"That's our nest egg, our financial instrument that is going to be very useful to us in the future." Trustee John Leonard said this at the Oct. 6 Morrison town board meeting, as reported by the Canyon Courier. He was talking about 16 acres on the east side of town, nearest Morrison Road, on what used to be Bandimere Speedway.
That night the board chose to keep that nest egg and develop it with a partner. It turned down a cash offer that came with a plan its backers said was ready to go. The vote gives Morrison more say in what gets built at its front door. It also means the grocery store, hotel and entertainment venue in the pitch now depend on a series of approvals, and the first one is out of the town's hands.
What the board chose on Oct. 6
The town approved a pre-development agreement with Red Rocks Gateway LLC, a newly formed group led by Nick Larson, a lawyer and principal in Boulder-based Bear Peak Development. The agreement makes the group Morrison's preferred developer for the site. In the Oct. 6 agenda packet, the project is described as an anchor grocery, anchor lodging, and complementary retail and commercial uses.
At the same meeting, the board turned down a competing offer from a hometown company that owns the land next door. Here are the two proposals side by side, as the Canyon Courier described them:
| Red Rocks Gateway | Bear Creek Development Corp. | |
|---|---|---|
| Deal type | Partnership; town stays involved as future landowner | $5.5 million purchase, with the town as land use authority |
| Proposed uses | Grocery store, hotel, entertainment venue | Retail, hotel, family entertainment, residential, outdoor recreation |
| Housing | None; strictly commercial | Scaled back from 400 units to 50 |
| Open space | Not specified | About 34 acres |
| Ties to the site | Newly formed for this project | Owns 47 adjoining acres, about 20 of them buildable |
The difference that mattered most was housing. The board had already objected this year to the density in Bear Creek's earlier proposal. Even at 50 units, the Bear Creek plan still included homes, and Red Rocks Gateway offered to keep the project strictly commercial, as Larson said the town had asked. Bear Creek's Ross Bradley told the board his company was "about 365 days ahead of anybody else on this."
The vote carried with one dissent. Leonard, who also asked the Gateway team questions about revenue and cost sharing that it couldn't yet answer, wanted to table both proposals for more study.
The order things have to happen in
The Canyon Courier opened its coverage with "You can almost hear the bulldozers idling in Morrison." The agreement explains why they're still idling. It approves no site plan, subdivision, rezoning or other entitlement. Here is the order it lays out:
- Copart's plans clear review. The 16 acres are expected to pass to the town after the final plat for the neighboring Copart parcel is approved. When the Canyon Courier covered the vote, Copart's site development plan was still under review.
- Morrison takes title. The agreement's deadlines are paused until the town owns the land, so the planning clock doesn't really start until then.
- A financing plan comes together. Larson told the board that financing could take time.
- The town decides on an urban renewal authority. Once the financing plan exists, the parties decide whether one is needed. Creating one, and any plan under it, stays at the town board's discretion and goes through the process state law requires.
Rezoning, site plans and the rest of the normal approvals come after those steps. Bradley's "365 days ahead" line was about this sequence. A sale would have handed the land and much of the waiting to a buyer. Under the partnership, Morrison will keep the land once it receives title, and it goes through every step itself.
Copart's plan has to clear first
The first step depends on a company most of Morrison knows only as the new owner of the drag strip. Copart, an online auto auction company, asked the town in 2024 to annex and zone roughly 124 acres. Racing at Bandimere had ended in October 2023. According to the application narrative on the town's site, the site would be an online vehicle auction center with short-term vehicle storage and administrative work, and few customers coming on site.
Copart got annexation, and in return the town was promised the 16 acres closest to Morrison Road. The 2024 annexation passed 4–3, and Colorado Community Media's coverage of that hearing reported that the residents who spoke backed annexation and Copart while still regretting the loss of Bandimere.
So the race-day crowds that once filled the east side have been replaced by an operation that expects little public traffic, plus a 16-acre parcel promised to the town that hasn't changed hands yet. The narrative also mentions possible future retail on the Bandimere parcels that were already inside Morrison, separate from Copart's annexed operations site.
Bandimere's new track has a long approval list too
For anyone who still wonders where the speedway went, the Bandimere family is working through its own approvals northeast of Denver. In April 2026, the Hudson Town Council unanimously approved annexation and zoning for about 1,100 acres near Interstate 76 and Colorado 52. On Aug. 6, 2026, The Denver Post reported that the family was preparing a formal site development plan, the next step before construction.
Hudson Town Manager Bryce Lange told the Post that the project comes down to traffic, water and wastewater. Studies have to show that nearby roads and town systems can handle a race day. The Post said dirt work could begin in 2027 if reviews stay on schedule. Both sites are in the same position, with plans on paper and engineering reviews still to come.
How it connects to Bear Creek Avenue
The developer's pitch is aimed at downtown as much as at the east side. Larson described what he said residents had asked for, as quoted by the Canyon Courier:
"A grocery store residents can walk to, a hotel that fills the restaurants and shops on Bear Creek Avenue, and a real connection to downtown."
He also said "a grocer and a hotel support the town's budget, its staff, and its services every single year." For a town this small, ongoing sales and lodging revenue is the reason Leonard called the land a nest egg instead of a one-time payment.
Downtown business owners are already investing in the same traffic. Kiki's Health Cafe, known in Evergreen for poke and açaí bowls, coffee and smoothies, planned a November opening for its second location at 300 Bear Creek Avenue. The building was originally designed as Morrison's post office. Owners Tiffani and Rand Packer also own La Rocca Rossa, the steakhouse across the street, and Tiffani Packer told the Canyon Courier the two will be "the bookends of the restaurant scene down there."
The Morrison menu is set to be bigger than Evergreen's:
- A drive-through with a limited menu, which the Evergreen location doesn't have
- A full coffee bar
- More grab-and-go options, including pre-made grain bowls and breakfast burritos
- Gelato on the full menu inside
Packer explained the choice of location with the same factors the gateway pitch relies on: concertgoers headed to Red Rocks, locals on day trips, easy access off C-470, and few healthy options nearby. The Red Rocks calendar on the town's website runs into the holidays, with Christmas in Color at 5:30 p.m. each evening from Nov. 27 through Dec. 1. A hotel and grocery on the east side would bring more of that traffic to downtown, once the land actually belongs to the town.
Morrison's regular town board meetings on Dec. 1 and Dec. 15 are the place to follow the next steps on the gateway parcel. If you own on the east side, near Bear Creek Avenue, or anywhere these plans could reach, and you want to talk through what a grocery, hotel or long approval timeline might mean for your plans, Denver Does It is glad to walk through it with you and connect you with the right local professionals. Start With Us.
