South Broadway Built Its Own Year Before the Stadium Arrived
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
Shovels went into the old Gates Rubber Co. site at Broadway and I-25 on Thursday, Oct. 1. There was a Native American land blessing, fireworks, a green smoke plume and the band from the 14ers Supporters Group, according to The Denver Post. Denver Summit FC's permanent home is a roughly $200 million building paid for by owner Rob Cohen's group. The City of Denver is putting in up to $70 million for land and site preparation.
Read the schedule closely and the stadium barely reaches South Broadway this winter or next. Every change a Baker resident could actually point to in 2026 came from somewhere else. A ski factory opened a bar. A Louisville dumpling shop picked Broadway for its second location. A French restaurant built a listening room in its basement. A cocktail bar that opened during the pandemic closed two days before Westword's Oct. 24 roundup ran.
The groundbreaking was the start of a long series of dates, and most of them land after 2027.
| What | Status as of late October 2026 | Expected |
|---|---|---|
| Stadium construction | Underway since Oct. 1 | Completion targeted for end of 2028 |
| First Summit FC season at Santa Fe Yards | Undecided | Late 2028 or the 2029 season |
| Pedestrian bridge from RTD's I-25 & Broadway station | $5.3 million approved in August | Design in 2027, finished by 2029 or 2030 |
| Community investment fund | Written into the benefits agreement | First $400,000 in 2027, then $300,000 a year from 2028 |
| Vanderbilt Park East | Planned to start in fall 2026 | Opening date not yet announced |
The opening year depends on which outlet you read. Denverite's groundbreaking story gave 2028. The Colorado Sun expects the building ready for the 2029 season. Cohen told The Denver Post that moving fans into a new building for only one or two late-season games "might make us opt for a '29 opening." The team moved venues three times this year.
The bridge is the piece Baker and the Westside will feel most directly once it exists. Council approved the money in August, with $4 million coming from a state transit-oriented grant and $1.3 million from the city, Denverite reported. The full bridge is estimated at $20 million to $23 million. Councilmember Flor Alvidrez told council it would link the Broadway station "directly to the stadium and to housing, businesses, parks, and the South Platte River Trail."
The 14-acre Santa Fe Yards plan also includes a 3.5-acre recreational park and later mixed-use buildings with housing and restaurants. Through 2027 and 2028, that is a fenced construction site.
The stretch of Broadway nearest the stadium site was already drawing people before anyone broke ground, and none of it was built around soccer.
The Couloir opened to the public on April 10 inside the Meier Skis factory at 1775 S. Broadway in Overland. It's a 1,500-square-foot taphouse with local craft beer, Colorado wines and no-frills cocktails. From the bar you can see into the press room where ski graphics are fused onto fiberglass. Meier spokesperson Michelle Kidd Eynon told The Denver Post the idea was après-ski without the drive home: "We think Denver is a ski town. We're just a little further from the mountains." By the time ski season is in full swing, the bar will have been open for about eight months.
Good Luck Club opened at 1350 S. Broadway on April 2. South of I-25, King Dumpling II opened June 29 at 2160 S. Broadway. It serves potstickers, wontons and baos made fresh daily, in the former Bacon Social House next to the SoBo Shops at the Ella Building. Its neighbors there are Anna's Donuts & Burritos, Taste of Thailand, Joyce Pizza and the Maison Shelby patisserie. Owner Yuki Jiang told Westword it took her more than a year to find a Denver location.
None of these operators cited the stadium. They opened on a corridor that already had foot traffic, a ski factory and an established food cluster at the Ella Building.
Up in Baker, between 1st Avenue and the first blocks south of Ellsworth, the 2026 openings leaned toward rooms you have to know about.
Vaultaire opened March 12 beneath La Forêt at 38 South Broadway. It's a cellar-style listening bar built around an analog hi-fi system. The team behind it is Guest Floor Management, which also runs the Tatarian and Union Lodge No. 1. At opening it ran Thursday through Saturday from 6 p.m.
Adventure Time took over a long-vacant space at 101 Broadway in January, with a dinosaur skull over the door. It's an immersive bar with rotating themes, starting with "Neon City." The cocktail menu includes a gin fizz served on a plate and a French onion martini topped with charred Parmesan. It launched with Thursday through Saturday evening hours. Check before you go, since themes and schedules rotate.
Go Fish Sushi at 1 Broadway appeared on Westword's August openings list as a reopening.
The one loss came on Oct. 22. The L at 46 Broadway served its last night after nearly six years in a former pet food store. The bar signed its lease in September 2019 and couldn't open until January 2021 because of postponed liquor license hearings. The building's next use hasn't been announced.
In early October the neighborhood also showed it can fill its own calendar. Baker's first PorchFest on Oct. 3 put nearly 200 bands on 84 porches, Westword reported. That's a front-yard music festival organized at the scale of a whole neighborhood, on the same weekend the stadium story was everywhere.
This is the corridor as it actually runs for the next several weeks, from the Mayan south.
Punch Bowl Social at 65 Broadway runs weekly Music Bingo, karaoke and trivia. Its trivia night is listed differently in different places, so check before you plan around it. The Baker Historic Neighborhood Association holds a holiday party in December. As of late October, the date hadn't been posted to its calendar.
The first stadium dollars earmarked for nearby neighborhoods flow through a community benefits agreement signed between the team's operator and West East Neighborhoods United. That coalition represents groups including the Baker Historic Neighborhood Organization, the Lincoln/Broadway Corridor RNO, Overland Park RNO, the Platt Park People's Association and the West Washington Park Neighborhood Association. The agreement text lists the fund's priorities as youth programs, housing stability, small businesses, tree planting, arts and culture, transportation safety and community organizations. The first $400,000 is due in 2027, within 30 days of either the stadium's vertical-construction permit or March 31, 2027, whichever comes later. Annual contributions of at least $300,000 start in 2028.
Until then, South Broadway's 2026 changes are the ones you can see from the sidewalk: a bar inside a ski factory at 1775, a dumpling counter at 2160, a listening room under La Forêt, a dinosaur skull over 101 Broadway, and an empty storefront at 46 Broadway where The L used to be.
Video is how we show a street like this to buyers who haven't walked it yet: the Mayan's marquee, the Couloir's view into the press room, the Ella Building's food lineup. If you live near South Broadway and want to know how this year's openings and the stadium timeline could figure into your home's story when you're ready to sell, Ryan Haarer can walk you through it. Book a consultation.
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