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— Office Properties Quarterly — June 2016
Neighborhood Highlight
T
here is no question that
Denver is home to one of the
most successful urban cores
in the nation. Almost weekly,
the center city finds itself
topping national rankings ranging
from the best place for business
and careers to the best place to live.
As communities look to downtown
Denver as a model,
eager to replicate
its success, they
often are surprised
to learn just how
strategic the path
to building this
economic engine
has been.
“We have built
the place, and they
are most definitely
coming,” said Tami
Door, president
and CEO of the
Downtown Den-
ver Partnership at
the partnership’s
recent State of Downtown Den-
ver event. “Downtown Denver is a
model for what a great city can be.”
At the core of the place-based
economic development strategy for
the center city is the 2007 Down-
town Area Plan, the 20-year vision
to create an economically healthy,
growing and vital downtown. As
evidenced by the partnership’s
2016 State of Downtown Denver
report, an annual report that offers
a comprehensive statistical look at
downtown, we are seeing significant
success including the areas of devel-
opment and investment.
Development and investment.
Developers are responding to
increased demand propelled by a
strong population and job growth,
as well as key public-sector invest-
ments. There is $2.5 billion of
investment under construction or
planned for downtown Denver, on
top of more than $634 million of
investment in 2015 that included 15
projects to create an additional 511
hotel rooms, 1,901 residential units
and 333,000 square feet of office
space.
Office market and employers.
Downtown Denver currently has
more than 36 million sf of office
space. Office market fundamentals
remain strong with a 9.5 percent
direct vacancy rate and $33.14 per
sf direct average lease rate. In the
past 24 months, 24 companies have
relocated or expanded and, as of
the beginning of 2016, an additional
2.8 million sf of office space was
planned or under construction.
Over the past 10 years, down-
town added more than 2.7 million
sf of office space and, in spite of
these large increases, the vacancy
rate is much lower than some of
our national competitors. Seattle,
by comparison, has a 12.4 percent
vacancy rate compared to down-
town’s 9.7 percent.
Workforce.
More people are work-
ing in downtown Denver than ever
before, totaling 123,548 at the end
of 2015. Employment has increased
13.2 percent since 2010, surpassing
the nationwide increase of 8.5 per-
cent.
Denver also is the seventh-most
educated metro area in the country,
with more than 40 percent of resi-
dents earning a bachelor’s degree or
higher. And 30 percent of downtown
jobs are in the professional and
business service category, compared
to 18.5 percent across metro Denver.
Residents.
Ranked as the top place
to live in the country by U.S. News
& World Report, 75,972 people live
downtown. Attracted to vibrant,
walkable districts and diverse resi-
dential amenities, this number is
expected to grow by 12.6 percent
over the next five years, compared
to 3.7 percent nationally.
Retail and restaurants.
First-to-mar-
ket and new-to-downtown options
create a diverse retail scene, includ-
ing the second noncoastal location
for Uniqlo, which will open a 23,000-
sf flagship store later this year. And
53 percent of businesses along the
16th Street Mall are local businesses
or local chains, contributing to the
$45 million in retail sales tax collec-
tions generated in downtown Den-
ver in 2015.
Mobility.
Companies have
expressed the importance of mobil-
ity options for their employees. As
multimodal transportation options
converge, nearly 60 percent of down-
town Denver employees commute
to work via transit, walk, bike or ride
share, and 21 percent of downtown
residents don’t own a car. This data,
indicative of a changing and younger
workforce, is challenging assump-
tions about the quantity and loca-
tion of parking needed in the center
city.
Students and universities.
There are
54,000 students who attend public,
not-for-profit institutions of higher
education in downtown Denver,
and more than 10,000 students who
attend trade or private institutions.
The Auraria Higher Education Center
continues to see growth and invest-
ment to help ensure businesses are
able to recruit qualified employees.
Public space and activation.
Down-
town’s parks and public spaces are
an economic asset for the com-
munity and help transform an indi-
vidual’s experience in the center
city. In 2015, public spaces were
activated for a collective total of
749 days. Events like Meet in the
Street, produced by the Downtown
Denver Partnership and funded by
the Downtown Denver Business
Improvement District, resulted in 30
percent more pedestrian traffic on
the mall, and 60 percent of people
spending more time in the space.
Simply put, downtown Denver is
thriving as a result of collective stra-
tegic, place-based economic devel-
opment strategy and the long-term
vision and commitment of the pub-
lic and private sector leaders. Equal-
ly important is the focus on continu-
ing to drive downtown forward.
“We need to continue collabora-
tion and engaging in important dia-
logue,” said Rob Cohen, CEO of IMA
Financial and chair of the Partner-
ship’s Downtown Denver Inc. Board
of Directors. “As well as invest in
and capitalize on the opportunities
we’ve worked so hard for and ensure
downtown Denver remains the best
place in the entire country to live,
work and visit.”
s
Brian
Phetteplace
Senior manager,
economic
development,
Downtown Denver
Partnership, Denver
Development downtown by district, from the State of Downtown Denver 2016, published by the Downtown Denver Partnership.
