For years, the Santa Fe Yards has been the site where rubber meets the road for developers looking to turn the land into an urban village.

But there’s new hope for the vacant land between Interstate 25 and South Broadway as Denver looks to make the former home to the Gates Rubber Co. factory into a women’s soccer stadium district.

The Denver National Women’s Soccer League announced Tuesday it will build a 14,500-seat stadium and entertainment district on the Santa Fe Yards for the new expansion team. It’s expected to open in Spring 2028, the team said.

Denver’s Mayor Mike Johnston stated the 14-acre stadium district will transform the “underutilized eyesore” into an economic hub.

Plans call for a mixed-use development including a park, retail, restaurants and will encourage use of public transportation, the team said.

But long before that, the Santa Fe Yard was once home to Denver’s biggest employer in the 1900s and one of the largest industrial companies in the world.

The history of this site was compiled using city documents during a failed landmark preservation effort, company records and various development plans.

The roots of the Gates Rubber Co. began 1911 when Charles C. Gates bought Colorado Tire and Leather Co. in Denver for $3,500. The company is credited with inventing the rubber V-Belt, which was a revolutionary step for power transmissions.

The company became a critical supplier during both World Wars.

The Gates Rubber Co. was among the largest manufacturers of rubber goods, tires, belts, hoses and other automotive parts. It employed more than 5,500 people in Denver at its height.

In 1996, the company family sold its stake in Gates Co. to a British firm called Tomkins, PLC., according to the Gates Family Foundation website.

The company, which is still based in Denver, is currently headquartered downtown.

The Gates Co. stopped manufacturing in Denver in 1995 as it shifted its operations abroad.

The factory site had huge potential for development due to its location by I-25, Broadway, Santa Fe and Regional Transportation District rail lines. Broadway Station is the second-busiest in the city.

Yet, several proposed projects have yet to come to fruition.

Development firm Cherokee Denver, LLC. bought a 62-acre portion of the property in 2001.

The land was environmentally contaminated and needed heavy clean up. In 2003, Denver City Council and the Denver Urban Renewal Authority (DURA) approved the Cherokee Urban Renewal Area before approving a General Development Plan in 2005.

The developers had plans to clean the abandoned factory and build an urban community around the light rail. It would have included about 3,000 residential units and about 1.75 million square feet for office, retail and entertainment.

Construction was scheduled to begin in 2007, when some demolition work was done. But as the Great Recession hit, Cherokee faced financial issues and sold the property back to Gates in 2009, according to DURA.

There was an effort led by a university student in 2012 to save the remnants of the factory through historic preservation designation, which failed. The rest of the factory was demolished in 2013.

Broadway Station Partners bought the property in 2014. Dallas-based investment firm KBC announced in 2019 it partnered with BSP to build four buildings, totaling up to one million square feet, for a company headquarters on the site, retail and more than 800 residential units.

Construction was supposed to begin on the Santa Fe Yards in 2020, but then the pandemic hit.

Around the same time, Broadway Station Partners sold several acres to Austin-based Endeavor Real Estate, which set out to create a “Gates District” honoring the factory’s history and develop five buildings with a total of 965 residential units, nearly 400,000 square feet of office space and more than 130,000 square feet of retail. It has also yet to break ground.