The seven-year, $756 million National Western Stock Show construction project is set to transform the 250 acres and add several new buildings.
According to the National Western Center website, the new campus will be a vibrant, dynamic, and accessible educational and entertainment environment in the heart of Denver that celebrates Colorado’s western heritage and solves global issues through research and collaboration.
The City of Denver, Colorado State University and the Western Stock Show Association are the partners involved in the project.
On Monday, tours were given of the site to provide a glimpse of what is to come.
“It’s the last chance between now and the end of the stock show to see it the way it was,” said Gretchen Hollrah, executive director of Denver’s National Western Center office.
Construction is expected to begin in coming months, beginning with the demolition of the former paper manufacturing building, an equestrian barn and a former sheep rendering plant to make way for more than 500,000 square feet of new buildings. The goal of the transformation is to make the site that’s normally busy during the two-week stock show each January, a year-round attraction for programming connecting education, agriculture and livestock sciences and public events and entertainment.
Rendering courtesy of the National Western Center