Colorado Real Estate Journal - September 2, 2015
The Downtown Denver Partnership released an updated quarterly Downtown Denver Economic Update report and the most recent economic data available for downtown Denver signals that economic conditions continue to improve. Employment growth is strong, consumers are spending at a healthy pace and downtown commercial real estate markets report rising average lease rates and declining vacancy rates, according to the report.
“Downtown Denver is well positioned to continue its role as an economic hub for the city, state and region,” said Tami Door, president and CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership. “We have more people working downtown than ever before, our residents, workers and visitors are contributing to retail sales tax collection increases across a variety of industries and residential and commercial real estate markets continue to grow, all underscoring progress toward our vision of a prosperous center city.” Highlights from the report include: • Employment levels in downtown Denver rose 4.4 percent to total 123,365 jobs between the fourth quarters of 2014 and 2015, exceeding both state and national employment trends; • Employment levels in the natural resources and construction supersector saw the largest increase, of 15.3 percent, between the fourth quarters of 2014 and 2015; • Retail sales tax collections downtown grew by 7.8 percent in the first quarter of 2015 as compared with 2014; • Downtown Denver’s largest retail category, restaurants, accounts for 51 percent of retail sales tax collections downtown and grew by more than 11 percent; • The average daily room rates for hotels in downtown Denver rose by 5.5 percent when comparing year-to-date totals as of June 30. Revenue per available room also grew by 4.4 percent; • The total number of homes sold in downtown Denver increased by nearly 19 percent in the first quarter of 2015 as compared with 2014; and • The commercial real estate market downtown improved between the second quarter of 2014 and 2015, with vacancy rates declining 1.8 percentage points for office space and 0.7 percentage points for retail space. For more information and to view the full report, visit www.downtowndenver.com. Updates… The Downtown Denver Partnership released an update to the Downtown Denver Development Map, detailing projects under construction or planned as of July 2015. Currently, there is $1.51 billion in development under construction, with 1,576 hotel rooms, 4,244 residential units, 2.3 million square feet of office space and more than 231,000 square feet of retail space either planned or under construction downtown. While development trends remain consistent with previous updates, planned residential development in Arapahoe Square is on the rise and accounts for 8.3 percent of residential units planned or under construction downtown, up from 0.4 percent.