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Every number carries one of four labels (FACT, CALC, SAMPLE or PENDING) and a source you can open.
CDOTBurnham Yard Acquisition & Resale
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CDOT · Transportation

Burnham Yard Acquisition & Resale

State purchase of the 58-acre former Union Pacific rail yard in central Denver; agreed for resale to the Broncos' stadium venture in 2026. Denver County. Timeline 2021–2026.

Money in FACT
Est. total cost
$50.0M
Result so far
Complete. What this stage means

Complete. The work on this project is complete.

The stages, in order

  1. Requested An agency asked. No money yet.
  2. Funded Money approved. Work still to start.
  3. Underway Work started. Money goes out.
  4. Complete Work complete. This project

Halted Work stopped before the end.

This stage is our reading of the sources at the foot of this page, last read 24 September 2026.

Timeline 2021–2026

Still open PENDING
Spend to date

Reported complete. Colorado does not publish what it spent. 1 of 2 contracts prints its own paid-to-date under Who is being paid.

FACT A Honesty Framework The label says how we know the figure. The grade rates the source record, not the project. The grade rates the source record, not the project.

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How well does this project use public money?
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Your rating is stored without your name, address or any identifier. We count it into a total, so the people who govern this place can see how residents read their spending. No rating and no total is published on this site. We may publish summaries of what residents tell us about a place. Those are our own writing, never your rating and never a count, average or distribution of anybody's. Ratings and comments are grouped into themes that show elected leaders how residents rate each project.

Latest public update

Bought for $50M in 2021 for rail consolidation and possible I-25 expansion; in 2026 the state agreed to sell the yard to the Broncos' development group for $46M — $4M less than it paid.

Open questions for the state (2)
ANALYSIS
  • Why is the agreed resale price $4M below the 2021 purchase price?
  • Which public benefits — rail relocation, I-25 right-of-way — survive the sale?

Total cost and spending
Total project cost$50.0M

Total cost & funding are drawn from the official record(s) listed below.

Delivered. Project reported complete, so final spend approximates the total cost. TOPS, the state’s spending ledger, does not carry CDOT’s construction payments. CDOT posts a payment estimate each month for every construction contract. Each one covers a single contract, not a project, and we have not matched this project’s contracts to them.

Milestones (3)
  • State closes $50M purchase from Union Pacific — May 2021
  • I-25 widening use ruled out as unaffordable — 2024
  • Sale agreement with Broncos stadium venture at $46M — May 2026

Who is being paid (2)
FACT
Funding sourceState transportation funds; resale proceeds return to the state.
Political giving
Union Pacific RailroadSeller — state's 2021 acquisition of the 58-acre yard$50.0MAColorado DPA P3 OfficeSearch TRACER
AZURE RE ACQ, LLCbuyer entity for the Broncos stadium venture$45.8Mclosing expected fall 2026Bpurchase-agreement coverage (single source for entity name)Search TRACER
Where this comes from: award announcements and project records from CDOT, FHWA, agencies and the legislature’s nonpartisan staff — each Record link opens the source. Paid-to-date shows only published figures (green = verified); everything else stays PENDING, because the state does not publish payments project by project. Political giving links open TRACER, the Secretary of State’s official campaign-finance database, where contribution records are searchable by name — contributions are legal and public, and a search link implies no wrongdoing by anyone.

Sources and receipts (2)

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Burnham Yard Acquisition & Resale

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