensive, politically complicated projects with multiple powerful private interests involved and a city government that has a complicated relationship with large-scale development. Denver has seen ambitious projects get announced and then quietly diminish. These might too. But they also might not, and if you're making a long-term bet on where to live or invest attention in this city, downtown and LoDo are worth watching closely right now.

I'll keep covering this as it develops — there are moving pieces here that will take years to fully play out.