Downtown Denver

[nativeomahan]

I made my first visit back to downtown Denver in about 7 years. Quite a bit has changed. The once vibrant 16th Street Mall seems to have largely fallen on hard times. The downtown itself reminds me a lot of downtown Chicago (minus the humidity) with tons of great old architecture mixed in with dozens of more modern skyscrapers. However the mall itself resembles south State Street in downtown Chicago much more than Michigan Avenue. I would wager that half the people walking (wandering) 16th Street are between the ages of 18 and 30, and half of those folks (and plenty of others) are either stoned, drunk, or in serious need of mental health intervention. My Saturday morning walk made me feel like I was in a dual movie set of Night of the Living Dead and One Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest. The only city similar in my travels was Seattle. And the number of people riding bikes, electric scooters and electric skate boards on the downtown sidewalks is truly frightening. Apparently that is legal here.
All that said there are some absolutely wonderful restaurants and museums in the city core. I hope to return in the not too distant future.

[Coyote]

Did you happen to try any new restaurants in Downtown?

[nativeomahan]

Did you happen to try any new restaurants in Downtown?

I couldn’t tell you what is new versus old, as we haven’t been here in about 7 years and I can’t recall any restaurant names from our last visit, other than the Brown Palace, which is celebrating its 130th year in operation this month. Such a stunningly gorgeous setting for dining in their atrium.

We just had lunch at La Loma Mexican Kitchen, across the street from the Brown Palace. The place was packed for lunch and the food and service were fine. A great “skinny” margarita! Last night we had dinner at Zocalito Latin Bistro, which was a Grand Slam Home Run in terms of atmosphere, menu, food and service. We both agreed it was the very best chips and bean dip we had ever tasted. The dip was a purée of beans and chocolate mole, with some diced chilis and cheese added in. The restaurant relocated just before Covid from Aspen.

[nativeomahan]

I can add that my visit to the Walgreens on the mall included seeing my first in house Walgreens sushi counter, with sushi made to order while you are shopping for your Listerine, lube and whatever else will make your evening memorable.

[iamjacobm]

Waiting for my flight out of Denver. Some thoughts.

It appears they are revamping the 16th Mall, it is closed and the plans look like they are moving the bus lanes to the middle and removing the curbs. Hopefully, a refresh helps.

I didn't know about the plans for the parking lots around Ball Arena. They look ambitious and the Kronke's have the money to do something very impressive. Denver has a ton of developable land DT adjacent between the Ball Arena parking lots, the Elitch Gardens (moving out of DT), and Mile High Stadium (which has 10 years on its lease, but apparently has some rumors of moving out more towards the airport). There is room for 10s of thousands of units of housing adjacent to DT, the South Platte, and existing light rail infrastructure. Tons of opportunity for the city.

An incredible number of cranes in the air (the ones Brad shoots in Omaha not Kearney!). Specifically, the development in RiNo is impressive and I love the stuff being built, well hid parking, nice 10-15 floor scale, and little to no setbacks. If the area around 480 and Farnam looks even half of what this area is in a decade I'd be thrilled.

Also, I go through this every winter when I visit. Denver winters are great! The sun actually comes out, Omaha and Chicago winters are so dark and oppressively cold. Denver gets a lot more snow, but it melts when the sun comes out the next day, highs don't seem to stay subfreezing for weeks at a time. Probably a factor of getting lucky when I visit though.

Another thing is, I know people take others calling Omaha flat as an insult. I for one wish it were flatter. Walking or biking in Denver or Chicago doesn't feel nearly as daunting as trudging up and down some of Omaha's hills.

One last thought, let's recruit whoever developed McGregor Square across the Coors Field to do Lot B.

[Busguy2010]

I visit Estes Park biannually, and I make a point to avoid Denver. Over-stimulation isn't my vibe, so that's why I go to Estes Park

And Denver is great, but we don't need to try and beat Denver. I like Nebraska cause it aint all that.

[NEDodger]

Yuck - I hadn't heard that rumor about Coors. That'd be awful because Coors Field is a fantastic ballpark.

Agreed on getting who did that across from the field to work on Lot B. Complete with a College Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

[Garrett]

Yuck - I hadn't heard that rumor about Coors. That'd be awful because Coors Field is a fantastic ballpark.

Agreed on getting who did that across from the field to work on Lot B. Complete with a College Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Coors is the baseball stadium, Mile High is the football stadium

[iamjacobm]

In Denver for work and talked to a distressed office investor (heck of a time for people like that if they believe the office market is going to turn) he won't touch anything in the Denver CBD b/c of what sounds like really tough timing around new regulations and current infrastructure sunsetting.

Apparently many of the Denver CBD office blocks are heated by a large interconnected steam system. The local power company is going to sunset that system in 2030. So that leaves these large urban office buildings with two options, natural gas or electric retrofits to provide heat. Another issue is hitting at the same time, Denver has implemented a plan where all existing buildings 25k SF or larger must meet energy reduction requirements of 30% from their historic benchmark. Apparently that takes natural gas off the list as they likely won't be able to hit that requirement using gas. So the only option left is electric and the grid in the CBD isn't equipped right now to add that much capacity. Another issue is these CBD office blocks are having pretty big vacancy issues and are likely currently valued below the debt they owe so there isn't really much cash to make these sorts of retrofits at the depressed values. Going to be hard to find willing buyers even at depressed values if they know they have likely $10s of millions in additional energy associated costs in the short term.

I will say this was coming from a private office investor so I am sure I got a one sided story and I imagine the city/power company will work with owners, but the thought at least from some people is it is going to really suppress the Denver CBD for the forseable future with all that uncertainty. They are planning on a pretty long recovery for that submarket.

Cherry Creek office has never been stronger though haha.