(1) The general assembly hereby finds
and declares that:
(a) The national western stock show has been held annually in Denver for one
hundred nine years, and it provides many important benefits to the state because it:
(I) Is a showcase event for the western agricultural industry and related
industries that promotes, supports, and helps to preserve the rural western lifestyle
in our increasingly urbanized society and provides opportunities for dissemination
of agricultural industry innovations and best practices locally, regionally, nationally,
and internationally;
(II) Funds scholarships for students studying agriculture, rural medicine, and
veterinary science at institutions of higher education in the state and in Wyoming;
and
(III) Has an estimated annual economic impact to the state of about one
hundred fifteen million dollars, hosting more national-level competitions than any
other regional venue, and is considered one of the largest annual agricultural
conventions and trade shows in the United States;
(b) It is important to sustain and grow the national western stock show in
Denver for the next one hundred years so that the state can continue to realize the
benefits that it provides and additional benefits estimated to accrue from its
transformational redevelopment, which include but are not limited to:
(I) The significant economic benefit to the state that will result from the
redevelopment and transformation of the site; and
(II) The following significant economic impacts, which an economic analysis
by strategic advisory group estimates, of developing the Colorado state university
facilities at the national western center based upon the current ten-year build-out
of the site without the use of financed purchase of an asset or certificate of
participation agreements:
(A) An additional one hundred million dollars in economic impact to the state,
which the center will generate upon completion;
(B) An increase to over two million two hundred thousand in total attendance
annually;
(C) Nine hundred sixty thousand five hundred new visitors annually, forty
percent of whom will come from outside of Colorado;
(D) Three thousand nine hundred twenty construction jobs; and
(E) Five billion nine hundred million dollars in net new visitor spending over
thirty years;
(c) The existing grounds and facilities where the national western stock
show is held are currently difficult to access, poorly integrated with surrounding
neighborhoods, and functionally limited;
(d) In order to ensure that the national western stock show can remain and
thrive in Denver for the foreseeable future, and that additional, broad-based
benefits of year-round activity can be realized, the national western stock show, the
city and county of Denver, Colorado state university, the Denver museum of nature
and science, and history Colorado formed the national western center partnership;
(e) The purpose of the national western center partnership is to redevelop
and better integrate with surrounding neighborhoods the existing one hundred
thirty acres of land on and near the existing site of the Denver coliseum and
national western stock show grounds and to build and operate a new two-hundred-seventy-acre state-of-the-art, multi-purpose national western center to:
(I) House the national western stock show;
(II) Serve as a hub for year-round creative, P-20 experiential educational,
research and commercial activity that promotes, supports, and helps to preserve
the western lifestyle while highlighting innovation and global issues of health, food
systems, food security, water, and the environment; and
(III) Provide an attractive environment for additional agricultural business
and science investments that will increase other economic and workforce
development activity in the surrounding neighborhoods, encourage the
revitalization of those neighborhoods, and position the state as an agricultural
innovations cluster leader; and
(f) At least twenty-four front range cities and towns already support the
development of the national western center.
(2) The general assembly further finds and declares that:
(a) Agriculture is a forty-two billion dollar per year industry in the state,
agricultural innovation has been growing at a rate that is four times the overall
state economic growth rate, and agriculture continues to drive economic growth as
a major driver of technological advancement, patent development, and
entrepreneurship, much of which has global applicability;
(b) Colorado ranked third in the nation in federal spending on agricultural
research and development in 2011, with much of the funding being directed to
universities and United States department of agriculture laboratories on the front
range;
(c) The involvement of Colorado state university at the national western
center is a critical element of continued growth in agricultural innovation because it
will create research and development opportunities, showcase Colorado's
innovation economy on national and international stages, and create public-private
partnerships with major industries that will advance science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines and have significant economic
and scientific impact;
(d) As Colorado's land-grant university, a substantial part of Colorado state
university's educational mission is to provide agriculture-related research,
education, and outreach and support Colorado's agricultural industry, and it does so
by:
(I) Offering a wide variety of highly respected agriculture-related
undergraduate and graduate degree programs;
(II) Operating several research centers and institutes and a veterinary
teaching hospital; and
(III) Providing accurate and unbiased information to the public regarding
agriculture, gardening, nutrition, and natural resources-related topics through
Colorado state university extension and its programs;
(e) In furtherance of its mission as Colorado's land-grant university and one
of the nation's premier agricultural and veterinary institutions, Colorado state
university's focus at the national western center will be to advance academic,
research, and outreach initiatives related to the state's broad-based economy in
agriculture, food systems, health, and western culture, but it will not issue
undergraduate or graduate academic degrees from the national western center;
(f) The national western center master plan provides for an integrated
facilities program that includes a variety of facilities for Colorado state university,
including an equine sports medicine clinic, a collaborative community outreach
veterinary clinic and clinical trials center, a water resources center, and a Colorado
state university center that may include: a food systems innovation and learning
center; a Denver urban extension center; an educational urban farm with
demonstration fields; classrooms; laboratories; a test kitchen and administrative
space; and other facilities that are consistent with the national western center
master plan vision and guiding principles that may be added as the site develops. In
addition, the national western center needs support from and integration with
Colorado state university's on-campus programs that support the national western
center vision and proposed activities, including teaching, research, and outreach.
An on-campus equine veterinary teaching hospital, the Malone center for biologic
and translational therapies, and the anatomy teaching laboratory expansion or
other facilities that are supportive of activity at the national western center as the
site develops will be critically connected to the national western center project.
(g) At full build-out of the two-hundred-seventy-acre national western
center, there will be abundant opportunities for complementary co-location to
advance food production, food safety, animal health, nutrition, natural resource
conservation, and a broad range of related agricultural industries, resulting in
estimated direct employment of six thousand people and indirect employment of an
additional ten thousand people;
(h) The national western center's centralized location relative to the state's
main population centers and its relationship to the state's greatest concentration of
agricultural production, commodity processing, and food manufacturing to the
north, including but not limited to the availability of a skilled workforce pipeline and
proximity to several public and private universities, will help it drive future
agricultural innovations; and
(i) It is necessary, appropriate, and in the best interests of the state to
authorize the state, acting by and through the state treasurer, to enter into financed
purchase of an asset or certificate of participation agreements for the purpose of
providing financing for the construction of facilities for Colorado state university at
the national western center and on-campus affiliated facilities, and such financing
is contingent upon approval, through established state executive and legislative
branch capital construction project review and approval processes, of specific
projects to be financed and the voters of the city and county of Denver approving
an extension of the lodging and car rental taxes or another similar tax, which would
generate necessary funding for the national western center. Further, it is in the best
interests of the state to accelerate the development of the Colorado state
university educational facilities resulting in the following economic benefits to the
state:
(I) The state will realize the economic impact of the national western center
sooner;
(II) Overall facility costs will be reduced if design and construction is started
sooner; and
(III) Overall facility costs will also be reduced by taking advantage of
historically low interest rates that are currently available.