Denver's Montbello Open Space Park Officially Opens

DENVER, CO — Denver's Montbello neighborhood is celebrating a newly-opened, 5.5-acre park that includes a climbing boulder, art features and an improved wildlife habitat landscape.

Community leaders hosted Wednesday the official opening of the Montbello Open Space Park and groundbreaking for the ELK Education Center, at East 46th Avenue and Albrook Drive, near Peoria Street and Interstate 70 in the heart of the northeast Denver neighborhood.

The open space project restored 4.5 acres of undeveloped parkland, which was designed to mimic the native short-grass prairie ecosystem, parks officials said. Green infrastructure techniques improve storm water flow, enhance water and environmental quality, and encourage the growth of wildlife habitat in the arid urban landscape.

The open space features native play areas, a climbing boulder funded by The North Face and art features that were designed and constructed by Chevo Studios.

“The creation of the natural open space significantly increases outdoor recreational and environmental education opportunities for the entire community,” said Happy Haynes, executive director of Denver Parks and Recreation.

“The education facility will provide greatly needed programs that introduce underserved youth and their families to nature all within a 10-minute walk of their homes.”

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The ELK Education Center will have indoor and outdoor multipurpose areas for educational programming, office space and storage, parks officials said. The building has been designed to compliment the landscape with the textures and colors of the surrounding restored prairie land.

“The Montbello Open Space & ELK Education Center will transform this neighborhood, providing an under-resourced and diverse urban community environmental, educational, and health benefits for many generations to come,” said Loretta Pineda, executive director of ELK.

“The project brought together diverse and highly committed supporters across so many sectors – government, energy, conservation and business and the outdoor recreation industry. This shows that together, we find common ground in the work that we do to raise our young people and community.”

The Trust for Public Land organization purchased the 5.5-acre property in 2012 to secure the site and prevent it from being developed into a 12-story commercial building. The land was transferred to the city in 2014 using funds raised by the organization, ELK and Denver Parks and Recreation.