City pitches Rooney Valley for stock show, fairgrounds

The Rooney Valley stretches south from Green Mountain past Solterra.

LAKEWOOD – The National Western Stock Show is looking for a new home and the Rooney Valley is a prime candidate. And the Jeffco Fairgrounds might be added to the mix if the stock show moves. 

Stock show officials and the city’s Director of Planning confirmed this week that the two sides met a couple of weeks ago for preliminary discussion of relocating the 103-year-old stock show to the valley.

“We think it is a long-shot, and if it happens, it probably won’t happen for a little while but we thought we would pursue it and see where we go,” said Becky Clark, Lakewood’s Director of Community Planning and Development.

County Commissioner Kevin McCasky said the fairgrounds would fit nicely into any plan for to accommodate the National Western in the valley.

“I think it’s definitely worth examining,” McCasky said. “I would love for the stock show to move to the Rooney Valley and, if we could enhance the fairgrounds and the Westernaires by moving to the valley, I would support it,” McCasky said.

Westernaires is a 60-year-old youth equestrian organization that teaches kids how to ride and care for horses. The group also helps its members develop leadership skills.

The fairgrounds facility just south of West Sixth Avenue and west of Indiana Street, is running out of room to expand and relocating it “is something to take a serious look at,” McCasky said.

The commissioner raised the possibility of a joint National Western/Jeffco Fairgrounds relocation Wednesday when he met with the fairgrounds Advisory Committee and got a positive response.

“Right now, it is just ideas and concepts being discussed,” McCasky said. “It would have to make financial sense for the fairgrounds and, of course, the Westernaires.”

Clark said the city is pursuing the stock show as part of its to Rooney Valley development plan and is happy to have the county on board.

“I think it is a joint venture with several parties,” Clark said.

But any deal with the National Western would be complicated.

“It is something that we would have to work out with Denver, because, of course they (the National Western) bring revenue to Denver. And it’s something that we would have to work out with all the property owners out there in Rooney Valley,” Clark said.

            The idea sprang from a land planning challenge last year.

The National Association of Industrial and Office Properties each year conducts a contest in which local college students design a land-use plan to fit an actual site.                   

The 2009 site was the Rooney Valley and the site’s agricultural tradition was a natural setting for the students’ challenge.

“They looked at the property and a portion of it was put to the fairgrounds use and a portion was put to primary job use,” Clark said. “We’ve got all sorts of ideas floating out there, but nothing that is really defined.” 

An Intergovernmental Agreement guides development of the valley and control of its broad reaches along C-470 from West Alameda Avenue to Morrison Road are split between Lakewood and the City of Morrison.

It is the site of Solterra, a pricey subdivision that was the site of the 2008 Parade of Homes.

The National Western two years ago announced it is considering moving from its aging Stock Yards facilities on either side of Interstate 70 in east Denver. Pat Grant, the stock show’s President and Chief Executive Offer said the current site is too cramped to allow for expansion of the show’s facilities.

“It’s going to be hard for us to stay here, but we’ve not made that final decision,” Grant said. “We’re reviewing all our options including sites outside of Denver.”

The Rooney Valley has been discussed as a “possible” site, Grant said. “But I’m not in a position to go beyond that.”

Talks on relocating the stock show to a site in Commerce City, recently “blew up,” Grant said.

The stock show draws thousands of participants from across the U.S. and several foreign countries. More than 600,000 visitors have attended the show each year for the past 12 years. The record, 726,972, was posted in 2006.

Its economic impact has been estimated at more than $85 million during the show and rodeo’s 16-day annual run.