A shelved plan to bring a NASCAR racetrack to the Denver area helped pave the way for the National Western Stock Show’s proposed new home next to a planned hotel and convention center in Aurora near Denver International Airport.
After the International Speedway Corp. put its plans on hold around 2008, a group of local leaders pursued an idea that had emerged from the racetrack proposal: to create a taxation authority to try to lure jobs to Colorado.
Under the Colorado Regional Tourism Act, passed in 2009, Aurora and Denver have applied on behalf of Nashville, Tenn.-based Gaylord Entertainment and the National Western for incentives of $91.5 million over 30 years.
Gaylord plans an $824 million Western-themed complex in Aurora near DIA with 1,500 hotel rooms and more than 400,000 square feet of conference space. The stock show would move to 300 acres in Aurora next to Gaylord. Under the plan, Denver could seek voter approval for a property-tax hike to cover $150 million in general obligation bonds.
The plan originally called for the stock show to move to Denver land belonging to DIA, but potential concerns from the Federal Aviation Administration killed that deal.
The idea that became the regional tourism act “was a way to lure people with their own money,” said Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck partner Steve Farber, who helped launch the initiative.
“Because basically if they have a successful operation, they generate enough money to pay for it,” he said. “All you’re doing is creating the mechanism to finance it. Who pays for it? Basically the users.”
Former state Sen. Jennifer Veiga, a Denver Democrat, and former Rep. Joe Rice, a Littleton Democrat, agreed to sponsor a bill during the 2009 session.
Rice, now deployed in Iraq, said via e-mail that he and Veiga already were in discussions “trying to figure out what the state could do to incentivize job growth, but without any money — since the state didn’t have any.”
“As we developed the idea, we added the provisions that allowed local governments to work across boundaries and with the private sector to develop projects,” he said. “We wanted there to be agreement on the concept among local governments and the private sector before bringing to the state.”
The bill, which was passed and signed into law, allowed developers to use up to $50 million a year in future sales-tax revenues to pay for building stadiums, museums, arenas or other venues that would attract out-of-state tourists, and the infrastructure needed for them.
Aurora pushed legislation
“I did not consider the bill to be about any particular industry or business but more an opportunity for economic development across all industries,” said Veiga, who now is an attorney in Brisbane, Australia.
From the beginning, Aurora was a force behind the legislation. Wendy Mitchell, president and chief executive of the Aurora Economic Development Council, testified in favor. Pat Hammil, whose Oakwood Homes developed Green Valley Ranch near DIA and on whose Aurora land the racetrack was to be built, championed the idea of creating a tax break for tourism-related projects.
The stock show potentially stood to benefit but was not involved in pushing the legislation, Hammil and Mitchell said.
“We thought if it’s good for NASCAR and brings new jobs to the state, then anything that can fit into this bucket should be included,” Hammil said. “It’s an important tool to put in your toolbox when you’re trying to attract a potential project that would have a net increase in sales-tax revenue.”
Hammil’s property was one of a handful that Gaylord considered early in its search in the Denver area, but it was dropped from consideration because there wasn’t an adjacent Denver property large enough to accommodate the stock show.
Meanwhile, Denver officials had worked closely with the stock show to identify parcels in the city so that the the 105-year-old show would remain in Denver. But few were both large enough and located next to suburban properties acceptable to Gaylord, said Jack Finlaw, who was former Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s chief of staff and now serves in that role for Mayor Guillermo “Bill” Vidal. A partnership between the stock show and Gaylord was viewed as essential for both parties.
“For the stock show to remain in Denver and be adjacent to Gaylord was a particular challenge,” Finlaw said.
The complex requirements of the project and availability of land in Aurora ultimately favored that city, as did its proximity to Denver International Airport and its willingness to offer generous financial incentives, those involved said.
“At end of the day, these site searches take a long time. There are lots of qualifiers. You have to be ready to help them accomplish their goals,” said Mitchell, of the Aurora Economic Development Council. “We just kept jumping through hoops.”
Making the deal
In September, Aurora Mayor Ed Tauer, Mitchell and Hammil arranged for a meeting with Gaylord officials, and they flew to Nashville. At the time, a site in Commerce City was the leading contender in the metro area, Mitchell said. A Broomfield location also was under consideration.
The Aurora boosters introduced the Gaylord leaders to their city and proposed that they take a closer look at it in their search for a Denver-area hotel and conference center. But it wasn’t until about January that Gaylord officials indicated that Aurora had emerged as the favorite.
“Commerce City just didn’t have enough land,” Mitchell said. “They couldn’t assemble the pieces of land to accommodate the stock show.”
Gaylord had settled on 85 acres in High Point, a master-planned 1,800- acre development owned by LNR Property, a Miami Beach, Fla., real estate investment company controlled by Cerberus Capital Management.
For its part, the National Western has devoted considerable resources in recent years to planning for a new home.
Soon after the Colorado Regional Tourism Act was passed, the stock show hired a design firm to make drawings for several potential sites, said president and chief executive Paul Andrews. The stock show paid Populous $141,000 during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010.
Denver public policy and communications consulting firm CRL Associates collected $332,000 from the stock show since fiscal 2007, according to its tax returns. One of CRL’s jobs is to help National Western prepare for a move, Andrews said.
The stock show spent $255,000 on lobbying from fiscal 2007 to 2009, according to tax returns. Andrews could not say whether some of that money was the same paid to CRL.
Greg Griffin: 303-954-1241 or ggriffin@denverpost.com
