Mayor Michael Hancock’s proposed $450 million bond package passed its first of three city council votes Tuesday, amid continued debate over the inclusion of the $160 million National Western Center Arena on the project list.

In total, the bond will fund 80 infrastructure projects in Denver as part of the city’s long-term COVID-19 recovery plan. The bond must be OK’d by the council to be added to the November ballot.

On Tuesday, the council finance committee voted 4-3 to split the bond into five ballot measures, allowing residents to vote on the arena and its related Historic 1909 Building renovation separately from all of the other projects.

“I don’t know that it makes much sense for the voter, particularly if they feel conflicted between one controversial item and libraries and cultural facilities,” Councilwoman Jamie Torres said. “It lumps things that create a challenging decision for the voters.”

The final five ballot measures now split the bond projects into the following categories: city facility projects, transportation projects, Parks and Recreation projects, housing projects and the combined arena construction and Historic 1909 Building renovation.

Including the arena and Historic 1909 Building, 65.3% of the $450 million would go to city facility projects, 14.1% to transportation projects, 12% for Parks and Recreation projects and 8.6% to housing projects.

Since Hancock announced the National Western Center Arena during his State of the City address, many have criticized the project, saying the funds would be better spent elsewhere. The arena would receive over 35% of the bond package and cost more than the eight next most expensive projects combined.

“It is meant to be a stimulative bond package, which means there must be something in there that is stimulative and sustainable,” Hancock said Tuesday. “We have known for a while that we are missing a mid-sized arena in Denver. We miss out on a lot of conventions, concerts because we don’t have a 10,000-seater in Denver.”

The Denver Coliseum and Red Rocks Amphitheater each hold approximately 10,000 people. However, the Coliseum’s lack of air conditioning and Red Rocks’ outdoor venue effectively makes them seasonal venues, a spokesperson with the mayor’s office said.

The National Western Center Arena would be a mid-sized venue with 10,000 seats, designed for year-round events like concerts, sporting events and expos, in addition to the annual National Western Stock Show. The arena was first envisioned in the 2015 National Western Center Campus Master Plan.

To date, approximately $765 million has been spent on the National Western Center Campus from a combination of funding sources, city officials said.

The arena was originally meant to be funded by a tourism tax, which has taken a significant hit during the COVID-19 pandemic. The city decided to abandon that funding stream in the fall of 2020, Chief Financial Officer Brendan Hanlon said.

“I’m asking you all to lift your heads and look forward,” Hancock said. “Just as we’ve done with the Colorado Convention Center, DIA, our sports complexes downtown, 16th Street Mall, Cherry Creek Mall. Let’s look forward and get it done.”

In total, the arena would cost $210 million to construct, with the remaining $50 million coming from other sources, Hanlon said. Officials cut the funding coming from the bond package by $10 million since they first drafted the project list.

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The construction of the arena would result in approximately 3,000 jobs with an average salary of $30 per hour, Holloway said. That would total $194 million in worker wages by the time construction concluded.

The city estimates the entire bond package would create 7,580 jobs and $1 billion in economic output.

Despite the city’s insistence that the arena would be the most significant economic stimulant of the bond, several council members have said it is not a proper use of so much money.

“This proposed arena will not directly meet any of the needs of my constituents in Globeville, Elyria and Swansea and does not directly address any of the root causes of our problems in GES because it’s not a project that authentically comes from our communities,” Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca said in a release.

During the Department of Finance’s public outreach process, respondents prioritized the investment in housing and sheltering for COVID-19 relief funds. The bond plan covers two housing projects for $37.4 million – less than one-fourth of the funds would be going towards the arena.

On Tuesday, many council members also raised issue with the bond not funding a $19 million project to improve the central branch of the Denver Public Library.

Councilman Jolon Clark said he was “very shocked” the library project didn’t make the cut and requested the Department of Finance publicly commit to funding the project using other means, to which Hanlon said they would “look for opportunities.”

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Councilman Paul Kashmann also asked for specific commitments to funding the library project.

“I’m not hearing anything but you value it, but you have no idea,” Kashmann said.

Hanlon said the bond includes $29 million for other library branches and pointed out that $61 million was designated for Denver’s library system in the Elevate Denver Bond in 2017, to which Kashmann replied “right, and we’re close to $1 billion on National Western with more to come.”

After the council voted to separate the National Western Center Arena and Historic 1909 Building into their own ballot measure, the other four measures passed 6-1, with only CdeBaca voting no.

The most expensive projects on the bond list are the following:

• National Western Center Arena construction – $160 million
• Historic 1909 Building renovation – $30 million
• May Bonfils Stanton Theater at Loretto Heights renovation – $30 million
• Homeless shelter facility acquisition, conversion and/or construction – $30 million
• Park maintenance and facilities construction in Districts 1 and 11 – $15.8 million
• Americans with Disabilities Act improvements in city facilities – $14.23 million
• Westwood Branch Library construction – $13.88 million
• Morrison Road reconstruction – $13 million
• Citywide transportation safety and pedestrian improvements – $13 million

The bond will be sent to the full City Council for two final votes on Aug. 16 and Aug. 23. If approved by voters in November, the first debt issuance for the bond would be in the spring of 2022, officials said.