Bennito L. Kelty
The City of Denver quietly added twenty acres and almost $1 million to its deal to acquire the Park Hill Golf Course from Westside Investment Partners after an appraiser found the original parcel of land for the swap to be damaged by old fiber optic cables.
Because that property wasn’t worth as much as predicted, the city was forced to revise its deal and give up a total of 165 acres of land near Denver International Airport in order to acquire the 155-acre former golf course and turn it into a public park.
Westword had been asking the city about the new terms for several days; the city finally shared details about a half hour after CBS Denver broke the story on October 27. The information emerged the day before Denver Mayor Mike Johnston was set to celebrate the reopening of the golf course as the Park Hill Park on Tuesday, October 28. Johnston had first announced a land swap to acquire the Park Hill Golf Course in January; according to CBS, the city knew the land was damaged by fiber optics since at least July.
The former Park Hill Golf Course, located at the corner of West 35th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard in northeast Park Hill, hasn’t been in use since it closed as a golf course in 2018. It was sold to Westside Investment Partners, a Greenwood Village-based developer, in 2019.
Westside had aspirations to build housing, a shopping center and restaurants on the property. However, a 1997 deal made between then-Mayor Wellington Webb and the land’s previous owners, Clayton Early Learning, limited the land’s permitted use to a golf course. Open-space advocates convinced voters to further restrict Westside’s use of the land in 2021 and 2023.
The original deal had Denver gaining all 155 acres of the Park Hill Golf Course, with Westside receiving 145 acres near DIA in exchange. According to Laura Swartz, a spokesperson for the Denver Finance Department, the deal was based on the value of the land, not the size of the parcel; each party was to receive $12.7 million worth of land.
During a real estate due diligence process that took place after Denver City Council approved the land swap in May — but before the city took ownership of the Park Hill Park on October 2 — a land appraiser found that the land Westside was getting was worth less than $12.7 million, according to Swartz, who didn’t specify exactly when that discovery was made.
The appraiser found underground “fiber optic duct corridors” that couldn’t be relocated or built over, which decreased the value of what the city was trading to Westside. To even the deal, the city would have to cough up an extra 32 acres, or 177 total acres of industrial land by DIA, according to the appraiser. Eventually, the city Finance Department and Westside settled on 165 total acres and $900,000 in compensation.
“The City and County of Denver deals fairly,” Swartz says, “and is transacting an additional twenty acres to Westside with compensation for the other twelve acres that we are not delivering.”
The city is paying Westside through money transferred to DIA, which the city owns; the city had to transfer $12.7 million to DIA from the Parks Legacy Fund to get the land swap in motion in the first place. According to Swartz, the airport will now keep $11.8 million from that transfer, and the remaining balance will go to Westside.
“There is no added cost to the city,” Swartz says, adding that “the extra twenty acres are a long, skinny parcel” and “just wide enough to add a drive aisle for trucks accessing warehouses.”
Swartz notes that it’s “not uncommon” for challenges on easements, covenants and appraisals to come up during the real estate due diligence process.
Council held the first reading and public hearing for the mayor’s 2026 budget proposal on Monday, October 27, the same day the city shared details of the new deal with Westword. Johnston had to lay off several dozen employees and cut departments “to the bone” to balance the upcoming budget.
CBS Denver reported that councilmembers didn’t know the details of the new deal until after the October 2 closing.
“Denver City Council has been fully briefed,” Swartz says. “The transaction continues to comply with what was approved by city council earlier this year.”
