City Council will soon consider adding more funding to the 16th Street Mall revitalization project.
On Wednesday, the Business Committee approved a $1,150,000 contract with the Downtown Denver Partnership to continue redesigning and reactivating the strip, meaning it'll go to a full council vote.
DDP began their revitalization of the strip in 2022 when they were initially given $2.4 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars. The plan coincided with the reconstruction of the strip, a now $173 million project that broke ground in April 2022.
The initial funding was phase I of the project, which focused on DDP's ground floor reactivation. That included collecting data on what current businesses and stakeholders were experiencing on the corridor -- basically an assessment of what was working and not working, according to Deborah Cameron, the Chief Business Development Officer at Denver Economic Development & Opportunity. Cameron presented DDP and DEDO's plan regarding the mall during the committee meeting.
DDP is now seeking funding for Phase II of the project, where the organization will start implementing what they discovered.
"These elements will create and implement a new vision for the 16th Street corridor as a major and vibrant anchor for Downtown Denver, the City of Denver and the entire region," Cameron said.
The second phase of the ground floor reactivation process includes more community engagement with business owners, landlords and stakeholders, creating new tenant-landlord relationship strategies, identifying any barriers, both policy-wise and financially, that could effect business owners and lastly, identifying new retail types and location spaces.
The next phase of the project will also go into recruitment and retention efforts, branding and ultimately the public experience, including sitting structures, kiosk layouts and refreshing the Free Mall Ride buses.
With recruitment and retention, Cameron said that looks like a mix of local businesses and out-of-state partners. It also looks at what type of businesses will fit into the "reimagining downtown" goal. Those businesses include grocery stores and daycare centers for workers going back to the office as well as specific retail types such as micro food stands for someone looking for a quick bite.
Part of the effort has already begun with DDP and DEDO's Popup Denver small business incubator program, which gives businesses a chance to test out whether opening a brick-and-mortar space on the strip makes sense for them in the long term.
There are currently two Popup businesses on the strip, Ana's Norwegian Bakeri and streetwear shop Abstract Denver.
During the committee meeting, Councilmember Sarah Parady questioned using ARPA funding for the project.
She explained that instead of funding this type of project, which seeks to attract businesses to the area for an increase in tax dollars, the ARPA funding could be better used to support low-income Denverites who are essentially the backbone of the city's economy.
"Poor people's dollars circulate many, many times in the economy. They circulate many more times than rich people's dollars," Parady said.
She asked Cameron whether DDP or DEDO knew how much sales tax revenue the project would ultimately generate.
Cameron said DEDO doesn't have expected numbers because the organization doesn't have direct access to sales tax information. However, the organization does work with the Department of Finance to look at sales tax revenue numbers by zone. Cameron added that downtown is an area of needed support.
"One of the areas we know definitely has not come back to pre-pandemic levels is this upper downtown area, which is why so many of our efforts are concentrated in that region," Cameron said. "We do feel strongly that these dollars are being well spent. Our downtown is the engine not just for Denver but our entire region. We have to have a healthy and vibrant downtown."
Cameron added that the funds are also going to support local small business owners.
The contract was pushed through committee with a 4-1 vote, with Parady being the no vote.
Besides this contract, the 16th Street Mall reconstruction plan also received a green update in the form of newly planted trees.
According to the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, the tree canopy along the corridor is set to be increased from 150 trees to more than 200 trees. Species will include elm, oak and honey locust. DOTI said the reconstruction project created a new underground soil and irrigation system, which will sustain the trees along the corridor.
As reported by the Denver Post, the project, which was set to be completed at the end of 2024, has been pushed back to the fall of 2025. Issues with sewer lines have caused delays and increased the project's budget but DOTI told the news outlet that the "lessons learned" will lead to a speedier finish.
