Denver committee to consider $237.5 million in park contractor pools
The proposed five-year contracts would make 15 firms available for future park work, without guaranteeing jobs or committing city funds.
Denver Parks and Recreation is asking the City Council’s Parks, Art and Culture Committee to advance 15 five-year contracts with combined ceilings of $237.5 million for future park construction and improvements. The contracts would establish pools of firms available for projects; they do not commit the city to spend the full amount or guarantee any firm work.
The committee agenda schedules consideration for Oct. 6. The department’s contract presentation lists Oct. 13 for Mayor/Council and Oct. 19 for final consideration as later steps; those are scheduled actions, not completed approvals.
The proposed capacity includes 10 contracts capped at $20 million each and five capped at $7.5 million each. Parks and Recreation selected 15 firms from 27 proposals: 10 for a prime-contractor pool with a 19% minority- and women-owned business participation requirement, and five for a Small Business Enterprise (SBE) pool. SBE contractors must perform at least 30% of the work themselves.
The 10 prime-pool firms are Colorado Designscapes, ECI Site Construction Management, Elite Industries, Fransen-Pittman Construction, Iron Woman Construction & Environmental Services, Krische Construction, Richdell Construction, Spectrum General Contractors, T2 Construction and Western States Reclamation. The five SBE firms are Bauen Studios, CPC Constructors, CTM, Halcyon Construction and Wilderness Construction. The department fact sheet says the contracts do not commit funds, guarantee work or authorize projects.
The department would use the pools as projects and funding become available and designs are approved. Its presentation says bid requests would go to at least three firms for each project. A Parks Procurement Committee would review project scope and scale, monitor contractors’ workloads and seek to distribute opportunities equitably. Work orders would authorize specific jobs and set aside funding as needed. A contractor’s maximum work order would be $6 million in the prime pool and $1.5 million in the SBE pool.
Possible 2026 and 2027 work includes City Park irrigation and “Living Land” improvements, basketball courts at Bible and Golden Key parks, playgrounds, tennis courts, lighting, trails and accessibility improvements. The department cites rising construction costs and upcoming Vibrant Denver bond work as reasons for increasing contract capacity. Individual contract requests also list Parks capital-improvement funds, Legacy funds and bond funds, but do not assign those sources to specific projects.