On a sunbaked Thursday afternoon, the corner of 10th and Osage in Denver’s Lincoln Park neighborhood was alive with activity: commuters boarding the H Line into downtown, joggers out for a midday trot, homebuilders hard at work. Latin music moved through the window of a nearby pickup.
This working-class corner could soon be changed forever. As BusinessDen first reported this month, LLCs affiliated with the Denver Broncos have spent at least $146 million on commercial properties around Lincoln Park’s Burnham Yard, a possible site for the team’s next stadium.
The most unique of those purchased properties is at 10th and Osage: A long-vacant lot that the team bought in April for $7 million from the Denver Housing Authority. It abuts an RTD rail station that will swell with travelers in five or six years, if the Broncos build their stadium nearby.
“This property has been on the market multiple times since 2014, during which time DHA engaged in negotiations with several prospective buyers,” says DHA spokeswoman Stephanie Schiemann.
The property carries with it a key requirement, one that will likely make the Broncos unlikely affordable housing developers.
The team now has until October 2027 to find a location for 150 housing units within one mile of the vacant lot it bought, which is sometimes referred to as 1390 W. 10th Ave. and other times as 944 Osage St. The Broncos can build apartments at that site or somewhere else, but half the units must be income-restricted and 75% must have at least two bedrooms.
If the team does not find a location by October 2027, or does not finish the apartment project by April 2031, the Housing Authority can buy back 1390 W. 10th Ave. for $6 million.
“The sale allows us to further invest in DHA’s mission,” said its CEO, Joaquín Cintrón Vega. “The conditions of the agreement reflect our commitment to ensuring that any redevelopment meaningfully serves the people who live and work in this neighborhood. It reinforces our focus on creating and preserving affordable housing that strengthens communities for the long term.”
The RTD stop at 10th and Osage in Lincoln Park on Thursday, June 26, 2025. (Hayden Kim/BusinessDen)
Broncos spokesman Patrick Smyth declined to comment on 1390 W. 10th Ave. The team has repeatedly opted to neither confirm nor deny that it is behind the real estate purchases in Lincoln Park, and maintains that it has not settled on a location for a new stadium or even decided not to stay at Mile High.
The sale of the lot at 10th and Osage was the result of protracted negotiations between DHA and Lea Ann Fowler, a Hogan Lovells lawyer who represented the team in its Lincoln Park purchases. Four hundred pages of emails between them that BusinessDen obtained through a public records request show debates about housing and DHA’s say in a future development.
“Our intention is not to be punitive to your client but rather to protect DHA’s interest in guaranteeing that housing will actually be built and being able to take the property back if your client fails to deliver,” Erin Clark, chief real estate investment officer at DHA, told Fowler last July.
Each side made concessions throughout the negotiations. The DHA initially sought a provision that would allow it to take back the property for free, before agreeing to a $6 million buyback price. It also agreed to give the Broncos 30 months to find a location for its housing project rather than two years, and dropped its demand for a right of first refusal.
For its part, the team agreed to keep half of its apartments income-restricted for 50 years rather than 15 and to ensure that DHA is a party to any community benefit agreement, or CBA, that dictates how 1390 W. 10th Ave. is developed. The latter was a sticking point over the winter.
“If DHA’s property is being considered within a broader CBA, then DHA must be a signatory with respect to at least (10th and Osage) — full stop,” Clark told Fowler in December.
DHA has helped build much of the existing housing around the 10th and Osage stop, and the agency’s headquarters are on the other side of the RTD station.
“Bottom line, DHA must be at the table for any CBA negotiations,” she said after Fowler lightly objected. “And must have signature rights with respect to future development.”
The vacant lot at 1390 W. 10th Ave. (Hayden Kim/BusinessDen)
Clark and Fowler were always in alignment on one detail, however: The public should not know who was buying the property that they call 944 Osage. Last summer, the two agreed that only the team’s vague-sounding LLC, River Oak Ltd., would be used at public meetings.
“DHA’s Board of Commissioners was made aware of the identity of the purchasers in an executive session,” according to Schiemann, the spokeswoman for DHA.
The property’s future as a possible team-owned hotel or entertainment venue just across the tracks from the NFL’s newest stadium is a long way off. For now, it is a staging area for construction crews working at Ninth and Navajo, just to the south of the lot.
Those crews are building what the Broncos must soon build: income-restricted housing.
Read more: Broncos buying around possible Denver stadium site
Read more: Broncos, Denver Water talking about agency’s land near possible stadium site
MAP: In this interactive map, the large property in blue is Burnham Yard, a state-owned former railyard in central Denver. The large property in purple is owned by Denver Water. Properties in yellow were recently purchased by LLCs formed in late 2023 by a Broncos-linked Hogan Lovells attorney. Properties in red were recently purchased by LLCs formed in late 2023, but don’t have a link to Hogan Lovells. Boundaries are approximate.
On a sunbaked Thursday afternoon, the corner of 10th and Osage in Denver’s Lincoln Park neighborhood was alive with activity: commuters boarding the H Line into downtown, joggers out for a midday trot, homebuilders hard at work. Latin music moved through the window of a nearby pickup.
This working-class corner could soon be changed forever. As BusinessDen first reported this month, LLCs affiliated with the Denver Broncos have spent at least $146 million on commercial properties around Lincoln Park’s Burnham Yard, a possible site for the team’s next stadium.
The most unique of those purchased properties is at 10th and Osage: A long-vacant lot that the team bought in April for $7 million from the Denver Housing Authority. It abuts an RTD rail station that will swell with travelers in five or six years, if the Broncos build their stadium nearby.
“This property has been on the market multiple times since 2014, during which time DHA engaged in negotiations with several prospective buyers,” says DHA spokeswoman Stephanie Schiemann.
The property carries with it a key requirement, one that will likely make the Broncos unlikely affordable housing developers.
The team now has until October 2027 to find a location for 150 housing units within one mile of the vacant lot it bought, which is sometimes referred to as 1390 W. 10th Ave. and other times as 944 Osage St. The Broncos can build apartments at that site or somewhere else, but half the units must be income-restricted and 75% must have at least two bedrooms.
If the team does not find a location by October 2027, or does not finish the apartment project by April 2031, the Housing Authority can buy back 1390 W. 10th Ave. for $6 million.
“The sale allows us to further invest in DHA’s mission,” said its CEO, Joaquín Cintrón Vega. “The conditions of the agreement reflect our commitment to ensuring that any redevelopment meaningfully serves the people who live and work in this neighborhood. It reinforces our focus on creating and preserving affordable housing that strengthens communities for the long term.”
The RTD stop at 10th and Osage in Lincoln Park on Thursday, June 26, 2025. (Hayden Kim/BusinessDen)
Broncos spokesman Patrick Smyth declined to comment on 1390 W. 10th Ave. The team has repeatedly opted to neither confirm nor deny that it is behind the real estate purchases in Lincoln Park, and maintains that it has not settled on a location for a new stadium or even decided not to stay at Mile High.
The sale of the lot at 10th and Osage was the result of protracted negotiations between DHA and Lea Ann Fowler, a Hogan Lovells lawyer who represented the team in its Lincoln Park purchases. Four hundred pages of emails between them that BusinessDen obtained through a public records request show debates about housing and DHA’s say in a future development.
“Our intention is not to be punitive to your client but rather to protect DHA’s interest in guaranteeing that housing will actually be built and being able to take the property back if your client fails to deliver,” Erin Clark, chief real estate investment officer at DHA, told Fowler last July.
Each side made concessions throughout the negotiations. The DHA initially sought a provision that would allow it to take back the property for free, before agreeing to a $6 million buyback price. It also agreed to give the Broncos 30 months to find a location for its housing project rather than two years, and dropped its demand for a right of first refusal.
For its part, the team agreed to keep half of its apartments income-restricted for 50 years rather than 15 and to ensure that DHA is a party to any community benefit agreement, or CBA, that dictates how 1390 W. 10th Ave. is developed. The latter was a sticking point over the winter.
“If DHA’s property is being considered within a broader CBA, then DHA must be a signatory with respect to at least (10th and Osage) — full stop,” Clark told Fowler in December.
DHA has helped build much of the existing housing around the 10th and Osage stop, and the agency’s headquarters are on the other side of the RTD station.
“Bottom line, DHA must be at the table for any CBA negotiations,” she said after Fowler lightly objected. “And must have signature rights with respect to future development.”
The vacant lot at 1390 W. 10th Ave. (Hayden Kim/BusinessDen)
Clark and Fowler were always in alignment on one detail, however: The public should not know who was buying the property that they call 944 Osage. Last summer, the two agreed that only the team’s vague-sounding LLC, River Oak Ltd., would be used at public meetings.
“DHA’s Board of Commissioners was made aware of the identity of the purchasers in an executive session,” according to Schiemann, the spokeswoman for DHA.
The property’s future as a possible team-owned hotel or entertainment venue just across the tracks from the NFL’s newest stadium is a long way off. For now, it is a staging area for construction crews working at Ninth and Navajo, just to the south of the lot.
Those crews are building what the Broncos must soon build: income-restricted housing.
Read more: Broncos buying around possible Denver stadium site
Read more: Broncos, Denver Water talking about agency’s land near possible stadium site
MAP: In this interactive map, the large property in blue is Burnham Yard, a state-owned former railyard in central Denver. The large property in purple is owned by Denver Water. Properties in yellow were recently purchased by LLCs formed in late 2023 by a Broncos-linked Hogan Lovells attorney. Properties in red were recently purchased by LLCs formed in late 2023, but don’t have a link to Hogan Lovells. Boundaries are approximate.
