US-based B2C show organiser Marketplace Events (MPE) has acquired the Colorado Garden & Home Show from the Colorado Garden Foundation. The event was launched in 1959 and is held at the Colorado Convention Center each spring and fall.
“The deal in Denver is one we have anticipated for decades and to finally see it come together is incredibly rewarding,” said Mark White, CEO of Marketplace Events. “There are very few large nine-day shows with this history and reputation remaining in the US, and we are thrilled to add it to our ever-expanding Marketplace Events portfolio.”
The 67-year-old Garden and Home Show is the Rocky Mountain region’s largest event with more than 500 exhibitors and more than 40,000 annual attendees attending the spring edition. The smaller fall edition, launched in 2009, attracts 200 exhibitors and 3,000-5,000 attendees each year. The event also displays over one acre of professionally landscaped gardens.
“Joining forces with Marketplace Events means we can build on our legacy with greater resources, fresh ideas and expanded reach, ensuring our shows remain Colorado’s premier garden and home events,” said Jim Fricke, executive director of the Colorado Garden Foundation. “For more than 65 years, the shows have allowed us to give back more than $13m through horticultural grants and scholarships that touch lives all across Colorado, from healing gardens and greenhouses to scholarships that launch careers in horticulture and sustainability. Selling to Marketplace Events will allow the Foundation to further build on that legacy while maintaining the shows’ excellence we have all come to rely on,” Fricke added.
Marketplace Events already operates the Denver Home Show which currently runs (and will continue to operate) 20-22 March, 2026 at the National Western Complex, as well as the Denver Christmas and Colorado Springs Christmas shows both in November.
“For years we have had to say that Denver was the only market in which we did not own the #1 home show since the Colorado Garden Show was larger and better attended,” explained White. “With this acquisition, Marketplace Events now owns the top show in all 51 markets in which we operate,” he continued.
The Denver Shows will be operated under regional vice-president Dave Maughan who oversees 13 shows for MPE in Denver, Salt Lake City, Tucson, Houston and San Antonio. Show Manager on the shows will be Lupe Merino, who joined MPE in 2013.
Nick Curci of investment banking firm Corporate Solutions in Westport, Connecticut was the exclusive advisor to Colorado Garden Show, Inc. in structuring and negotiating the transaction.
Source: www.exhibitionworld.co.uk
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