The master-planned Tributary community being built on church-owned land in Aurora, CO, will include housing for 12,000 residents.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) is developing a nearly 1,000-acre master-planned community in the shadow of Denver International Airport as it expands its real estate portfolio spanning multiple states.
Dubbed Tributary, the new neighborhood will rise in the Denver suburb of Aurora, CO, at the intersection of Interstate 70 and Harvest Road.
Planned around First Creek, the community is designed to ultimately house more than 12,000 residents across nearly 4,900 single-family homes, along with multifamily complexes and rental units, as the Denver Post reported, citing a presentation by a senior city planner speaking before the Planning and Zoning Committee in May.
The master plan also includes seven parks, a school, a fire station, a retail center anchored by a King Soopers supermarket, and multiple mixed-use commercial spaces. The water to Tributary will be provided by the City of Aurora.
"Friendly and full of life, Tributary invites residents to jump in with both feet. Its dynamic nature and innate sense of movement creates moments of both rest and rejuvenation in spaces designed to be enjoyed together," reads a description on the project's official website.
The ambitious project is taking shape on land that Property Reserve Inc., the real estate investment arm of LDS—known colloquially as the Mormon Church—has owned for more than four decades.
Realtor.com® reached out to Property Reserve for comment on the development but did not receive a response before publication.
The long real estate game
The parcel represents a fraction of the institution’s landholdings conservatively estimated to cover at least 2.4 million acres with an assessed valued topping $20 billion, according to recent reporting by Bloomberg based on review of property records from real estate data provider Reonomy.
As the report acknowledged, the true size of LDS' property portfolio, painstakingly assembled since the 1960s, almost certainly exceeds the estimate, which excludes land purchases in nondisclosure states like Texas, or transactions made through other entities.
Besides Property Reserve, which handles commercial and residential investments expands its real estate footprint through Land Reserve, which oversees master-planned communities, and Farmland Reserve, which acquires and leases out land to farmers. All three are headquartered in Utah—the church's global power base.
The Tributary community will occupy the triangle now dotted with white-roofed warehouses. (Google Earth) For decades, the church, which receives a 10% annual tithing donation from its members, has accumulated and banked vast land assets across the U.S. as part of its long-term investment strategy.
In fact, Property Reserve explicitly defines its mission as protecting the church's financial reserves and preparing for its future.
As urban sprawl in metros like Denver and Phoenix accelerated over the past decade, fueled by rapid population growth through in-migration, the church began shifting toward active development to capitalize on evolving market dynamics.
From passive landholding to active development
The Church off Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints purchased the land slated to become the new master-planned community back in the 1980s. (RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images) Last year, Property Reserve began coordinating with the Aurora Economic Development Council to map out the layout of the future Tributary community near the regional airport.
In March, the project entered its technical review phase with the City of Aurora, followed by a recommendation for approval of the master plan by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission in May.
By September, the plan secured an initial green light from the City Council, clearing the way for the final planning stages.
Beyond the 960 acres set aside for Tributary, the church owns an additional 3,500 acres in the surrounding area, raising the prospect of further development down the line.
Aurora represents just one corner of the Mormon Church’s expanding real estate domain.
The crown jewel of its master-planned portfolio remains Sunbridge, a 27,000-acre community being built in central Florida, despite backlash from locals voicing concerns over environmental conservation and the encroachment of urban development into rural lands.
By the time the project is completed, it is expected to include more than 36,000 homes. Roughly 1,400 have been built to date.
Additional plans are also in the works, including a new 3,000-acre housing development outside Austin, TX, and a 4,000-acre community in west Phoenix. Notably, both are among America's fastest-growing metros, according to recent Census data.