{"id":357,"date":"2025-05-29T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T12:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/existing-provider.com\/?p=357"},"modified":"2025-05-30T10:28:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T10:28:50","slug":"can-downtown-get-its-swagger-back-denver-leaders-agree-its-both-possible-and-vital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/existing-provider.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/29\/can-downtown-get-its-swagger-back-denver-leaders-agree-its-both-possible-and-vital\/","title":{"rendered":"Can downtown get its swagger back? Denver leaders agree it\u2019s both possible and vital"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a post-pandemic world, is it still important or necessary for major metro areas to have a vibrant downtown at their core? If restaurants, retail outlets and housing are growing in Cherry Creek and other neighborhoods, does it matter if they\u2019re on the wane or not as plentiful in downtown Denver?<\/p>\n

Should efforts be made to fill or repurpose buildings that abruptly emptied out when COVID-19 hit and remain underused due to changes in work routines?<\/p>\n

READ THE FULL PROJECT:<\/strong> At a crossroads: Downtown Denver is waiting for its rebound<\/a><\/p>\n

Business and civic leaders say \u201cYes\u201d to all of the above.<\/p>\n

\u2022 “Downtowns are a living room for your city. That\u2019s where you\u2019re supposed to have people when they come in,\u201d said former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Former
Former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb poses for a portrait at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in Denver on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang\/The Denver Post)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2022 \u201cI believe that downtowns, especially Denver\u2019s downtown, are the heart and soul of metro communities,\u201d said Federico Pe\u00f1a, who preceded Webb as mayor.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cAs a former economic development person, I can tell you that having a vibrant and central core to a metro region is important in the long run if you\u2019re going to build an economy that can serve multiple industries and be resilient through ups and downs,\u201d said J.J. Ament, president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cWe\u2019re 1.8% of the city’s overall land mass and pre-pandemic downtown represented about 13% of the city and county of Denver’s property and sales tax revenue. Today, we now generally represent only 8%. That equates to a decrease in the city’s revenue of $45 million annually,” said Kourtney Garrett, president and CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership.<\/a>\u00a0Deciding whether having a robust downtown is still important, “in whatever form downtown takes moving forward, I’d say it’s pretty important,” Garrett said.<\/p>\n

As in Denver, cities across the country are wrestling with how to restore the pre-pandemic hustle and bustle to recharge what has historically been a crucial economic engine. Approaches range from renovating or repurposing older, semi-vacant office buildings; boosting residential construction; and aiding small businesses.<\/p>\n

While Denver leaders don\u2019t think revitalizing downtown is a mission impossible, they say hurdles exist: fears about safety; tough-to-meet building codes; zoning restrictions; a bogged-down permitting process; and hybrid work schedules that keep office buildings semi-vacant.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does seem like we sometimes have one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake at the same time,\u201d Ament said.<\/p>\n

In the vast majority of downtowns in major metro areas, “I would would think that basically no one is at their pre-pandemic level of foot traffic,” said Tracy Hadden Loh,<\/a> a fellow at the Brookings Institution whose areas of expertise include commercial real estate. She called the post-pandemic recoveries of downtowns a mixed bag.<\/p>\n

\"A
A man sits at a table in front of a building that's available to lease on the 16th Street Mall in Denver on May 13, 2025. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson\/The Denver Post)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One factor could be a trend that was evident before work and commerce were largely halted by COVID in March 2020. Loh said downtown areas were experiencing a decrease in the use of office space because of “telework Fridays” and companies cutting expenses by shrinking their footprint.<\/p>\n

Downtown’s overall office vacancy rate is roughly 35%, believed to be the highest rate on record for the city<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Click<\/a>
Click to enlarge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As to how urgent the problem is, Loh said Denver’s office vacancy rate is high “even relative to other downtowns that are not doing well.”<\/p>\n

Before the pandemic, downtown Denver had “a much bigger share” of the region’s overall job footprint<\/a> — 13.1% — than in many places, Loh said. In the city, the downtown accounts for 30% of the jobs, according to a new report by the Downtown Denver Partnership.<\/p>\n

A concentration of jobs that supports businesses and produces high tax revenue relative to the real estate they occupy makes downtowns “extremely important to their regional economies,” according to a 2023 research piece cowritten by Loh.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

But rejuvenating the city’s core post-pandemic doesn’t mean business as usual. Loh co-wrote an earlier piece stressing the need for downtowns to evolve<\/a> by modernizing offices, diversifying the mix of land uses and focusing on livability through public spaces, arts and safety.<\/p>\n

Are downtowns still important?<\/h4>\n

For Rodney Milton, the question isn’t whether downtowns are still important. The conversation is more about the future of downtowns and the wisdom of building the core of a city around a central business district.<\/p>\n

“It’s really the idea that you could have a single-use zone. Was that ever a good idea and if it isn’t, then how do cities that have chosen that path transform themselves?” asked Milton, executive director of the Urban Land Institute in Colorado<\/a> and a city planner by trade.<\/p>\n

ULI Colorado, one of the research and education organization’s largest district councils, is focused on the revitalization of Denver’s downtown and is working with business and other civic leaders. It’s a matter of taking what is the city’s most dense, compact and walkable area and reimagining it as a diverse neighborhood with a mix of uses rather than mainly a central business district, Milton said.<\/p>\n

“What is the best way to go about doing that? You want to increase residents, so there’s your housing conversation,” Milton said. “You have to have the capacity to deliver a diverse type of housing.”<\/p>\n

Cities where the downtowns were more focused on residents and varied uses rather than primarily centered on offices are the ones that are thriving, or at least haven’t been hit as hard economically, Milton said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

And while vibrant, multi-use areas that have developed in other parts of Denver and the metro area are important, Milton said, “… they’re not even remotely comparable to the economic engine that is downtown.”<\/p>\n

\"People
People eat lunch on a patio on the 16th Street Mall in Denver on May 13, 2025. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson\/The Denver Post)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce is “politically and geographically agnostic,” Ament said. ‘We’re just as delighted to help something come to downtown Denver as we would be to Aurora or Lakewood or Lone Tree or any of the communities we serve.”<\/p>\n

But no matter where companies might locate, they care about downtown Denver, Ament said. The state of what is a center for higher education, sports, entertainment and leisure matters to them because employers want to recruit and retain talented workers and employees “want to have the amenities that come with a vibrant urban core.”<\/p>\n

Glenn Furton, an assistant economics professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver<\/a>, believes it’s important to have a robust city center with high density to allow for a lot of mobility in the labor market.<\/p>\n