DENVER — As the National Western Stock Show entered its 114th year in Denver over the weekend, event organizers continued to look ahead.
“The complex’s future is bright!” said Paul Andrews, president and CEO of the National Western Stock Show. “With the redevelopment of the National Western Center and all of the new buildings that will be coming online between now and 2023”.
The organization is currently in the early stages of phase one of its two-phase expansion project. Both phases together are estimated to cost more than $1 billion.
According to Andrews, the first phase includes construction work on the yards and, among other things, the creation of two new vertical buildings.
One of the buildings will be an equestrian center and the other will be for livestock.
“[A] new livestock center multipurpose building with 200,000 square foot of barns attached to it,” Andrews explained.
Event organizers said the National Western Stock Show’s site has become ‘land-locked’ over the last 10 years.
The two-phase project will expand the complex’s land size from 110 acres to 250 acres.
“It will put us in a different business model moving forward,” Andrews said.
The goal is to attract more than one million visitors over the event’s 16-day stretch and to evolve the National Western Complex into something larger.
“We’ll become more of a year-round destination for agriculture and western traditions,” Andrews said.
The second big phase of the project, known as “The Triangle,” will focus on restoring and adding new structures, including a new 10,000 seat arena.
There is no word yet on when phase two will begin and wrap up.
Phase one is slated to finish between 2023 and 2024.