DENVER — During a news conference Tuesday morning, Denver city leaders announced the rebranding of the 16th Street Mall, dropping the word “mall” from the corridor’s name as the area prepares to reopen following years of construction.
“We dropped the ‘mall’ because it is so much more than just one retail location or one block," explained Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. "It is an entire mall of experience, a mile of experience. We want you to come here and be able to experience that. And so, as part of what we've done in that definition is not just clarify our call to come down to 16th Street, but really describe what we want this place to feel like."
Downtown Denver Partnership CEO Kourtny Garrett also announced the 16th Street Summer Kickoff, a series of events, activities, and activations to encourage more people to visit the corridor.
“We will have more than 150 vendors and marketplace participants — nearly 100 performers — who will enliven more than a mile of music, art, dance and more," Garrett said. "And for the first time, here in Denver, we will host the International World Cup of Speed Climbing. Absolutely incredible for our city. We're inviting the entire community to come be a part of the fun and experience the new 16th Street."
Watch the full press conference announcing the 16th Street update in the video below.
For years, business owners have shared concerns about construction and crime, saying it’s led to a drastic decrease in customers.
While the city has hosted events and activities to drive more foot traffic to the area, some business owners said it hasn’t led to a lasting increase in business.
Mayor Johnston said the completion of construction should help.
“For us, the past several years has been about sustaining those businesses in the midst of a closed central spine of downtown, which has been a very hard thing to do. This is the opening that all those businesses have been waiting for, which is the ability to have all the streets open, the bus is running, the fences down, and people will be able to come back to downtown in great numbers,” Johnston said. “Combined with our downtown safety plan, which we launched a month ago, what we are seeing is overwhelmingly businesses that are on blocks, that are already opened, are seeing massive increase in both foot traffic and revenue, and we're seeing many more leasing requests for downtown commercial spaces once this opens.”
Denver
Denver business owners hopeful as 16th Street reopening events approach
Garrett said the retail vacancy rate for the 16th Street area was 22% and the overall downtown retail vacancy rate is 15%.
Foot traffic downtown near 16th Street is 85% of what it was in 2019, he added.
Garrett and other city leaders said they hope the rebrand will increase that statistic.
As for the cost of the rebrand, Garrett said it’s hard to give an exact price.
“It's been embedded in just overall refresh and repositioning. So, it's really hard to pinpoint a number. I'll also point to the number of, again, partners that are involved here from the partnership, and what we've allocated, what's coming as a part of natural construction within the different departments of the city,” Garrett said.
A weekend of events and concerts called the 16th Street Summer Kickoff starts next weekend on Saturday, May 31.
