DENVER – Shakespeare in the park. Pop up restaurants. Or even a pickleball tourney with your friends – all happening in downtown Denver. That’s the hope of Mayor Mike Johnston and other city leaders who announced a plan Monday to revitalize downtown Denver after the area saw substantial loss of foot traffic at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Dynamic Downtown Denver plan – a partnership between the city, Denver Arts & Venues and the Downtown Denver Partnership – will distribute more than $350,000 in grants to help “both elevate and activate the city in a way that we know makes everyone remember why they fell in love with downtown Denver in the first place,” according to Johnston, who called on Denverites to apply for these grants during a morning news conference outside the City and County Building.
Individuals, nonprofits, community groups, businesses – all are eligible to apply for the grants, which will range from $500 to $25,000, said Kourtny Garrett, the CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership. Applications will open Monday, Oct. 16, and can be found here.
“We know that there's no better way to bring our community together to re-energize downtown and re-instill a collective love for downtown than through music, through art, culture, and celebration,” Garrett said.
While the grants are “incredibly open-ended with lots of flexibility,” there are some things people applying for these grants should keep in mind:
- The projects or programs should take place in highly visible, publicly accessible outdoor spaces
- They should provide the public free, unique and engaging experiences
- They should be innovative, inclusive, and celebrate the heritage, vibrancy, history arts, and the future of our city, powered by the diverse communities that are Denver.
Johnston said the goal of the plan is to have it be "grassroots community-driven effort" which he hopes will help people who haven’t had access to a stage get that opportunity, “where that stage is quite literally a performance you want to bring or you want to show, or music you want to share, or a restaurant or idea you want to be able to launch.”
This plan differs from the city’s Popup Denver initiative, which sought businesses to set up shop along the troubled 16th St. Mall. The Dynamic Downtown Denver plan, Garrett said, is geared more toward public space events for all Denverites to help bring "the really cool experiences downtown that will surprise and activate our community."
Businesses aren’t being forgotten, though, and Johnston said Monday his administration will be looking at other ways to make it easier for businesses that are currently downtown to be able to "activate their public spaces and sidewalks to be able to invite more people downtown."
Jordan Fink, owner of Woods Boss Brewing Company in downtown Denver, thinks the grant program could be helpful.
"It's great that they are trying to create reasons for folks to come back to downtown Denver, and I get that it spreads the love and the wealth all the way around," Fink said.
But as Fink and other business owners deal with a decline in daily traffic from downtown office workers, homeless encampments, and rising property taxes, Fink said "activations" won't be enough to save downtown businesses.
"From a large scale business perspective, I mean, it's a drop in the bucket. That is not the thing that is preventing us from being successful," said Fink, who said hosting events either in his taproom or out in the street isn't the problem. "But what we're really looking for is more relief as a whole. We had block party last weekend. We had a blast, ton of folks showed up. And, you know, we felt really good about it. But now it's the week after, and we need to figure out how to keep it going."
Grant applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis at least every two weeks, but most often weekly, with the goal to launch these “activations” (as the city is calling them) within a week or two weeks after program launch, Garrett said.
“We want to invite you to put your passion on display in downtown Denver,” Johnston said as he pitched the idea to Denverites Monday. “We want to celebrate you our culture, our history, our city and have you be a great reminder everyone else on why they'll come and fall in love with downtown Denver.”
