The city’s proposed 2024 budget calls for another $1 million to support businesses impacted by the $172.5 million project to overhaul Denver’s iconic 16th Street Mall.
Pedestrians navigate sidewalk closures at Champa St. as construction continues on the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. would be more than halfway done by now. Retailers and restauranteurs would only have until the end of 2024 to endure dusty, noisy, at times odorous construction work before enjoying the strip’s
“During that time of consultation, the sewer pipe was protected from construction activities. We worked around it as best we could — and did some resequencing of work — but the long process of obtaining consensus to tie into that pipe did cause delay,” Nancy Kuhn, the project’s lead spokeswoman with the city’s
“I feel very confident we’ll be on the other side of it but there is always risk,” said Gary Mantelli, who co-owns the West Saloon & Kitchen at 16th and Glenarm Place with his wife Leah. The city will also spend more than $5 million on leases in downtown office buildings to keep staff downtown while the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building at 201 W. Colfax Ave. is being renovated over the next few years, another plank in the mayor’s downtown strategy.
By the partnership’s count, there are 45 unoccupied storefronts along the mall out of a total of 149 spaces. That’s a roughly 30% vacancy rate. Recent departures include mall mainstays like the Hard Rock Cafe and the Corner Bakery Cafe. In the case of the Hard Rock, business leaders were looking to exit before any construction work began.
At that point, all construction fences will come down and finishing work — like installing seating and play structures — will take place and mall-goers will finally see what the finished product will look like by next summer. The same sequence will then play out on other segments of the mall through fall 2025. A block-by-block schedule can be found on the city’s project website atSo far, the city has provided $727,000 in grants to 61 businesses impacted by construction.
Mantelli gives the city some grace for construction delays, but it doesn’t make it easier to see other storefronts emptying out while work lurches forward. “It actually has been better for all of us to be together,” Campbell said of what now serves as an open-air food court. “Hopefully they keep this as a permanent spot.”
Mantelli wants people to know he has already seen less bad behavior and more police presence along the mall. He hopes the city will invest heavily in a marketing campaign highlighting progress on that front.
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