Denver, CO
Opinion: Polis’ property tax fix is a bad deal for Colorado taxpayers
Colorado is still facing a property tax crisis of historic proportions.
Runaway growth in property values caused by a lack of housing supply, growing demand from population increases, and 20-years’ worth of cheap money policy from the Federal Reserve have caused a perfect storm of escalating home values. As home assessed values grow so do taxes triggering property tax increases in all corners of our state.
Just how significant is this year’s property tax increase? An economist at the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business warned that new property tax costs to homeowners could impact consumer spending and cause an economic slowdown.
For the fourth time in as many years, the Colorado legislature has enacted a complicated new law intended to address this problem.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that these Golden Dome political compromises have continued to miss the mark.
Last year, the legislature’s grand agreement on property tax was Proposition HH, a slick-sounding plan that repackaged refunds already owed to taxpayers and called them property tax relief. At the same time, the plan grabbed an even larger sum of taxpayer refunds to spend on public education. While clever, the plan didn’t stand up to scrutiny — there was no real tax relief in it — and the voters defeated HH in a landslide.
This year, the legislature is back with a different inside-the-Capitol deal. While it is better than Proposition HH, and we credit those who fought to get some property tax relief on the business side, the package is still a woefully inadequate response for homeowners being crushed by soaring property taxes.
Rather than materially reducing taxes that homeowners pay, this year’s version of a grand bargain actually increases the total effective property tax rate from 6.3% this year to 6.8%. For the property taxes paid to our schools, the legislature’s agreement would increase the property tax rate even more — to 7.1%.
As with Proposition HH last year, this year’s agreement is a blatant attempt to dress-up an education tax increase in the clothes of property tax relief. It’s insincere. If the legislature wants to increase taxes for our schools, all it must do is ask the voters. To come back with a different variation of the same ploy that voters rejected less than one year ago is equal parts disappointing and disingenuous.
This is only the beginning of the problems with the property tax agreement.
The agreement purports to put a cap on property tax collections at 5.5%. The problem is that the limit wouldn’t apply to local government borrowing or debt, it wouldn’t apply to many (and maybe even most) districts who have already raised their property tax limits, and it would do little to slow the surging increases caused by growing home values.
Here again, it looks like the legislature is trying to snooker the public into believing they implemented a 5.5% cap when what they really enacted was a property tax cap riddled with loopholes and exceptions.
Other concerns with the legislative deal are many — notably, the deal takes us down the road of taxing homes worth more than $700,000 as if they were mansions owned by millionaires. In many parts of the state, a $700,000 home is below the median cost.
One good aspect of the agreement is that it would reduce the state’s commercial property taxes, a badly needed step after the Gallagher Amendment punished businesses with higher property taxes for decades. But even this raises a question: Why would the legislature address the impacts of soaring property taxes for businesses but ignore those same impacts on everyday homeowners?
For all these reasons, we are enthusiastic supporters of ballot measures that would legitimately reduce property taxes and in a way that balances the legitimate needs of state and local governments. The business community has stuck to its guns in demanding sensible property tax relief, and the voters will get the chance to deliver that this November.
Some interest groups claim that the modest property tax cuts in the ballot measures would cause budget calamity. This is not true. Reducing the rate of growth in state and local budgets is not a cut, a fact that savvy Colorado voters will recognize immediately.
What’s more, these ballot measures actually prevent state government from cutting public education, and the initiatives would require the state of Colorado to fund local services like firefighters, water, and local social safety net programs funded by property taxes.
The truth is, we can implement meaningful property tax relief and fund the government services the public needs.
Tim Foster, an attorney at Coleman & Quigley, is the former President of Colorado Mesa University and Director of Colorado Department of Higher Education. He also served as the Majority Leader of the Colorado House of Representatives. Jan Kulmann, a Professional Engineer, is in her second term as the Mayor of Thornton. She also serves as vice chair of the Rocky Flats Stewardship Council and is a member of the North I-25 Coalition.
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Denver, CO
How much are Denver Broncos worth after Seahawks’ reported $9.6 billion sale?
Imagine, for a moment, that you have somehow become lucky enough to own a house in an incredibly valuable, isolated neighborhood of 31 other homes. Imagine, now, that your longtime neighbors see shifting life circumstances and decide to move out of their home. And imagine, finally, that a new family gets giddy over that “For Sale” sign and decides to repeatedly outbid competitors to pay top dollar for that house.
Naturally, the value of your neighboring home would rise. This, according to sports-business expert Patrick Rishe, is analogous to the current economic case of the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks — separated by slightly over 1,000 miles across the American West but approximate neighbors in sheer franchise value.
“When a franchise sells, it really kind of resets the market almost instantly for all the other markets,” said Rishe, a former Forbes contributor and the director of the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis.
How Seahawks’ sale boosts Broncos
Last weekend, as first reported by ESPN, the Seahawks were bought by a group led by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla for a league-record-setting $9.6 billion, a number longtime sports-valuation expert Drew Dormeiler told The Post was likely inflated due to “competitive bidding.” Just four years ago, the Walton-Penner ownership group bought the Broncos at less than half that price, for a then-record $4.65 billion. Valuation of an NFL franchise isn’t merely as simple as projecting off established price points — but several economic experts The Post spoke with agreed the Walton-Penner’s investment in the Broncos has seen massive appreciation since their 2022 purchase.
And Denver’s franchise valuation could rise comfortably into the top third of the NFL, too, if ownership’s plans for a new mixed-use stadium district at Burnham Yard come to fruition in the coming decade.
“The math on that is, what something is worth is what someone’s willing to pay,” Rishe said. “And the Broncos aren’t going to go on the market anytime soon, obviously. But I would say that it’s safe to say that the team’s new franchise value at this particular moment, is going to be pretty close to 9.6 billion, because they were viewed in the marketplace as being comparable in terms of market size and brand strength relative to the Seahawks.”
In 2025, Forbes ranked the Broncos No. 13 and Seahawks No. 14 in NFL team valuations, at a respective estimated $6.8 and $6.7 billion. Neighbors. And it takes just a basic understanding of real-estate principles, as Rishe pointed, to understand what that means for Denver’s franchise.
“For the Seahawks to sell for 9.6 billion,” Rishe said, “this immediately skyrockets the Broncos’ franchise value compared to the estimate Forbes produced last year.”
| Year | NFL franchise | Majority owner | Reported purchase price (billions) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Seattle Seahawks | The Khoslas | $9.61 |
| 2023 | Washington Commanders | Josh Harris | $6.05 |
| 2022 | Denver Broncos | Walton-Penner Group | $4.65 |
| 2018 | Carolina Panthers | David Tepper | $2.28 |
| 2014 | Buffalo Bills | The Pegulas | $1.40 |
| 2012 | Cleveland Browns | Jimmy Haslam | $1.05 |
| 2011 | Jacksonville Jaguars | Shad Khan | $0.76 |
In the last 15 years — since Stan Kroenke became the controlling owner of the Rams in 2010 and Shad Khan took over the Jaguars in 2011 for similar, sub-$1 billion prices — NFL franchises have compounded exponentially in sale value. According to decorated economist Andrew Zimbalist, there are three general points contributing to this inflation: the country’s ever-widening wealth disparity, the popularity of the NFL, and the league’s monopoly on the sport of American football.
That last point is key. Rishe noted that franchise revenues from broadcast and corporate partnerships and ticket sales can increase “only so much,” but valuations continue to increase because the NFL itself hasn’t expanded in size since adding the Houston Texans in 2002.
“Demand grows,” said Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College, “but the scarcity of franchises remains there all the time.”
The power of the stadium
There remains, however, drastic gaps between the 32 teams on the totem pole of NFL valuations. And the Seattle sale doesn’t single-handedly lift the Broncos past other franchises; a rising tide lifts all boats, after all. But even as franchise upside is capped by sheer market size — Denver is somewhere around the 20th-largest city in the country by population — several factors in the coming years could contribute to the Walton-Penner group climbing the ranks.
The Broncos, of course, are regaining brand value from last year’s run to the AFC Championship Game, which creates more opportunities for corporate partnerships. Most importantly, too, franchise valuations are based in large part on the value of a team’s current stadium situation — and the Broncos are now aiming for a modern, owner-controlled gem of mixed-use development at Burnham Yard.

“Expectations have just changed over the past 10 to 15 years, with these newer stadiums that have been built,” Broncos owner Greg Penner told The Denver Post in September, with the team’s preferred-site announcement. We’ll be able to provide all those things as well, from different types of seating — GA, premier, clubs, great (food and beverage). It will have all the bells and whistles.”
That is, naturally, framed as a benefit for fans. It is also, quietly, a direct benefit to Broncos ownership, a group that branches from the richest family in America. All but one team in the top 10 of Forbes’ NFL-valuation list, as Rishe pointed out, boasts some robust combination of market size and historical brand appeal: the top-ranked Cowboys, the fourth-ranked Patriots, the New York Giants and Jets.
All, except for ninth-ranked Las Vegas. So why the Raiders? Because of Vegas’s shining Allegiant Stadium, which hosted a Super Bowl in just its fourth NFL season after opening in 2020.
“Shows you,” Rishe said, “the power of the stadium.”

The Broncos’ Burnham Yard development, in coming years, could single-handedly propel the franchise into a top-10 or top-12 valuation despite Denver’s mid-tier market size, Rishe said. And it’s in the Walton-Penner group’s own interest, as experts told The Post, to further make good on their investment by delivering a stadium district they’ve already spent more than $186 million on just in surrounding real-estate transactions.
“It seems to me like there would be a wider — more real estate assets involved in what’s planned for Denver than what exists in Seattle, that are contiguous to the stadium,” said Dorweiler, who has had a direct hand in franchise valuation for acquisitions across American sports for four decades. “So, yeah, I think that’s real.
“Plus, take into account this is still 2031 … I think most people would expect there to be a significant increase in valuation, even if nothing was done at all between now and then,” Dorweiler continued. “So you’re definitely getting up into the double digits of billions I think for, certainly Denver, and probably many other of the leading franchises.”
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Denver, CO
Kalshi Promo Code DENVER: Secure $10 Bonus for Saturday MLB Games – Denver Stiffs
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Kalshi Promo Code DENVER Unlocks $10 Bonus
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Saturday MLB Options
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Denver, CO
Former strip club owner selling Castle Pines mansion for $8M
Troy Lowrie, the Denver entrepreneur who built and then sold a portfolio of strip clubs across six states, is selling his Castle Pines mansion because he says the house deserves an owner who will be there full time.
Lowrie and his wife, Tenicia, are asking $7.8 million for the 11,147-square-foot home, which overlooks the 12th hole of Castle Pines Golf Club. The couple bought the property in 2022 for $6.3 million after selling their longtime Golden mansion for $6.4 million.
Jerome and Mary Kern built the home in 2008. Jerome Kern, who died in 2024, was a telecommunications attorney and philanthropist widely credited with rescuing the Colorado Symphony from bankruptcy in 2011.
The five-bedroom, seven-bathroom home was designed by BOSS Architecture and Semple Brown Design and named Home of the Year by Colorado Homes & Lifestyles magazine in 2012. It has a Castle Rock address because it’s in an incorporated part of Douglas County, just outside Castle Pines limits.
The Lowries weren’t in the market when they stumbled on it.
“We had already bought land in Sedalia and were planning to build,” Troy Lowrie said.
But then they walked through Albion Place. “It’s impossible to build something like this now. The concrete alone would cost at least $3 million,” he said.
Lowrie said the grounds hooked him, especially the year-round heated pools, the glass-walled garden studio and tea house, the koi pond with cascading waterfalls, fire features, and mature 250-foot pine trees on the 1.11-acre lot.
“You feel like you’re in the mountains,” he said.
The home blends centuries-old materials with a modern aesthetic. A 16th-century granite fireplace mantel anchors one room; a 17th-century marble mantel anchors another. Walls of glass throughout dissolve the boundary between inside and out, and a dramatic gallery-style entry opens to soaring ceilings.
After moving in, the Lowries put their own stamp on the home.
Tenicia Lowrie overhauled the kitchen, adding a pizza oven, a full-size refrigerator and freezer, a larger range and a warming oven.
She also updated her bathroom in the primary suite. Step 1: removing an empty fish tank from the shower.
“It looked like a hospital, not a home,” Tenicia Lowrie said. She converted it into a spa-inspired bath, with lighting that mimics falling raindrops.
They added a massage table to the tea house, already a meditative retreat.
Troy Lowrie said there’s room downstairs to add a golf simulator — though he admits he’s not much of a golfer. He plays pickleball and tennis.
“This house probably should belong to someone who plays golf,” he said.
The primary suite is a particular favorite. In addition to double baths and walk-in closets, it includes a sitting area with a television and couch — something Troy Lowrie was initially skeptical about.
“Now I couldn’t live without it,” he said.
The suite also has a small kitchen, and when they are home, the couple admits they often spend most of their time there. Tenicia Lowrie said she already knows she’ll miss her walk-in closet.
The retired couple plan to stay in Florida full time. Tenicia Lowrie is a co-founder of Lucy Sky Cannabis Boutique, a retail cannabis shop.
They have been splitting their time between Colorado and Florida, and if they could, Tenicia Lowrie said they would take their house with them.
During one of their extended absences, a bear got into the koi pond and ate all the fish.
“We feel like we’re cheating the house by only being here four months out of the year,” Troy Lowrie said. “It deserves a full-time caretaker.”
Listing agent Christine Malara with Compass-Denver said the home in the gated community likely will appeal to an executive or an athlete. Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix owns a home nearby.
Although the home feels secluded, it sits near Interstate 25. Denver Tech Center is about 15 minutes away, Dove Valley is 24 minutes, and Denver International Airport is 35 minutes away.
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