Douglas County officials on Tuesday presented plans for what could become one of Colorado’s largest sports complexes, a development that may generate billions of dollars in tax revenue for the county within the growing Sterling Ranch community.

Plans call for a 500-acre sports and recreation complex — including 400 acres of open space and commercial real estate — in northwest Douglas County called the “Zebulon Regional Sports Complex.”

Officials are eyeing its location for Waterton and Moore Roads, where the facility would include a 239,000 square foot indoor sports complex, a 160,000 sq. ft. sports dome with a removable roof, four baseball fields and a parking garage. Plans include 17,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, plus a botanic garden.

Further expansion consists of a nine-field soccer complex, a large multi-purpose turf field and an entertainment district, according to Sterling Ranch’s preliminary site map.

Following community town halls and potential county approval, the first phase of Zebulon’s construction on 46 acres, the indoor sports complex and ball fields, could break ground in the fall, according to Douglas County Commissioner Abe Laydon.

“We have a lot of great recreational amenities, but certainly not enough,” said Laydon, who is leading the Zebulon proposal, at a work session on Tuesday.

The proposed project is now part of Douglas County’s Parks, Trails, Historic Resources and Open Space Fund master plan — a voter-approved .17% sales tax supporting recreational development. The fund would largely support Zebulon’s development, but a price tag has yet to be determined.

In 2022, 87% of Douglas County voters greenlighted an extension to its existing sales tax previously approved in 1994, hoping to generate over $330 million by 2037 to preserve and maintain trails, parks, historic resources and open space.

In a countywide survey in August asking what they’d want more of, Douglas County residents heavily favored sports fields and open space recreation.

Douglas County survey reveals increased demand for more open space, sports fields

Douglas County previously proposed a 202-acre sports complex in Highlands Ranch, the Wildcat Regional Park Project. Many local residents opposed it due to the proximity of nearby homes and a desire to retain open space.

Following opposition, the Highlands Ranch Community Association reached out to Sterling Ranch as an alternative for the county to develop a sports complex, an opportunity Sterling Ranch officials offered to Douglas County commissioners, according to Sterling Ranch Development Company CEO Brock Smethills.

“Fortunately, we had just acquired approximately 220 net developable acres just adjacent to Sterling Ranch that was formerly a contaminated, brownfield site that has been remediated,” Smethills said.

“As it relates to our master plan, (Zebulon) will provide shopping, dining, recreation, and community gathering spaces that Sterling Ranch would not be able to support at this time on its own,” Smethills said. “As it relates to the overall metro Denver, youth and adult sports facilities as a whole are underserved in our region. This will help with providing additional facilities that are open to the entire region.”

Laydon told The Denver Gazette the county pivoting plans to bring a sports complex to Sterling Ranch “opens opportunities to have truly best-in-class recreational amenities.”

He envisions a “best-in-class sports village” that can host leagues and large tournaments, while, in turn, generate revenue for the county.

Officials are unsure the exact amount of revenue Zebulon would generate.

“We know it is in the billions,” Ellie Reynolds, CEO of the Douglas County Economic Development Corporation (EDC), said at the Tuesday work session.

“This is a large economic catalyst for the area and we are committed to delivering a large-scale project with amenities that wrap around the sports complex,” Reynolds told The Denver Gazette after the meeting.

Once the project plans are finalized, the EDC will conduct an economic impact analysis, according to Reynolds.

Sterling Ranch, a master-planned community in unincorporated northwest Douglas County about 20 miles south of downtown Denver, was started by Harold Smethills and family when they bought the land in 2004. The first homes started going up in 2015. The development is about 20% built out. 

With more than 2,500 homes already built, the affluent community plans to build 12,050 homes over the next two decades. The community plans to expand to more than 33,000 residents on its 3,500 acres of land and offer a new public elementary school in 2027.

A new sports complex in Sterling Ranch requires the community to expand its zoning beyond its existing size.

The Sterling Ranch development company already contributed the 46 acres of land that it paid for in 2023, which would be used for the first phase of Zebulon’s development “at effectively zero cost to the taxpayers,” Smethills said.

Future expansion could prompt the need for Tax Incremental Financing funding and the creation of metro districts, according to Smethills.

Douglas County and Sterling Ranch has partnered with KT Development, who most recently developed the Blue Sport Stable in Superior, to “deliver this project to Douglas County taxpayers in the most cost-efficient way possible,” Douglas County officials said in a news release.

County officials are planning a county town hall meeting on the Zebulon proposal in April.

Roughly 200 acres of open space, to be preserved as an elk habitat and wildlife corridor, split where Zebulon would be and the closest homes located in the Louviers community.

“The fact that this parcel is outside of the current Sterling Ranch Master Plan and not directly adjacent to any other neighbors make this sports complex a win-win,” Smethill’s said, adding “this project will allow this area to start supporting hotels, restaurants, bars, stores and a lot of services that the current rooftops would not be able to support on their own.”