Denver’s 16th Street (formerly 16th Street Mall) will fully reopen next month after three years of construction.
The project’s completion will come with an all-day celebration, starting at 11 a.m. on Oct. 4.
The reopening comes exactly 43 years after the original opening of the pedestrian mall in 1982. Before then, 16th Street was open to automobiles.
The city already threw a reopening party for the mall back in June, but a few blocks were still under construction.
Mayor Mike Johnston’s administration is hoping that businesses on the street recover quickly. About 30 percent of the storefronts on the street were vacant as of June — a result of years of street closures as well as a broader downturn in the city center.
What’s new:
The remodel cost around $175 million. The Downtown Denver Partnership also spent $100,000 on a marketing project that resulted in the renaming.
The street’s bus lanes are now clustered together in the center of the mall; the old layout had a sizable portion of the pedestrian mall sitting between the two bus lanes. The project also included a modernization of the underground sewer system and new cosmetic features like trees and benches.
The revamp also included more than 20 new patios and the introduction of “common consumption” areas where people can openly drink alcoholic beverages from local businesses.
A litany of new businesses have also arrived on the mall with help from DDP and the Downtown Development Authority, ranging from ice-cream kiosks to restaurants, though many older businesses have closed.
