Vibrant Denver projects approved by voters set to begin this week, mayor says

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston gathered with city leaders on Wednesday morning outside the McNichols Civic Center Building to celebrate voters approving the Vibrant Denver bond. The package totalling $950 million could change the landscape of the city.

The bond package was split up into five separate measures on the ballot. The money will be allocated to nearly 60 capital infrastructure projects throughout the city, including $70 million towards the buildout of the newly opened Park Hill Park.  

During the news conference, Johnston said work on the first project will begin Thursday at the Sam Sandos Westside Family Health Center. That's where $20 million from the bond will be used to renovate the nearly 60-year-old health clinic. 

The City of Denver said 47% of the entire bond will go toward transportation and mobility, bridges and safety improvements. That includes transforming roadways near the site of the proposed new Denver Broncos stadium. 

Other projects include $75 million toward a first responder and public safety training center, more than $39 million toward backstage expansion and accessibility improvements at Red Rocks, and $32 million in affordable housing development.

Johnston said all of the projects will be open to the public in the next six years. 

"Inside this package of 90 very big ideas are a lot of big local dreams that have been waiting for a long time, and so, for me, the biggest excitement is we now get to press 'go' on all of these things that Denverites want, and they're all going to be what I call places of joy," said Johnston. 

Johnston said early next year, the city will create a dashboard to keep the public up to date on the progress of all of the bond projects, along with completion dates.