Denver's 16th Street Mall renovation is almost complete. I walked the entire length of it the other day and I must say, the city has done a good job with it. The center island down the middle of 16th Street has been eliminated, and the sidewalks on each side have been widened to allow more room for outdoor patios, seating, art installations, children's play areas, and landscaping. The free busses that go up and down the center corridor of this otherwise pedestrian only street are finally back in service, and I was happy to see a fair number of people in the restaurants and patios on a weekday afternoon.
The only downside is that there are still a lot of vacancies up and down 16th Street, which has now officially eliminated "mall" from its official designation. The 16th Street Mall really suffered during the pandemic, what with work from home eliminating most of the office workers in the area, and, of course, the mandatory closing of shops and restaurants. When things did reopen, office workers continued to work from home, resulting in high downtown office vacancy rates, which currently sits at 36.8%. And once the pandemic ended in 2022, the mall renovation began, making the area virtually impassable. It took 3 years to complete, and many businesses on 16th could just not survive.
And will all those empty storefronts and restaurants soon be filled with new tenants? The city has plans to make that happen, and after the renovation of the final three blocks, there will be a grand reopening celebration on Saturday, October 4th. Of course, much will depend on the state of the economy, the possible conversion of downtown office buildings into residences, and the always radical idea of actually making people return to the office, which will be strongly resisted due to the fact that those office workers might actually have to work. We will just have to wait and see what happens. Meanwhile, perhaps I should start looking for one of those work from home positions. Sounds like a good deal to me.
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