The importance of this spot isn’t so much the smash burgers or the black and white shakes themselves, but rather why it exists at all.

The quick-stop restaurant, an Irish pub, and a giant, 70,000-square-foot — a theater specializing in immersive experiences — are early anchors in the Centennial Yards mixed-use development. Eventually, the 52-acre wedge is slated to be packed with entertainment, hotels and condos.

There’s already one hotel and a condo building open and another hotel and what is expected to be a roughly 5,000-seat venue are under construction just on the other side of a temporary wall.

The ties to Denver here are fairly obvious.

A mixed-use district next to a football stadium and built over — literally in this case — train tracks in what used to essentially be inaccessible industrial land? That sounds like Burnham Yard’s music.

The Broncos, as it turns out, think the same.

Before a preseason game against the Falcons next door at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Broncos president Damani Leech and other team executives toured , sources told The Post. The tour has been on the club’s radar for some time. Owner and CEO Greg Penner mentioned Centennial Yards to The Post as an interesting project nearly a year ago when his franchise named Burnham Yard as its preferred site for a stadium and adjoining district.

It is one of two major mixed-use districts in the Atlanta area the Broncos have visited while planning their own, with , which surrounds the Braves’ baseball stadium in Cobb County, as the more talked-about.

“It used to be called The Gulch,” RCLCO managing director Erin Talkington said of Centennial Yards before the development really ramped up. “It����ap been used as parking lots, but it����ap several stories below the grade of parking and building entrances and people have been trying to develop it for years

“It����ap just been prohibitively expensive.”

Now, though, it’s an ambitious project in the midst of downtown.

Lessons to learn from Atlanta

No two projects are the same, of course, and Penner told The Post last fall that the Broncos “haven’t seen something that����ap exactly what we want to do because we’ll create something that����ap unique to this market and both what����ap interesting to our fans but also what����ap interesting to the community on a year-round basis.”

There are things to learn from these spots in Atlanta, however — especially since the Broncos recently released a new round of renderings about their own plans for Burnham Yard and this summer have put a somewhat finer point on the time horizon for various stages of development around a stadium they hope to have open by the 2031 NFL season.

At Centennial Yards, it����ap impossible to miss that the place is a work in progress, but it����ap also possible to walk through the existing part without feeling as though it����ap a construction site. That will be important for the Broncos as they move through Phase 1 of construction and toward the stadium’s opening — assuming the myriad processes with community groups and the city of Denver are completed over the coming months.

“We want it to be a place that is connected to the existing neighborhood, a place where people feel connected, where they feel like they can live,” Leech said at a recent small area plan meeting at the . “A place that remembers and celebrates the history — the great history of this site that goes back hundreds of years. A place where people feel like they can move and gather … and spend time comfortably in the site.

“And then, finally, a place where residents, businesses and guests all feel like they can grow and prosper for the next several generations. That is what’s guided a lot of what you’re going to see.”

The renderings the team has released will change in future iterations, but they won’t be fully realized by 2031. Construction around the district in Phases 2 and 3 will take “many years,” Leech said, meaning it will be a decade or more before the plans are fully realized.

Much of the Phase 1 buildout around the stadium shown in recent renderings and planning documents features work in what the Broncos are calling “Village Center,” which is on the eastern flank of the district between the stadium site and the La Alma and Lincoln Park neighborhoods. In previous filings, the Broncos have proposed zoning in that stretch that will make it the entertainment hub of the district.

Creating connectivity

One interesting factor to watch will be how much residential build-out is completed by the time the stadium opens. The Broncos, of course, play just 10 games a year in the stadium, and even with concerts and other events a stadium will draw, there aren’t a ton of event days over the course of a year.

Even in a place like The Battery, where the Braves play 81 home games a year, the district’s designers prioritized having residential units ready early in the buildout.

“You want your (residential) there pretty much first, right, to get people there,” Lauren Standish, a principal at that worked on the design of the district, said earlier this year while estimating that 80% of the foot traffic on non-game days in the area comes from people who live right there. “And then that spills off. They’ve got a Whole Foods there now, they’ve got bowling and other corporate offices that have come up.

“That whole ring around the stadium is just going crazy, too.”

Burnham Yard, of course, has the La Alma and Lincoln Park neighborhoods to the east, Baker and Santa Fe to the north, and is closer to downtown, so its foot traffic patterns will differ from those of either of the districts in Atlanta.

What is clear, though, is that these places provide a glimpse at what a long-term project at Burnham Yard will look like in the medium term and much further down the road toward completion.

“As much of the development is built around that daily activation, the sense of place and creating this new node of social activity with direct linkage to the stadium, that became the glue for that mixed-use development,” Todd Powers, another principal at HGOR, said. “How do all the buildings relate to each other? What is the open space connectivity and how do people move through to the stadium?

“Also creating day-to-day programming for vitality — porches and patios and daily events, outdoor activities.”

Mosher stepped down on Aug. 14 as two of his signature assignments, turning a sinking downtown around and helping convert Burnham Yard into the new home of the Denver Broncos, were in full swing.

From the outside, Mosher might look like a captain who abandoned ship in the heat of battle, or for sports fans, a football coach who walked out at halftime during a grueling game.

But he argues that his decision reflects a confidence in both the plan the city has set in place and the people who will execute it. And with his 76th birthday coming up in October, he was ready to step aside.

“Somebody said, ‘You have got more to do.’ And I said, ‘I could be here 10 years, and there will still be more to do,’ ” Mosher joked. “The only constant thing in Downtown is change.”

As Mosher departs, he leaves behind a map of guiding principles and a handful of warnings on things to avoid.

If there is one message he wants to emphasize, Mosher said it is that Upper Downtown must become a place that more people call home, not just a Central Business District (CBD) where they come to work.

“We have to turn Upper Downtown into a mixed-use neighborhood. The days of an historic CBD office park are over. We will fail if we try to make that happen or wait for it to happen,” he said.

If downtown can add 10,000 residential units over the next 10 years, its future will be much brighter than if it clings to its past as a concentrated office hub.

Not every struggling office tower, however, can convert to residences, said Mosher, who would check requests against a list Gensler, an architectural firm, had developed three years ago of prime conversion candidates.

Complicating matters, metro Denver faces a surplus of apartments, which is pushing down rents and making the math behind conversions harder to pencil out.

Downtown would benefit greatly if the state, after years of failed attempts, finds a way to finally address construction defects litigation and restore construction insurance premiums to manageable levels, he said.

The city needs to let the market pick winners and losers, Mosher said, given that it doesn’t have enough money to rescue every building or business.

But Mosher was also willing to break that rule when the Denver Pavilions, an outdoor retail mall on 16th Street, defaulted on its debt.

The development was too important to Upper Downtown and 16th Street to leave its fate to chance, he said.

The Downtown Denver Development Authority, which is directing public investments in the Central Business District, paid $37 million to purchase the Pavilions, including $8 million for improvements, and $23 million for two adjacent parking lots.

Private investment has largely pulled out of Upper Downtown. But targeted public investments, if done right, could eventually help kickstart more private investments, Mosher said.

Mosher estimates that downtown is struggling with 7 million square feet of surplus office space above and beyond what would be expected if vacancy rates were at historic levels.

About 1 million of that surplus space is on the path to residential conversions, and other adaptive reuses will absorb some of the additional space.

Earlier this month, the University of Colorado Denver closed on its purchase of Independence Plaza, a 25-story tower with only a fifth of its 567,287 square feet of space occupied.

It picked up the building at a nearly 80% discount to its prior sales price, and plans to incorporate it into its campus while also renting out space to tenants.

Residential conversions, while necessary, will only soak up a fraction of the office space now sitting empty. Building owners will need to recruit new tenants.

For that to happen, the city and the state need to encourage more business development, Mosher said.

The DDA has committed $40 million to provide incentives to recruit businesses that will bring new employees downtown. Last month, it extended a $7 million loan to help Alterra Mountain Co. relocate its headquarters from RiNo to Upper Downtown.

Downtown office rents have remained stubbornly high despite the area’s elevated vacancy rates. That reflects owners who, in hindsight, overpaid and their lenders who are unwilling to budge on loan covenants.

As more distressed sales occur, that could pave the way for office rents to drop, which in turn could allow more cost-sensitive businesses, like startups, to find their way to the Central Business District.

Building demolitions may be necessary at some point, but they should only take place if an alternative use is planned, Mosher said. That definition excludes parking lots or otherwise empty spaces.

One of the greatest risks to Upper Downtown looms ahead like a giant whirlpool: the ongoing shift in Denver’s center of gravity toward the Central Platte Valley.

Kroenke Sports and Entertainment’s River Mile project, set to eventually occupy the current Elitch Garden’s site, is slated to create 8,000 housing units across three neighborhoods and host some of the city’s tallest towers.

Upper downtown has a limited amount of time to reinvent itself before newer developments leave it permanently stranded and starved of capital, Mosher warns.

If the mark of a good leader is their ability to chart a course, the mark of a great leader is their ability to ensure a ship can sail without them.

Mosher has done exactly that, said Doug Tisdale, chairman of the DDA and a former member of the RTD board.

“The system has now been put in place. We have a structure that he helped to shape and form, and that structure has been effective and impactful. He created that for us,” Tisdale said.

A steady hand in a difficult moment

Mosher has helped downtown navigate past downturns, going back to the aftermath of the oil bust in the 1990s, when he was in charge of the Downtown Denver Partnership.

As a senior managing director at Trammel Crow, one of the country’s largest real estate developers, he was instrumental in negotiating the master development agreement that brought together private and public parties to reshape Union Station.

The Denver Union Station Development Authority, which raised $300 million in public funds to finance redevelopment efforts, was critical in that transformation, which happened after the Great Recession.

The authority was so successful in generating additional tax revenues that it paid its bonds off 14 years ahead of schedule and set the stage for further private redevelopment, including RTD’s Market Street Station site.

When faced with an even bigger challenge this decade, city leaders returned to the playbook of a public investment authority and public-private partnerships.

In November 2024, Denver voters approved the Downtown Denver Development Authority covering more than 1,000 acres of the city’s urban core. And they granted it $570 million in tax increment financing.

Mosher, a Denver native, was the person Johnston wanted to oversee that effort.

Although Mosher declined Johnston’s request to become a city employee and to stay through his term, he did agree to lead the effort for a year.

He would get the process off the ground, set priorities, and help vet funding requests headed to the DDA.

Around Christmas time, Mosher agreed to stay another quarter, and then somehow found himself staying into the second quarter.

But as the year wore on, he realized if he waited too long, he risked resigning during Johnston’s upcoming re-election campaign — something he didn’t want to do.

Mosher said much of the money that Denver voters approved to revive downtown has been committed, and that the speedy deployment was intentional.

“We are at an absolutely critical juncture. This is not something that could wait five years. Catalytic investments were needed immediately,” said Kourtny Garrett, president and CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership.

Mosher estimates that the DDA has another $20 million to $50 million available to award over the next 12 to 18 months. With most of the money earmarked, the focus is shifting from deployment to execution.

When it comes to getting approved projects across the finish line, Mosher said Jen Welborn, who is Denver’s Deputy Chief Projects Officer, is well-equipped for the task given her 30 years of experience with the city.

She will be supported by Johnston’s Chief of Staff, Jenn Ridder, in taking over Mosher’s duties.

A fast deployment

The Downtown Development Authority lists .

But another $170 million needs to be set aside to cover interest payments and the reserves that bond investors require, Mosher said.

Also, the $570 million that City Council and voters approved was a ceiling, not a guaranteed spending pot. What investors will lend in the future is tied to how quickly downtown property tax revenues rebound.

Successful early projects that boost property values will generate additional funds in the future. As they are repaid, DDA loans can provide additional funds for other projects.

But in pushing funds out quickly, the DDA risks some misses. One of the most notable has been a $400,000 tenant improvement loan provided to the Denver Immersive Repertory Theater.

DIRT’s founders pledged to use the money to refurbish 1431 15th St., a former REI space. .

Given the current situation downtown, some of the loans are high-risk.

The DDA has committed $114.5 million to four office-to-residential conversions, including the historic Symes, University and Petroleum buildings, as well as the renovation of the Barth Hotel.

More than half of that total, and the DDA’s biggest assistance package so far, involves a $63 million low-interest-rate loan for High Fidelity Plaza.

Last year, Los Angeles developer Asher Luzzatto picked up two office towers at 621 and 623 17th St. at a 97% discount. Once valued at $100 million, he was able to purchase them for $3.2 million.

Luzzatto plans to invest $315 million to convert 1 million square feet of distressed office space into a mixed-use residential development with more than 700 apartments and a host of amenities, including an on-site daycare, a children’s museum, and new ground-floor retail space.

The DDA loan, however, will only kick in after Luzzatto has lined up other financing sources. And while the authority loan might represent the last money in, that’s because it is holding the door open so other lenders can walk through.

“Without it, High Fidelity Plaza would not have moved forward,” Luzzatto said of the DDA loan. “We don’t just need to get equity onboard; we need to get the debt markets onboard. Senior lenders like to see (the development authority’s) involvement.”

In a sign of just how distressed commercial real estate has become in Upper Downtown, Luzzatto picked up another pair of towers at 1625 and 1675 17th St., known as The Energy Center, at a 97% discount from their prior purchase price.

He plans to convert one of the towers into 360 apartments, while keeping the other as office space. He has applied for DDA assistance on that project as well.

“On balance, he has prioritized the city’s needs over our desires, but he has oriented (the development authority’s) financing in a way that encourages private developments like ours,” Luzzatto said of Mosher.

And for its part, the DDA is counting on developers like Luzzatto to chart a path for future conversion that can be funded without public support.

“If the (the authority) can demonstrate that the conversion of these office buildings to residential dwelling units does work and that it can be successful and provide a return on investment, then private developers will come along,” Tisdale said.

The work involves everything from hammering out architectural and engineering innovation required to efficiently convert older buildings into apartments to developing a market for the new units and attracting tenants.

Luzzatto said Denver may eventually need to put more money on the table, but believes the payoff will be worth the effort.

“Revitalizing one of the most important downtowns in the U.S. is worthy of whatever investment is required … provided the private markets take the first, largest and most time-sensitive risks,” he said.

Mosher said the DDA represents community capital investing in itself, in a way that hopefully spurs local entrepreneurial investments.

Public confidence can help restore private sector willingness.

“Once those things start being successful and hopefully help us turn the corner, institutional capital will return,” he predicts.

One memory that stands out for Garrett was when Mosher addressed the State of Downtown breakfast the Downtown Denver Partnership hosted last year.

In something only Mosher could pull off, he called on the crowd to “stop whining” about the woes downtown faced and to strap up their boots and get to work fixing them.

“He brought the perfect balance of leadership, inspiration, and motivation to the community,” Garrett said.

Broncos president Damani Leech said Monday that SRM Concrete is the new “official concrete supplier of the Denver Broncos.”

The Tennessee-based company is the largest concrete company in the country, operating more than 560 concrete plants, quarries, and cement terminals across 24 states.

It was 10 little acres, though, that put SRM on the Broncos’ radar in a different way. The company purchased a plant four years ago that happened to be right next to Burnham Yard, a site the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group not long after began to focus on as a potential site for a new stadium and mixed-use district.

The sides negotiated over the land for months before closing a sale from SRM to the Broncos last week for $55 million.

Now the Broncos and SRM are not just real estate transactors but also corporate partners.

“With a growing presence in this region and an established reputation for quality and dependability, SRM Concrete is an ideal partner during such a transformational time for our organization,” Leech said in a statement announcing the deal. “We look forward to a successful relationship with SRM Concrete as we continue building for the future.”

SRM Concrete CEO Jeff Hollingshead, in a statement, said his company understands, “the importance of strength, reliability, and performance –values that align closely with the Broncos organization. We look forward to supporting the team, its fans, and the communities they serve.”

SRM Concrete submitted plans earlier this summer for a new plant in north Denver.

The sides did not say anything Monday about actual concrete production, but if the Broncos in the coming months get the green light to build a stadium and district at Burnham Yard, they are going to need a lot of it.

Now they have an official supplier with a footprint literally on site.

We said so long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, and good-bye to a one-year Nuggets legend this past week, and a future Hall-of-Famer.

Russell Westbrook officially announced his retirement on Wednesday, putting the bow on an 18-year NBA career that featured 209 triple-doubles, nine All-Star berths and seven franchises.

The Beastbrook’s penultimate stop was in Denver for the Nuggets’ 2024-25 season. Which got the kids on the Grading The Week (GTW) team thinking — always a dangerous prospect.

And thinking this, a question floated during one of our infamous 2-hour deli lunches: If the Nuggets could do it all over again, would they have been better off last summer bringing Russ back for one more ride — or reuniting with Bruce Brown?

Westbrook or Brucey B? — C

Hindsight is 20/20, of course. And it’s easy now to accuse the Nuggets of wearing 2023-colored glasses. After all, Brown was one of the straws that stirred the franchise’s first — and, to date, only — NBA title-winners. Brucey B in ’23 was a do-everything-anytime pest who could bring the ball up the floor, finish with a flourish on the break, needle opponents and play defense as if his very paycheck depended on it. Or at least, that was the Cowboy we remembered.

Alas, Brown at age 29 wasn’t the Brucey of 26. Or 27. The spirit was willing, more often than not, but the body didn’t always cooperate. There were little mistakes, tiny miscues, that the vet couldn’t always recover from. Not to put too fine a point on an already-sensitive (and painful) subject, but in the first round of the ’23 postseason, Brown averaged 27 minutes, 11.4 points, four rebounds and 2.4 assists in a five-game series win over the up-and-coming Timberwolves, a matchup the eventual champs would almost unanimously say was the more challenging than dispatching the Suns in six, the Lakers in four or the Heat in five.

Fast forward three years, same matchup, and it gets hazy. Brucey B in the first round against Minnesota in 2026: 19.4 minutes per game, 6.3 points, 2.7 boards, 1.7 dimes. The big three counting stats were all down by half off of his ’23 numbers, in most cases.

That’s not to lay the Massacre in Minneapolis at Brown’s feet — not at all. 2026’s postseason failure was a team effort, a collective dumpster fire from Nikola Jokic on down the line.

Would the Nuggets have folded like a cheap umbrella if Westbrook were coming off the bench instead of Brown?

It’s tough to say. Although it’s also not hard to imagine what Russ might have said — or done — to Jayden McDaniels after that “Nuggets defense” comment following Game 2, a barb Jokic & Co. were forced to eat with a steaming plate of crow.

Although Westbrook’s Defensive Rating of 121 — as in, points surrendered over 100 possessions — during the ’25-26 regular season, according to Basketball-Reference.com, was even worse than Brown’s 117 score.

And the Beastbrook’s jumper, at least as we left it, was very much an acquired taste. And, lest we forget, it was Westbrook’s missed layup on April Fool’s Night 2025 that ultimately ruined the Joker’s legendary 62-point triple-double at Ball Arena against … Minnesota.

Like most of Westbrook’s post-2022 career, you tend to remember Russ’ Denver season as you want to — good, bad, or ugly, it all applies.

The alley-oops to and from Jokic were breathtaking. The turnovers were maddening. Love him or loathe him, there may never be another like him.

Kroenkes cash in on Lucas Herrington transfer — B

While the Broncos released Burnham Yard plans and kinda-sorta hinted the project was inching forward again, the other branch of Denver’s Walmart sports ownership family tree — the Kroenkes — might’ve had the more profitable week. And not from the property you’d expect.

KSE’s Rapids on Wednesday reportedly pocketed $17 million from the transfer of Colorado and Australia defender Lucas Herrington to Hull City of the English Premier League. And that’s just the base number — the deal includes a reported extra $6 million in add-ons, with the Rapids holding a 15% sell-on clause on any profit from Herrington’s next potential moves. What the GTW crew wants to know is: will Stan and Josh pour some of that cash back into a new scoreboard at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park? Please?

A key City Council member this week said she doesn’t support one of the remaining steps officials had hoped to take to finalize the deal for a new Denver Broncos stadium at Burnham Yard.

Councilwoman Jamie Torres, whose district encompasses both Burnham Yard and the Broncos’ current home at Empower Field at Mile High, told The Denver Post on Thursday that she had concerns about where Denver Water may relocate part of its operations as the team takes over most of the utility’s land at Burnham Yard.

Her views as the representative of both neighborhoods will carry significant weight on the 13-member council, which would have to vote to approve the deal.

“I don’t see a future for Lot M with the Denver Water use,” Torres said. “We are trying to figure out what alternatives exist.”

Lot M, a 5-acre parking lot in Sun Valley near Empower Field, has been pitched as a potential site for relocating Denver Water’s emergency response facility. The building needs a new home because it����ap currently located in the footprint of the proposed new stadium site at Burnham Yard.

If the city, Denver Water and the Broncos can’t reach an agreement on where the building should go, it could cause ripples throughout the rest of the complicated deal.

The Broncos announced Burnham Yard as the team’s “preferred site” for a new stadium last September. The team is aiming to open the new facility by 2031, which would require construction to start next spring.

Team owner Greg Penner this week said that the timeline is “not going to be easy” with all the work that still needs to be done. Denver Water’s relocation is one of the factors adding to that difficulty.

Denver Water, which provides water to 1.5 million people in the metro area, agreed last year to move its operations from Burnham Yard so that the Broncos can relocate, so long as its ratepayers aren’t stuck footing the bill. Most of the utility’s campus will move to a property in Denver’s Elyria-Swansea neighborhood, but the emergency facility must be centrally located to quickly respond to water line breaks and other urgent issues.

Lot M currently provides supplemental parking for season ticket holders at Empower Field. Neighbors of the site have pushed for years for the city and state to convert the area surrounding the lot into a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood without industrial facilities. Community members have fought hard against Denver Water’s plans there, calling the proposal a “significant step backward” in a letter to city officials.

Torres said that without the community’s support — or at least acceptance of the plan — the idea would have a tough time getting through the City Council process.

“It was such a strong reaction against it and it never really eased up with more information,” she said. “For me, that signals it isn’t really a workable solution.”

Denver Water CEO Alan Salazar is still holding out hope that the utility can use Lot M while mitigating the community’s concerns, he said during a Wednesday meeting of Denver Water’s Board of Commissioners.

“I still think… Lot M is the path of least resistance,” he said.

He added in a written statement: “Denver Water has leaned into supporting the relocation of a new Broncos stadium because we recognize the positive impact a new stadium could have for Denver. At the same time, the relocation and replication of our critical facilities is also important to the community.”

Alternatively, the city could donate a different public parcel for the site, or the team could purchase another plot of land for Denver Water.

“Lot M is just one piece of the puzzle and we are exploring multiple options in partnership with the community, Denver Water and the Broncos,” said Jon Ewing, a spokesman for the mayor’s office.

A Broncos representative declined to answer a question about whether the team would be willing to pay for the plot of land Denver Water needs.

“We understand the integral role Denver Water plays in serving our community and remain committed to supporting its relocation efforts and ongoing operations,” team spokesman Patrick Smyth said.

The Broncos have taken several steps recently to advance the team’s plans for Burnham Yard, including finalizing deals to purchase land from SRM Concrete and the Colorado Department of Transportation.

On the field, quarterback Bo Nix’s surgically repaired ankle hasn’t slowed him down so far, ramping up expectations for the season.

With Burnham Yard, the Broncos took a significant step this week by acquiring land from SRM Concrete for nearly 10 acres worth of parcels on the northern portion of the proposed district. Last week, the team released new renderings of the project.

Broncos owner and CEO Greg Penner told reporters Tuesday that there are “a lot of moving pieces” to work through before the club can set its sights on a spring 2027 construction start date.

Working with the city and residents on the Burnham Yard small area plan is one of those key pieces.

At a community meeting Wednesday at La Alma Recreation Center in Denver, Broncos officials, residents and city planners gathered at the third public open house��on the plan.

“We still believe Burnham Yard has the possibility to be a vibrant addition to this existing neighborhood,” said Damani Leech, president of the Denver Broncos, to a large crowd gathered inside the center.

Leech said the Broncos’ master plan for Burnham Yard and the stadium district is built around four cornerstones: knitting the new district into surrounding neighborhoods, honoring the site’s long rail and industrial history, making it easy for people to move through and gather in the area, and creating a place where residents, businesses and visitors can “grow and prosper for the next seven generations,” a framework the Broncos say is based on feedback from both the community and city staff.

Leech also addressed parking, which has been one of the top concerns expressed in the community meetings.

Initial parking will include structured parking on developed parcels and surface parking elsewhere. As parcels develop, surface parking will transition into structured parking that is integrated into the buildings.

In the initial phase, Leech said the area would have roughly the as the current setup at Empower Field at Mile High.

“Then we’ll get later into Phases 2 and 3, many years later,” Leech said.

“You’ll start to see more buildout. Some of that surface parking — becomes structured parking. And then you get to full buildout, and that’s the image you all saw publicly,” he said, referring to the recently released renderings.

Even after the final phase, Leech said, the area will have more than 1,000 surface parking spaces north and south of the stadium, designed for tailgating.

After a brief presentation by city staff and Leech, community members had the opportunity to explore a series of interactive stations at their own pace and provide input on neighborhood priorities, concerns and their vision for the future. The stations addressed topics including affordable housing, industrial land-use regulations, retail development, public art, quality of life and mobility.

Attendees used colorful dot stickers to indicate whether they considered various strategies a low, medium, or high priority. Most boards were covered with high-priority stickers, including those highlighting quality-of-life infrastructure, such as more trees and vegetation in the area. Sticky notes also captured attendees’ concerns, questions, and other thoughts.

One note called for improving pedestrian access at Eighth and 13th avenues, while another urged planners to “capture/collect” elements of the railyard’s history.

“It����ap great to see this land being activated,” said Ben Trepp, a LoHi resident who frequently visits the Burnham Yard area, which he currently describes as a “barren wasteland.” He said he hopes it will eventually become “a really cool neighborhood that adds a lot to the city,” with new housing and businesses.

However, Trepp said he is not convinced a new stadium is necessary, arguing that the current stadium is adequate. He left a note under a meeting board about the 13th Avenue and RTD underpass improvements, expressing concerns that new light-rail grade crossings south of 10th Avenue could pose safety risks because trains travel quickly through the area.

Resident Laura Haygood, alongside her husband Marc, said they have been closely following the project����ap development since moving from Texas to the neighborhood in May.

Haygood said the couple wanted to move closer to family but were initially shocked to learn about the project, which they hadn’t been aware of before moving. Living just a few blocks from Burnham Yard, she raised concerns about construction and parking in front of their new home, but not the stadium itself.

Still, Haygood praised the plans presented to the community Wednesday.

“I enjoyed that they gave us a way to interact and comment on our priorities,” Haygood said.

“As long as they do what they’re saying and really continue to work with the community, I think it will be great. I just hope that greed doesn’t get in the way and they look at the dollar over how they’re treating the community.” Small area plans are policy documents that guide future development decisions within specific geographic areas. The city in partnership with community members, gathering public input to shape a draft that will ultimately be reviewed and voted on by Denver’s Planning Board and City Council.

City planners expect to release a public review draft of the Burnham Yard Small Area Plan in October, with final adoption to follow near the end of this year after community feedback and revisions.

Representatives of Burnham Yard Community Action, a coalition of neighborhood residents, businesses, workers, artists and service providers, told The Post on Wednesday that discussions with the Broncos over a Community Benefits Agreement remain ongoing.

Leech said the team’s application to the Denver Urban Renewal Authority for assistance with the redevelopment through tax-increment financing is expected to be submitted in late August or early September, followed by a rezoning application after the draft Small Area Plan is published. City council approval is anticipated in 2027.

“Ultimately, all of that is getting up to a really critical timeline for us to deliver a stadium in the first phase of this district by 2031. We need to be beginning construction by early 2027, so that’s driving a lot of our timeline, but also is driving the benefit for this community and others,” Leech said.

Initial construction will focus on the stadium, infrastructure and key elements including the reimagined Locomotive Shop, Turntable Green and other mixed-use elements.

Leech also said the neighborhood is expected to have fewer heavy-rail crossings while adding more light-rail crossing locations.

Given the size of the proposed redevelopment, the site also must go through the city’s large development review process before construction can begin. The city said the club has already begun this process by submitting a pre-application, including a “high-level concept plan” for the site.

Burnham Yard is a 58-acre decommissioned railyard that closed in 2016. For nearly 150 years, the site served as a repair, refueling, maintenance, manufacturing and storage facility for railroad operations.

The property is in City Council District 3, between 4th and 13th Avenues to the south and north, and bordered by Seminole Road and Osage Street to the west and east. It sits in the La Alma-Lincoln Park neighborhood and borders the Baker neighborhood at the south end.

This story has been updated to include more comments and details from the community meeting.

The sea of orange splashed across the seats, home or away, speaks to the bond between rabid supporters and the team.

But mention the possibility of PSLs becoming part of the proposed privately-funded, retractable-roof stadium at Burnham Yard and eyes narrow, and expletives fly.

It is another example of The Man sticking it to the average fan.

Having to pay a one-time fee for the right to pay for season tickets? As a financial mechanism, it is a crowbar slammed across the shins.

Emotionally, I feel for the fan who gets priced out. But economically, I am on the Broncos’ side.

Even though president Damani Leech admitted that using PSLs was likely, co-owners Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner have not made a final decision.

“Really, it����ap the furthest thing from our minds right now. It����ap still a preferred site, but it����ap not finalized that we’re going to be in that location. Obviously, that����ap where we really want to be. So really, we haven’t even gotten to PSLs yet,” Greg Penner said Tuesday. “Our season ticket holders are vital to our organization and we’re going to keep them informed every step of the way once we get there.”

Because PSLs — personal seat licenses — have left some loyal sports fans SOL around the country, they have taken on a boogeyman quality.

At the risk of spamming my own email, I counter with simple math and fairness.

I would rather people who use the facility take on the burden of additional costs than taxpayers.

Not long after former Hall of Fame owner Pat Bowlen suggested the Broncos could move to Los Angeles nearly three decades ago, voters approved a sales tax that funded 75% of the cost of the current stadium, capped at $270 million.

How many of those taxpayers have attended a Broncos game?

The team has 22,000 season ticket accounts with a 99.5% renewal rate and 100,000 people on a waiting list. Based on supply and demand, owning a season ticket is a privilege. There will be those who die waiting for the opportunity to purchase.

Could new well-heeled folks change the fabric of the crowd from blue-collar screamers to cheese nibblers and wine sippers? Sure.

However, that transformation, if we are being honest, began with the construction of the current stadium. It has never been as loud as old Mile High.

Would it stink for a lifelong season ticket holder to get priced out? Yes.

Is that worse than never getting a chance to buy season tickets? Or paying taxes for a place you will never step foot in? Nope.

“You are not going to hear a lot of complaints from economists who view this through the public policy lens. They will have no problem with taxes on tickets for the users,” said Geoffrey Propheter, an associate professor of public affairs at CU-Denver. “But yes, it can be a shock to some, particularly if you have the perspective that they are part of the community. How can you do it to them?”

Because the Broncos ownership group is the richest in the NFL, there are those who view PSLs as unnecessary, if not a full-on betrayal.

But last time I checked, owning a team and building a stadium is a business.

Could this ownership group, given its personal net worth, privately fund the stadium and not use PSLs? In theory, yes. But in practical terms, PSLs have become equity and a way to recoup or raise capital for projects of this magnitude.

I would rather the owners tack on the equivalent of a resort fee to season ticket holders than ask for public money.

The last stadium built without taxpayer dollars or PSLs was in 2002 in New England. In the last 20 years, only the construction of Lucas Oil Stadium and State Farm Stadium did not use PSLs when first built, though the majority of the costs were subsidized by the public.

For those who say the Broncos should be different, should be like the Patriots, consider that Gillette cost $325 million. Per The Los Angeles Times, the SoFi Stadium price tag was $5.5 billion in 2020.

Given the rising construction costs, it is highly unlikely the Burnham Yard palace will come in under $3 billion, and that is only if it stays on track for a 2031 opening.

Let’s say the Penners use PSLs.

Haven’t they earned the benefit of the doubt that they will do it in a reasonable way?

In the four years since they purchased the team for $4.65 billion, they have made a larger impact than Patrick Surtain II or Bo Nix. They hired Sean Payton, kept George Paton, signed core players to nearly a half billion in contract extensions, poured in $100 million to the current stadium, financed a $175 million state-of-the-art team headquarters and are on pace to give $10 million to the community this year.

They brought one of the league’s flagship franchises back to life. The playoff drought ended. The streak without an AFC West title and postseason win is in the past.

Greg Penner said he expects Super Bowl titles. As in plural.

And the owners have committed to this goal by investing in everything from injury research to improving recovery to nutrition to give the Broncos the best chance to win.

The owners have prioritized the fans’ feedback since taking over, running surveys to improve the gameday experience and gauge reactions to things like PSLs.

It will be painful for some season ticket holders. But it will not be a blindside hit.

Looking at how the owners have gone about their business, save for their support of Jonathon Cooper, there is reason to believe the PSL program will have elasticity.

If someone purchases season tickets for several years, perhaps the Broncos could return part of the money the fan paid for the PSL. The PSL program could also offer a program to upgrade seats and provide steep discounts on concessions and merchandise and priority access to other events at the stadium.

If the team remains a contender, more likely with this ownership group, it also creates a path for the season ticket holder to sell a PSL for profit.

PSLs on the secondary market can cost as little as $75 dollars for the Browns to as much as $450,000 for the 49ers, according to pslsource.com.

There are going to be those who get squeezed out. I am not naive to this. I don’t like it.

But I would rather have a few thousand upset season-ticket holders than a few hundred thousand furious taxpayers.

Kudos to Denver leaders for planning one of the next sports stadiums in the city with no public parking lot. They listened to residents in the surrounding neighborhoods who asked that there not be a huge parking lot that would be used only a few days of the year and would flood their streets when it rains or the snow melts.

The Denver Summit stadium will be close to the city center alongside a main boulevard, Broadway, so sports fans can easily get there using public transportation such as buses and trains. There are plenty of bike paths people can take when they ride their bicycles and scooters to the stadium.

Denver won the bid for the next franchise of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), called Denver Summit FC, and the games are now played in a temporary stadium in Centennial. In future years, we’ll be able to comfortably watch the competition without the worry of finding our car after the game.

Michael Johnson, Denver

USAID was more than just flour, but that was a lot too

Re: “Shame on Trump, Rubio and Musk, who’ve enabled needless deaths around the world,” Aug. 9 commentary.

As I do every Sunday, I was reading the Perspective section of the Sunday paper. I must admit this is my favorite part of the paper, and I enjoy the back and forth in the editorials. I usually learn something and am the better for it.

Reading about the demise of USAID, it particularly hit home. I grew up in Milwaukee, and my summer job in my last years of high school and four years of college were spent as a longshoreman at the Port of Milwaukee. Every day I was part of a crew of four, and our goal was to unload three boxcars of flour. Once unloaded, that flour went on pallets and was stored in the warehouse and then loaded on ships to be sent overseas. That flour meant the difference between life and death for millions of people. I didn’t realize it then, but looking back, I realize it now; USAID is far more than just flour. It is badly needed medicine and many other things that saved lives for those who received it. It was something the greatest country on Earth did because we could and had the resources to do it. This was a bipartisan issue back then, until Trump’s Republican Party decided it was a waste of money.

We will feel the effects of the elimination of this program for many years to come. It made us the country we were, and my only hope is we can become that country again.

David Shaw, Highlands Ranch

Fauci is not the enemy here

Anthony Fauci and Donald Trump may have saved your life, unknowable.

It seems the most important complaints with Fauci were about schools. States listened to advice and did what they thought best for their state. It was not known what would have happened if things were done differently. We thought children were less susceptible to COVID, but how about the people at home and the teachers? Could they have been carriers? Again, unknowable.

Fauci being intrigued with celebrities is silly at best. He worked for years in the background. He was finally recognized much like an Olympic athlete; when they are recognized and invited to meet celebrities, be on TV and invited to promotions, etc., are they considered vain or arrogant? Is it self-adulation? Celebrities are invited to the White House and state dinners; why? Because politicians like rubbing shoulders with celebrities. Are they vain and arrogant? Don’t answer that. I think they are jealous.

To find out where COVID came from, you need the cooperation of the Chinese. Maybe Sen. Rand Paul can bully them for answers, or maybe AI can figure it out. The rude behavior by our Senators is embarrassing.

Marion Keohane, Aurora

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Penner, speaking with reporters during a Broncos training camp practice, said he agreed with an analogy made in a Denver Post story this summer that the myriad processes, tentacles and complexities of trying to build a stadium and surrounding mixed-use district at the now-defunct former rail yard are akin to building a Rube Goldberg machine.

“I think that����ap a good analogy and I think everybody involved in the process has the intent to do the right thing and is trying to do the right thing,” Penner said. “But it����ap a lot of moving pieces and it����ap complex. Our focus is squarely on the 2031 opening and trying to get that done, but it����ap not going to be easy.”

The Broncos have cleared one hurdle this week, closing a deal with SRM Concrete for nearly 10 acres worth of parcels on the northern portion of the proposed district. The club paid $55 million for the parcels, according to real estate records obtained by The Post, meaning it paid more for the wedge of land than it cost to buy the 57-acre rail yard itself ($45.8 million). Penner essentially echoed what team president Damani Leech said earlier this month: If the club has control over a process — such as stadium and district design — it is advancing efficiently. But in areas that require negotiation and collaboration with community groups and government entities, the going is much slower.

Penner, though, said the club expected this when it began zeroing in on Burnham Yard as its preferred site.

“I don’t know that it����ap been more frustrating than I thought,” Penner said Tuesday. “We went into this knowing that, if you’re going to do a project of this scale — and we knew when we started focusing on this site specifically that it was going to be more challenging. But we also really want to stay in Denver if we can and deliver a stadium in this market that is a vital part of the downtown.

“But if you’re doing a project in an area like that, it����ap just harder. So I think we went in with our eyes wide open about the challenges and we’ll keep working through it.”

The club has said in community meetings and planning documents that its target start date for construction is in the spring of 2027. That will require many steps and processes to be completed in the next approximately six to eight months. The team needs a completed community benefits agreement with the Burnham Yard Community Association, an approved small-area plan, a district master plan, environmental remediation at the yard itself, a determination from the Denver Urban Renewal Authority on whether the site qualifies for tax increment financing and more.

“It����ap still a preferred site, but it����ap not finalized we’re going to be in that location,” Penner said. “Obviously that����ap where we really want to be.”

The Broncos have said that construction of a stadium and the first phase of the district are projected to take 3.5 to 4 years. Hence Penner’s continued use of the word “aggressive” when it comes to having shovels in the ground next year to put a stadium on track to comfortably open for the 2031 season.

So far, the Broncos say they don’t have a firm deadline for when they absolutely must have a go/no-go, though to open in 2031 they’d almost have to have a high degree of confidence by early 2027.

“Obviously at some point you hit a deadline, but we haven’t set a specific date that we have to have it all lined up,” Penner said. “At some point there will be a judgment call, I’m sure, where not everything is done. But we’re not at that point yet. You don’t want to start these massive projects without most, if not all, of your ducks lined up because you’re going to end up spending a lot more money.

“So we’re going to do it right, and when we start, we’re going to do it expeditiously.”

The Broncos have closed a deal with SRM Concrete to purchase six parcels owned by the company that span nearly 10 acres in the northern part of the club’s planned stadium and surrounding mixed-use district at Burnham Yard.

“This agreement with SRM Concrete represents another meaningful step our organization has taken to advance plans for a future stadium and surrounding neighborhood at Burnham Yard,” Broncos president Damani Leech said in a statement provided to The Post. “We’re grateful to CEO Jeff Hollingshead and the entire SRM Concrete team for their partnership, collaboration and shared commitment throughout this process.”

See Broncos’ updated Burnham Yard renderings for proposed mixed-use district

The six parcels, according to city real estate records, have a combined assessed value of more than $15.6 million. Financial terms were not immediately available on the Broncos’ acquisition.

“We are pleased to finalize this agreement with the Denver Broncos and play a small part in helping move the Burnham Yard vision forward,” Hollingshead said in a statement. “This project represents an exciting opportunity for Denver, and we're proud to contribute to something that we believe can have a meaningful impact on the community for generations to come.”

The club and the concrete company have been negotiating for months over a potential sale, but SRM was one of the longest-running holdouts in the area immediately surrounding Burnham Yard. Now the two sides have come to an agreement.

In the spring, Hollingshead told The Post that he was sure the sides “can come to an agreement that works for both of us.”

“We’re not going to be the reason why the stadium’s not getting built,” Hollingshead added then.

In the end, SRM Concrete fit in somewhere down the list of potential issues around Burnham Yard, checking in after matters like the ongoing community benefits agreement negotiation, the complex and time-consuming efforts to relocate Denver Water from its site just west of SRM Concrete and more.

The six SRM Concrete parcels are 1100 N. Raritan, 1173 N. Quivas, 1195 N. Quivas, 1151 N. Quivas, 1590 W. 12th Ave. and 1570 W. 12th Ave.

The parcels combine to form a wedge that sits between the Denver Water headquarters and the now-defunct railyard. Regarding the Broncos’ proposals for a retractable-roof stadium and mixed-use district, the SRM Concrete parcels occupy a significant portion of the northern part of the proposed stadium site and also part of a planned, residential-heavy area that recent renderings refer to as the “North End.”

With the SRM Concrete deal closed and a purchase agreement for Burnham Yard itself finalized for $45.8 million -- that deal is slated to close later this year —��most of the real estate transactions planned by the club in the proposed stadium area are now completed or essentially completed.

SRM Concrete, based in Tennessee, owns more than 560 concrete plants across 24 states. The company had just purchased the Burnham Yard-adjacent plant in 2022.