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DENVER -- If you have driven or walked a few blocks in any direction from 6th Ave. and Broadway, you've seen the changes.
An eight-story luxury apartment tower under construction where single family homes once stood at 7th & Grant. Another luxury tower nearing completion on Speer near Bannock. Still another one on Speer and Grant.
It's not just housing that's changing the face of those neighborhoods.
A multi-story out patient medical center is under construction on the Denver Health medical campus.
"It will be 300,000 square feet," said Associate Chief Operating Officer Wade Ebersole. "We'll be able to complete nearly a million visits when it's fully occupied, which is a 50 percent increase in the number of visits that we're able to perform at our current site."
Existing buildings see extensive change
Even existing buildings are undergoing extensive change.
The old Famous Pizza on South Broadway at Bayaud has been gutted.
What was once Tony's Market, at 9th and Broadway, has been transformed into Broadway Market, a food hall with multiple food concepts, a central bar and two locally-owned boutiques.
The market's chief storyteller, Bryant Palmer, said it will feature some of Denver's best chefs all under one roof when it opens Friday.
"We really want this place to be a community gathering place for people to eat, drink, hang out and spend time with other folks," Palmer said, adding that Broadway Market was designed with the changing face of Cap Hill and the Golden Triangle in mind.
"Denver has been growing so fast," he said, "and with an influx of new people, they start looking for places to go and things to do."
One of the things they can do, he said, is the "bottoms up beer wall."
It's a new serve yourself beer tap that fills glasses from the bottom up.
"You get a card up front that you can use for the entire market," Palmer said. "You flash it in front (of the reader,) pick which beer you want and your glass fills up with beer."
Mixed feelings about change
Residents who live or work in the area are excited about most of the changes.
"I think there are a lot of cultural benefits to change," said Robin Rasure. "There's great food in Denver now, and there's a lot of art that wasn't here, when we were growing up."
"I don't mind the new stuff coming in," said one resident, who asked to remain anonymous. "I'm just sort of sad when I see old things going away."
He was referring to Famous Pizza, a restaurant that had stood on the northeast corner of S. Broadway and Bayaud for 47 years.
There are also growing pains.
Several residents said it's getting harder to find parking spaces when they visit the fast developing neighborhoods.
"There's a lot of changes, but I think it's exciting," said Marla Gioia. "I think the new development brings jobs to the area. It revitalizes areas that weren't visited as often."
The new out patient medical center at Denver Health is a prime example. In addition to the construction jobs, Mr. Ebersole said it will support about 1,000 employees. Some of them existing, but also new
employees.
"It will be our second largest building on campus," he said.
Ebersole said Denver Health will also build a parking garage to go with the new out patient center.
He said it will be constructed at 5th and Acoma, and will be the largest on campus.