A foreign-owned consortium has bid to take over the Northwest Parkway toll road under a long-term lease valued at about $500 million, according to sources close to the deal.
But the deal, if it wins approval from parkway directors, still would leave the financially troubled toll highway with about $100 million in additional debt, most of which is owed to Broomfield.
Highway directors met Wednesday to consider the “best and final” offer from a team led by Portuguese toll-road operator Brisa Auto-Estradas.
Parkway officials had selected the Brisa team for final negotiations on a deal from a list of 11 private groups that offered to lease the toll road, which runs west on an arc from Interstate 25 near 160th Avenue to a point just north of U.S. 36.
Steve Hogan, executive director for the 11-mile, 4-year-old toll highway, would not reveal Brisa’s offering price, but officials have said the parkway’s goal is to fully retire its bond debt, which Hogan identified at $503 million.
The lease could last for 99 years, sources said.
Traffic on the Northwest Parkway is well below levels predicted in its original finance plan, which guided the sale of the highway’s bonds.
“Toll revenues are not sufficient to meet debt-service obligations,” a bond-ratings agency said late last year in a list of key concerns about the parkway’s future.
The Brisa deal, if completed at roughly $500 million, would leave the parkway owing Broomfield about $73 million.
Broomfield spent about $63 million improving streets and interchanges as part of the toll-road project, said Tonya Haas, assistant city and county manager.
Hogan said the parkway has yet to come to agreement with Broomfield on a repayment plan for this debt. The highway also owes a local special district about $10 million.
It is possible that a deal with Brisa will include some future provision for extending the toll road over U.S. 36 and through the Interlocken and FlatIron commercial areas to Colorado 128 near the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, formerly Jefferson County Airport, sources said. A 2.3-mile extension of the toll road is estimated to cost at least $50 million.
Brisa, or any other group leasing the Northwest Parkway, would need the extension if Colorado transportation officials succeed in selling local governments on a plan to “complete the beltway” around the metro area with a toll road or combination tolled/nontolled highway from Colorado 128 to C-470.
A $15.6 million state-sponsored environmental study has given strong consideration to such a final beltway link. But Golden is fighting the proposed venture.
On Wednesday, Golden released details of its own $350,000 study that shows there will never be enough traffic on any tollway/beltway link to justify the expense of building the road, which has been estimated at $1 billion or more.
The administration of former Gov. Bill Owens had pushed ahead with plans for this possible Northwest Corridor tollway link southwest of the Northwest Parkway.
But Russ George, Gov. Bill Ritter’s appointee as executive director of the Colorado Department of Transportation, said he plans to enter the Northwest Corridor debate with the goal of getting all parties to agree to a solution.
“It may take a little longer,” he said, “but we’ll get to consensus.”
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
