The Elitch Gardens amusement park opens its gates on Saturday — despite years of worries that it will be closed or moved to make way for the gargantuan River Mile development.
The park welcomed season passholders last weekend and will fully reopen this weekend. In fact, it’s set to be the park’s longest season yet, including celebrations of Colorado and U.S. history.
“Elitch Gardens remains a beloved Denver tradition and will continue operating in its current location for the foreseeable future,” said Elitch spokesperson Katelyn Beets. “We’re committed to delivering great experiences for our guests today while continuing to look ahead at opportunities for the park’s long-term future.”
But even now, the developer has talked about moving forward with construction this year, though Kroenke has not submitted site development plans or building permit applications.
The first phase of the development — known as Headwater — could cut through the Island Kingdom waterpark on the northeastern side of Elitch’s, according to maps on the developer’s website. It would also replace much of Elitch’s parking.
Headwater was tentatively scheduled for construction in 2026 and 2027, but the developers did not respond to a request for comment this week about when it would actually take place.
What is River Mile?
River Mile is being branded as “a new city within this great city” on a promotional website.
“Being built on the site of Elitch Gardens Theme & Water Park, The River Mile offers all the advantages of a great established location: visibility, proximity and connectivity,” the website states. “It’s brand-new, yet seamlessly woven into the fabric of downtown Denver.”
It’s currently a project of billionaire Stan Kroenke’s Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, which owns the nearby Ball Arena, the Avalanche and the Nuggets, along with other sports teams around the world.
River Mile is one of the latest extensions of a larger multi-decade development of Denver’s Central Platte Valley that has included the creation of the Union Station neighborhood and will also include new entertainment and mixed-use districts around Ball Arena and the current site of Mile High Stadium, plus new housing on the Auraria Campus.
River Mile will include three planned neighborhoods: “The Banks,” just north of Meow Wolf, “The Bend” at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte, and “Headwater” adjacent to Speer Boulevard.
The project is expected to include 15,000 residential units, retail and office space and parks. The city has approved both a rezoning and a master plan , but construction could take decades to play out, and it’s happening in phases.
When will River Mile get moving?
Meow Wolf was the first River Mile project to open, back in 2021.
The city has been working since then on South Platte River restoration projects. Once that is complete, the developers will build the first River Mile neighborhood, called Headwater.
“This is the start of The River Mile,” Kroenke officials wrote. “So naturally we call it Headwater.”
Funnily enough, Headwater will be downstream, on the northeast end of the project, where parking and part of the Elitch Gardens water park now sit.
Construction was set to begin after restoration work along the nearby South Platte River was completed. A timeline on the River Mile website referred to construction in 2026 and 2027, but it’s unclear whether that timeline is current.
Headwater is slated to have 4 million square feet of office space, 1.3 million square feet of residential, 250,000 square feet of hotel space and 400,000 square feet of retail.
The developer plans to build new streets, parks, landscaping, bike lanes, wide sidewalks and an autonomous shuttle loop and provide easy access to the Ball Arena entertainment district.
The developer is also trying to attract a new company to build a large-scale office campus on the site.
