May 9—An 8,000-seat outdoor amphitheater planned for northern Colorado Springs is slated to get two major additions: a $35 million, year-round restaurant and event center that would host weddings, corporate meetings and other gatherings and more on-site parking to reduce the need for concert-goers to use satellite lots.
Notes Live, the Springs-based entertainment company that's proposed The Sunset amphitheater, has begun moving dirt and preparing the site — though it hasn't yet launched construction — in anticipation of a summer 2024 opening for the venue. It's to be built at the 200-acre Polaris Pointe retail and commercial development, southeast of Interstate 25 and North Gate Boulevard and home to stores, restaurants and entertainment uses.
The company received approval from the Colorado Springs City Council in January for the amphitheater, which Notes Live officials predict will draw top-name concerts and entertainment acts from around the country and rival open-air venues Red Rocks and Fiddler's Green in the Denver area.
Upscale amenities such as VIP stadium seating and luxury fireplace suites, which would look out to a scenic mountain backdrop, would make The Sunset one of the nation's premier entertainment destinations and allow Springs-area residents to stay home for concerts and shows instead of driving to Denver, company officials have said.
After the council's approval, a Notes Live limited liability company in March paid nearly $14.7 million to purchase 14.4 acres at Polaris Pointe, where the amphitheater would be built, El Paso County land records show. The land was purchased from a company controlled by Polaris Pointe developer Gary Erickson of Colorado Springs, who's supported The Sunset project.
The amphitheater cost, which Notes Live officials originally pegged at $40 million, is now closer to $45 million to $46 million, J.W. Roth, the company founder, chairman and CEO, said this week. That's a separate price tag from the restaurant and event center building.
As envisioned, the restaurant and event center will have 45,000 square feet on three levels and be constructed on the east edge of the amphitheater property, behind the venue's seating bowl and lawn seating. Previous Notes Live plans showed a row of restaurant buildings on the east side of the amphitheater site; the newest version shows what Roth calls a "massive" single building.
A document submitted to city government planners shows the building's first two enclosed levels would have a 10,000-square-foot restaurant to be called Roth's Seafood & Chophouse; a 5,000-square-foot bar named Brohan's; and 15,000 square feet of multiuse event space for weddings, corporate functions, trade shows, galas and the like. A third-level rooftop terrace would have another 15,000 square feet.
The restaurant and event center would operate separately from the amphitheater and host diners and gatherings throughout the year, Roth said. The building also would have its own parking, separate from any spaces provided for the amphitheater, he said.
The building, which Roth said has been in the works for two years, would be the final piece of what he calls his north side hospitality collection.
At Polaris Pointe, he also operates the Boot Barn Hall at Bourbon Brothers, a 1,000-seat indoor venue that hosts smaller concerts and other events; the Bourbon Brothers Smokehouse & Tavern restaurant; and Notes, a bar that opened last year and replaced the now-shuttered Buttermilk Breakfast & Burgers restaurant.
"The Sunset amphitheater is the fourth piece of the collection, and then the final piece of the collection, which has always been sort of the cherry on top of the entire collection, was the new hospitality (facility) that we're building out there," Roth said.
"It's something that Colorado Springs doesn't have, in a sense," he said. "It's been on my bucket list, probably the No. 1 thing on my bucket list. I'm super excited about it."
Roth said the restaurant and event center would open in summer 2024, though not necessarily at the same time as the amphitheater itself. The amphitheater, he said, is targeted to open in June of next year.
"It better open in June of 2024," he said of The Sunset. "I can't tell you who, but we're lining up shows as we speak."
The City Council's green light in January for the amphitheater didn't come without controversy, however.
Many homeowners argued noise from the outdoor venue would disrupt their homes and family lives, while they also said they feared traffic congestion on event nights and unwanted parking by concert-goers in their neighborhoods.
The restaurant and event center complex will be built on a hill and look down to the amphitheater stage that will be constructed on the west edge of Spectrum Loop, which rings the venue site in Polaris Pointe; the building's elevated position on the property, along with sound walls extending from its north and south sides, will serve as a barrier to help block noise, Roth said.
Notes Live also plans a series of other mitigation measures to control sound and keep it below city limits in residential areas — though homeowners who objected to the project told the City Council they doubt those measures will work effectively.
While amphitheater noise arguably was the No. 1 concern among nearby homeowners, parking was close behind.
For the 8,000-seat venue, Notes Live was required under city code to provide 2,000 parking spaces.
Notes Live originally said it would have 216 permanent on-site spaces and 500 more in a temporary lot at Polaris Pointe that would serve the venue for at least two years. The city also allowed on-street parking along Spectrum Loop that would create 469 spaces for concert-goers and 30 more for ride-sharing vehicles.
Notes Live also contracted with nearby Polaris Pointe retailer Bass Pro Shops to use 195 of its parking spaces on concert nights. The company also contracted to lease 475 spaces at The Classical Academy school and 1,167 at the Compassion International ministry, which run along Voyager Parkway to the south of the amphitheater site. Shuttles would carry concert-goers to the amphitheater from those lots, while Bass Pro is close enough for walking to the venue.
Homeowners, however, said Notes Live relied too much on those satellite lots and didn't provide enough on-site parking. They worried concert-goers would park in their neighborhoods and walk to the amphitheater site, clogging their streets and creating disruptions when they return late at night after a show ends.
Now, Roth said he's shifted gears.
He said he's acquired an additional 5 acres just east of the amphitheater site in Polaris Pointe and will build a 780-space, permanent on-site parking lot that will take the place of the 500-space temporary lot. He also has acquired another acre just south of the amphitheater stage area, on the south side of Spectrum Loop, that will have room for 130 permanent spaces.
Paperwork seeking city government approval for those lots will be filed shortly, said Robert Mudd, Notes Live's president and chief operating officer.
The new parking areas — combined with the original on-site spaces, street parking along Spectrum Loop and the Bass Pro lot — would provide about 1,800 on-site or nearby parking spaces, Roth said.
If needed, Roth said he still has contracts in place for off-site parking at The Classical Academy and Compassion International.
But he said he's continuing to work to acquire more parking closer to the amphitheater and further reduce the need to use the school and Compassion lots. He hopes to have more news about parking soon.
"At the end of the day, what I'm trying to do is shrink the size of the footprint of off-site parking," Roth said. "As I shrink the size of the footprint of off-site parking, my whole goal is to bring that footprint down and down and down.
"I want people to know, I took it seriously and I've spent millions of dollars additional that I didn't have to spend," he said about neighborhood complaints about a lack of on-site parking. "I spent millions of dollars that I didn't have to spend to make my commitment to the neighborhood, which is to be a good neighbor the best way I can."
