2025 State of Downtown Denver

Downtown Economy

Downtown Development

Investing in and Reimagining Essential Structures

In 2025, major convention hotel renovations were completed, supporting the healthy conference and convention market. The first 2025 downtown office-to-residential conversion project broke ground with others following. Avison Young reports approximately 81 million square feet of office space in the conversion pipeline nationwide, with roughly 75 percent of those projects planned for residential use. The market is clearly recalibrating toward mixed-use, housing-forward downtowns. Downtown Denver is positioning itself at the forefront of this transition.

2025 Development Overview

$895M

+1,657 Renovated hotel rooms

Over 450+ Residential units

Multifamily Housing Market

+26K SQFT

Renovated ground floor space

+1,660 Residential units in the pipeline, including 461 for sale condos

Large Scale Projects & Development Map

Adaptive Reuse & A Complete Downtown

Seven projects, either approved for DDDA funding or in the pipeline, are expected to deliver approximately 1,800 residential units, including 300 affordable units, while removing an estimated 1.8 million square feet from downtown’s total office inventory. Together, these projects represent a deliberate strategy to rebalance supply and demand and advance a more complete, resilient urban neighborhood. Along with these pivotal moves, many major master plan projects are the process of finalizing designs. River Mile and Ball Arena are making progress and the Auraria Campus Master Plan broke ground on several projects this year. Although outside of downtown, projects like Denargo Market, Santa Fe Yards and Burnham Yards will have significant economic impact on downtown.

Population & Demographics

As Colorado experiences a slowdown in net migration, downtown continues to outpace the center city in population growth year-over-year.

2025 to 2029 Projected Annual Growth Rate by Geography

Office Market

The Denver market presents a foundational restructuring opportunity. Several underutilized and nearly vacant office buildings are changing ownership, while others remain in a holding pattern as owners assess investments needed to meet modern leasing standards. Meanwhile, commercial real estate valuations continue to decline, creating a gap between assessed value and actual demand. A buyers’ market, combined with growing momentum to repurpose traditional office space, is reshaping how we understand downtown vacancy. Rather than a long-term deficit, today’s vacancy can be viewed as transitional capacity for value basis correction and asset repositioning. National trends reinforce this shift. Additionally, downtown continues to have a great variation by submarket, with Upper Downtown and the central business district carrying more vacancy than other mixed-use districts downtown.

Read more about adaptive reuse projects and the true office vacancy on page 9.

Public Realm Improvements

$90M Under Construction and $175M Total Investment in Civic Center & Skyline Park

The Civic Center Next 100 project broke ground on November 19th, 2025. This project brings to life an exciting vision for this iconic gathering place’s next 100 years.

Getting Green Downtown

Through maintenance programs and streetscape improvements, the Partnership and the Downtown Denver BID are working to enhance the public realm. The Downtown Denver BID has been transitioning BID-managed planters from annual plants to perennial plants in support of Denver’s goal for a resilient downtown. Nearly 40 individual species have been studied to understand which plants thrive in the downtown environment.

Skyline Park will be undergoing major improvements, starting with Block 2. This project offers the opportunity to redesign an important public realm space to best fit the current and future needs of users.

222

New trees planted on 16th street

2025 Activity

385 planters installed on 16th St. through the reconstruction project between Curtis & Broadway.

20 self-watering planters installed through the Downtown Denver BID.

3,300+

Total trees and planters cared for in the Downtown Denver BID

An estimated 28,856 gallons of water saved by planting perennial plants over annual plants.

70+ different species planted along 16th Street.

Ground Floor Activity

72 new ground floor businesses

Foot Traffic & Activation

Downtown saw over 73M total visits in 2025

2025 Foot Traffic Recovery Rate | Activity as Share of 2019 Pre-Covid Activity

Denver International Airport

in 2025, Denver International Airport achieved a recordbreaking year, serving 82.4 million passengers, a 0.1% increase over 2024.

July 2025 ranked as the airport’s busiest month ever and first-ever month with over 8 million passengers

Denver International Airport now offers nonstop service to 34 international destinations across 19 countries.

1st U.S. airport for domestic destinations served nonstop

4th busiest airport in the U.S.

10th busiest airport in the world

Broncos’ $60B Impact

Downtown saw 267K total visits on August 16th for the Denver Broncos’ preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals.

The first large-scale event on the new 16th Street, the FISHER concert produced by AEG, brought thousands of fans to Downtown Denver in May.

Outside Fest 2025 doubled their event attendance with over 30K visits at Civic Center Park over the weekend.

4,300 total players visited the VISA Street Soccer Mini pitch at Skyline Park in 2025.

Proudly produced by the Downtown Denver Partnership, downtown’s New Year’s Eve festivities surpassed 2019 foot traffic levels with 335K total visits.

Arts Complex and DCPA Economic Impact

727,585

Performing Arts Complex 2nd largest arts complex in the United States 1.26M visitors annually 3,900+ performances during the 2024-2025 season

988,000+ guest experiences $389M economic impact

Source: CoStar

What Sets Downtown Denver Apart

Talent & Benchmarking

Brookings: Metro Monitor 2025

Tracking Denver’s Inclusive Growth: Rankings among 54 Large Metro Areas with at Least 1M Residents

11th in Growth

10th in change in jobs at young firms (+55%)

12th in Prosperity

11th in change in standard of living (+31%) and average annual wage (+11%)

6th in Inclusion

9th in change in median earnings (+28%) and change in relative poverty rate (-4ppts)

Denver metro includes: Denver, Aurora and Centennial, CO (2013-2023)

Alyson McClaran/MSU Denver RED

Auraria Campus broke ground on their Public Safety Center, Early Learning Center and Workforce Housing and Summit House Student housing this year.

Significant Tech Hub

6th

Denver had the sixth highest tech job growth in the U.S. in 2025.

CompTIA State of the Tech Workforce 2025 | Denver-AuroraCentennial, CO

Best city for startups in the U.S. in 2025.

OpenVC November 2025

Top metro by tech economic impact as a percent of local economy (13%).

CompTIA State of the Tech Workforce 2025 | Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO

Largest tech market in North America.

CBRE Scoring Tech Talent Report 2025

Highly Educated Workforce

2nd 7th 10th 45K 9th 9th

Colorado has the second most-educated workforce in the country.

Metro Denver EDC | U.S. and Bureau of the Census, ACS

Students enrolled at the Auraria Campus.

Among America’s most career-ready cities, Denver is the best U.S. cities for recent college grads based on job opportunities, internship access, starting salaries, and affordability.

Aurora University | Indeed and Zillow Data August 2025

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

CBRE Scoring Tech Talent 2025

Denver consistently ranks highly as one of the fastest growing startup cities in the U.S., with a diverse set of industries including aerospace, advanced manufacturing, biosciences, electronics, energy, infrastructure engineering technology and information, and quantum computing. Downtown Denver remains a space for local and global startups, especially in the outdoor industry, with 2025 supporting new storefronts for international outdoors retailers, Rab Equipment and Helly Hansen. Downtown also welcomed Outside Days’ flagship event, Ignite, at its first outdoor startup competition.

Denver offers a strong value proposition among peer cities, balancing quality, livability, and cost. As a major economic and cultural hub, it remains relatively accessible compared to larger markets. Denver allows businesses and employees to benefit from a high standard of experience without the same level of pressure on costs.

Partnership in Action

Our partnerships are essential to building a great city. Thank you, Pinnacle Members, for leading the way!

2025-2026 Downtown Denver Partnership Boards

Board of Governors

Nicole Ament, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck

Ivan Anaya, Astucia, LLC

Timothy Aragon, Denver Broncos

Wade Balmer, The North Face

*Brianna Borin, Snooze

*Albus Brooks, Vice Chair, Milender White

Thomas Bryan, CHFA

*Jon Buerge, Urban Villages

Nick Burns, IMA Financial

*Amy Cara, East West Partners

Kyle Chism, PCL

Mizraim Cordero, United

Mark Cornetta, 9News

Sarah Cullen, Sidecar PR

Janine Davidson, Metro State University of Denver

Luke Davidson, Land Title Guarantee

*Lori Davis

*Binh Diep, Slalom

Marc Dispense, D.A. Davidson & Compay

*Rhys Duggan, Revesco Properties

*Dorit Fischer, Past Chair, NAI Shames Makovsky

Jon Gambrill, Gensler

Kayla Garcia, Girls Inc.

*Kris Gaw, Denver Health

Fred Glick, Columbia Partners

Ray Gonzales, Metro Denver EDC

Barbara Grandjean, Husch Blackwell

David Haltom, Patrinely

*Amy Hansen, Chair, Polsinelli

Rich Harris, Harris Family Law

Tim Higashide, Sakura Square

Polly Jessen, Kaplan Kirsch LLP

Debra Johnson, RTD

Caroline Kackley, Wells Fargo

*Kevin Kelley, Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Adeeb Khan, City and County of Denver

Tom Kiler, Spark & Halo

Kim Koy, Employers Council

Katie Kramer, Boettcher Foundation

*Kim Kucera, Policy Chair, CRL Associates

Peggy Kutchera, JP Morgan Chase

Peter Lauener, Brookfield Properties Development

Greg Leonard, Hyatt Regency Denver Convention Center

Dustin Liljehorn, JE Dunn

* Also member of the Board of Directors

Peter Lindstrom, Community College of Denver

*Nathan Lohmeyer, DaVita

Derek Longwell, FirstBank

*Traci Lounsbury, Secretary, Elements

Dana Mack, Kimley Horn

Rachel Marion, MB Strategies LLC

Scott Martinez, MG Public Affairs

*Kevin McCabe, Newmark

Wendy McCray-Benoit, Pricewaterhouse Cooper

Martha McGee, Nine Dot Arts

*Pat McHenry, City Street Investors

Karen McNeil Miller, Colorado Health Foundation

Rodney Milton, Urban Land Institute

Drea Modugno, Ibotta

Walker Monfort, Colorado Rockies

Andy Mountain, GBSM

Lexi Muller, Southwest Airlines

Dianne Myles, Human Focused Media

*Mike Neary, Kroenke Sports Entertainment

Mary Nguyen, Olive and Finch

Sal Nodjomian, Matrix Design Group

Jessica Ostermick, CBRE

Chris Payne, Nautical CP

Roger Pecsok, Continuum

Mahes Prasad, US Bank

Malik Robinson, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance

Marc Rosenberg, Bank of America

Alan Salazar, Denver Water

*Elizabeth Salomon, Treasurer, Highland Square Advisors

Richard Scharf, VisitDenver

Gloria Schoch, VF Corporation

Chris Shears, Shears Adkins Rockmore Architects

Mark Sidell, Gart Properties

Janice Sinden, Denver Center for the Performing Arts

*David Sternberg, Brookfield Properties

Maren Stewart, Taloma Partners

Conrad Suszynski, Crescent Real Estate

Jevon Taylor, CAST (Community Arts Stabilization Trust)

Julian Tucker, Thompson

*Hollie Velasquez-Horvath, Xcel

Bill Vitek, Dig Studio

Colleen Walker, AHEC

*Elizabeth Whillock, Ovintiv

Brandon Wilcox, KPMG

Downtown Denver Business Improvement District Board

Nathan Roberts, Kittrege Ventures

Ed Blair, Sage Hospitality Group

Wendi Malone, Hines

Evan Gart, Gart Properties

Julian Tucker, Thompson Hotel

David Foley, Brookfield Properties

Ron Fano, Spencer Farms, Legal Counsel

Boundary Map

Downtown Denver Defined

About Us

The Downtown Denver Partnership implements a place-based economic development strategy to support its vision for an economically competitive, dynamic and growing downtown. The Partnership convenes the public, private and philanthropic sectors to drive progress forward for the benefit of all in Denver’s center city.

Iltis

Vice President, Planning and Community Impact ailtis@downtowndenver.com

Analise Lajeunesse Research Specialist, Planning and Community Impact alajeunesse@downtowndenver.com

For media inquiries, contact Apoorva Gundu at agundu@downtowndenver.com Visit us at: www.downtowndenver.com