Denver’s Move Toward Community Benefits Agreements: The Ball Arena CBA
2023–present
Abstract
As Denver redevelops large sites around its stadiums and arenas, community benefits agreements (CBAs) have become a new tool for neighbors and community organizations to secure commitments from developers. This project asks whether Denver’s embrace of CBAs is delivering the intended benefits or instead fueling the growth machine and neighborhood displacement. It draws on my participant action research as a signatory of the Ball Arena CBA, informal consultation with the committees negotiating CBAs for the Broncos’ and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) stadiums, and my service on the Meow Wolf Community Advisory Committee.
The Ball Arena Community Benefits Agreement Committee (BACBAC), a coalition of neighborhood organizations, the Auraria campus institutions, Denver Housing Authority, workforce and transportation advocates, and CU Denver’s Community Collaborative Research Center, spent 18 months negotiating a legally binding agreement with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment to govern the redevelopment of the Ball Arena site. I chaired the committee’s Family, Arts, and Culture subcommittee through 18 months of weekly meetings, until the agreement was approved in October 2024, and I now serve as a member and signatory of its Implementation Committee.
The agreement commits 18 percent of the roughly 6,000 planned homes to remain affordable for 99 years, for both rental and ownership, with family-sized units; $1.1 million for eviction and down payment assistance; first-hire opportunities and job targets for residents of low-income neighborhoods; a business equity goal for small, minority-, and women-owned businesses; an onsite early learning center for at least 150 children; $1 million in youth internships; at least $5 million for public art; and a $16 million Community Investment Fund that will shift to governance by site residents as the project develops.
