GEO Group Wins $528.6M ICE Contract to Reopen Shuttered Hudson, CO Prison as Big Horn Detention Facility

ICE awarded The GEO Group, Inc. (recipient UEI JMLKZZ1NL2Z6) a sole-source (“only one source,” not competed) contract vehicle covering “detention and detention related services” at the Big Horn Detention Facility in Hudson, Colorado, structured as a single-award Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, PIID 70CDCR26D00000049, signed 2026-07-09; the contracting officer classified it PSC S206 (Housekeeping-Guard) / NAICS 561612 (Security Guards and Patrol Services). Press reporting’s “$528.6 million” figure is confirmed independently by USASpending — but it is the IDIQ’s base_and_all_options ceiling ($528,678,643.44), not money spent or even obligated. The parent IDIQ itself shows $0 total obligation; all funding so far runs through the first delivery order issued under it, PIID 70CDCR26FR0000101 (signed 2026-07-15), which is a much smaller instrument: $15,654,000 obligated, against that single order’s own base_and_all_options ceiling of $106,502,322.60. The order’s own description states it “ESTABLISHES THE BASE PERIOD CLINS AND PROVIDES FUNDING FOR THE TRANSITION PERIOD” — i.e., this is startup/ramp-up funding, not the full five-year run. Distinguish obligated from ceiling on this contract at every mention: $528.6M is what ICE could spend across the IDIQ’s full term if it exercises every option; $15.65M is what has actually been committed to date. GEO’s own investor release states the facility holds 1,188 beds, but CBS Colorado and CPR both report 1,200 beds; combined with the existing 1,532-bed Aurora Contract Detention Facility, also GEO-operated, Colorado’s total ICE detention capacity rises to roughly 2,720-2,732 beds depending on which Big Horn figure is used.

Ownership is not GEO. GEO Group does not own the property. Title is held by IVT PPD Hudson Associates, L.L.C., a subsidiary of Highlands REIT, Inc. (Chicago; SEC CIK 0001661458) — a nontraded Maryland REIT spun off in 2016 from InvenTrust Properties (formerly Inland American Real Estate Trust) to liquidate legacy assets, which never fully wound down. Highlands leased the property, per its own SEC 8-K, to GEO Secure Services, LLC — a GEO Group subsidiary, distinct from “The GEO Group, Inc.,” the entity that holds the federal ICE contract. Full ownership-chain detail: highlands-reit.

Per Highlands’ 8-K, the 88-month lease begins August 1, 2026, at $250,000/month base rent for the first four months, rising to $958,333.33/month at the earlier of the 6-month anniversary or actual occupancy, then +3%/year — not “approximately $1M/month” as earlier reporting rounded it. A contingency clause drops rent to $250,000/year if an unnamed separate agreement between GEO and a third party lapses during the term; trade press infers, but neither filing confirms, that this refers to GEO’s ICE contract. GEO’s own release estimates the contract will generate approximately $85 million in annual revenue for GEO in its first full year.

The “nearest hospital 12 miles away (Brighton), nearest fire station 2 miles away” conditions claim is real and multiply corroborated (CPR, coloradorelocationreport.com, WOL, Denver7 citing Casa de Paz) but does not appear on the ACLU of Colorado URL this entry previously cited for it — that citation has been corrected below; the claim traces most directly to CPR’s July 13, 2026 reporting.

This extends GEO Group’s dominant position in the detention-industrial buildout the timeline already tracks, and sets up the immediate zoning fight documented separately (2026-07-23–weld-hudson-county-co-geo-big-horn-zoning-lawsuit) — Colorado becomes a major new ICE detention hub within weeks of the state’s own unannounced-inspection law taking effect (2026-06-04–colorado-hb-1276-state-unannounced-ice-detention-inspection-authority), setting up a direct test of whether that new state authority can reach a facility this large.

Corrected 2026-10-01: bed count changed from “1,188 beds” to “1,200 beds, per CBS Colorado and CPR” (GEO’s own figure noted alongside); the ACLU of Colorado FOIA-litigation paragraph (letter contracts, other Colorado sites under consideration) was cut — no ACLU source appears in this entry’s sources: list and the claim could not be independently verified.