The projected growth — about a 1.1% increase compared to this year — is expected to come in part from more people spending money downtown in areas like the 16th Street mall, Johnston wrote in a letter to the City Council.

“We’ve driven economic recovery through a clear, three-step plan: resolve unsheltered homelessness, bring down crime, and reinvest in downtown — an economic engine for all of Denver,” the letter says. “That strategy is paying off.”

Sales taxes, which account for more than half of the city’s annual revenue, are expected to grow by about 5% compared to 2025. On 16th Street, sales tax revenue during a one-month period was up 18% in June compared to the same month last year. But the city’s overall revenue growth is expected to be offset by decreases in property taxes and state marijuana share-back revenue.

“These numbers show that the strategies focused around downtown are working,” Johnston said during a news conference Thursday. “And they’re driving the city’s economic momentum.”

Johnston’s proposed general fund budget for 2027 is $1.68 billion, up 1% compared to 2016. The general fund is the part of the budget that covers many day-to-day expenses.

The positive turn in the city’s budget comes just over a year after the city laid off 169 people in response to budget constraints and eliminated hundreds of vacant positions. Johnston initially announced the layoffs in May 2025, saying that stagnating sales tax revenue and increasing costs made the decision unavoidable.

Under Johnston’s proposed budget for 2027, which still must go through the council review process, the city would maintain most agencies’ budgets while also partly replenishing its reserve fund, which had slipped below the recommended minimum level in recent years.

The suggested target for that savings account is about 15% of all expenditures. Last year, the city dipped down to nearly 10%. The 2027 budget proposes bringing the reserves up to 12% of expenditures.

Johnston’s team does want to spend some of the increased income on things like parks and recreation, pedestrian infrastructure, homelessness, affordable housing, behavioral health and the Denver Sheriff and Fire departments, according to the letter.

Among the proposals, the city would spend:

• $10.4 million on a 2% merit raise for “eligible employees” in 2027. Workers with union contracts, including police, already have scheduled raises.
• $84.5 million to address homelessness, including a pilot for a new family homeless shelter.
• $51 million on new affordable housing units.

Budget hearings with the council will begin the week of Sept. 21. The council must pass a budget by Nov. 9.

Alterra Mountain Company is moving its headquarters to a city-owned building (formerly owned by The Denver Post¶¶Òõap parent company) that has struggled to rent its office space.

The 16th Street rebuild is complete, and free buses are running seamlessly again from Civic Center to Union Station.

The University of Colorado Denver bought prime real estate needed to help fill vacant commercial space on the mall.

And the Downtown Denver Development Authority purchased the struggling Denver Pavilions.

None of these projects are happening by accident. The City of Denver, led by Mayor Mike Johnston’s vision to anchor each block of downtown with an attraction, is engaging in a concerted effort to attract investors.

In total, tax revenue flowing into the Downtown Denver Development Authority (DDDA) . Voters approved a plan to allow the authority to retain tax increment financing in 2024, and now those investments are taking shape.

The area from Union Station to Civic Center Park — often called the Central Business District or midtown — has failed to recover from the COVID work-from-home exodus that devastated our skyscrapers and the businesses that depend on weekday workers.

Desperate times require drastic measures, and this city’s beating heart cannot be allowed to fail. It is through that lens that we now applaud a level of public investment and corporate incentives that we would otherwise be uncomfortable with.

But we urge caution. The DDDA must remember that it is using a finite resource — taxpayer money. Being good stewards of that money is not only essential to the success of their mission, but taxpayers are watching and keeping tabs. Future voters will take note of how these deals play out.

Just last month, an experimental theater closed its doors without ever putting on a show, taking with it a $400,000 taxpayer-funded loan from the DDDA that will likely never be repaid.

The list of positive advances, however, is longer than the list of setbacks.

Alterra Mountain Company announced plans on Thursday to move its headquarters from its existing space in the hip RiNo neighborhood to the old Denver Post building, where the central business district meets Civic Center Park.

The deal – brokered with about $11 million in city and state incentives and loans – only makes sense under the condition that Alterra was considering moving its headquarters to Utah and the money from the DDDA and the state helped inspire the company to stay. We don’t like this arms race of corporate handouts, but we understand why the city must play it at this juncture of history.

The ski company will be an anchor for the southern end of the newly revitalized 16th Street, which, at least for now, has a continuous free shuttle running from the Civic Center transit hub northwest to Union Station. Alterra, which operates the IKON ski pass, and plans to move into the building at 101 W. Colfax Ave. in about a year.

Alterra’s chairman said during an interview Wednesday with The Denver Post that part of what sealed the deal was the vision of the state’s second-largest ski company becoming a part of the city’s civic fabric. We are excited to see how this vision plays out — a sledding hill in Civic Center Park, snowmaking on the now empty gravel pit near the transit hub, or some other urban nod to our mountain sports.

One medium-sized company that only requires employees in office a few times a week moving its headquarters two miles to a new building, isn’t going to fix everything overnight. Downtown is plagued by vacant commercial real estate, skyscrapers selling for pennies on the dollar and a general lack of foot traffic for businesses. There is still open drug use happening on the streets and close to the city’s homeless shelters, large groups gather during the days.

But the Alterra deal comes on the heels of another big announcement. Just as Rock Bottom Brewery announced it was closing its flagship location on 16th Street, the University of Colorado Denver announced it was buying the entire city block that the restaurant called home, including the 25-story tower on Independence Plaza.

The Denver Downtown Development Authority kicked in $4.5 million to help CU Denver buy the property for a total of $28 million. The DDDA is going to launch a small business startup lab in the building, focusing on helping local entrepreneurs build their businesses.

To get a feel for how dire things had become in the area, Independence Plaza last sold for $144 million in 2007.

We are glad that the DDDA is keeping the mall afloat until customers and tenants return, but we are skeptical about plans to pour millions more into the outdoor mall to reconfigure it and add condominiums on surface parking lots behind the mall.

Denver still has a long way to go to get back to the pre-COVID baseline, but with a half-billion dollars, a workable plan of attack and good stewardship of taxpayer money, this city will survive these downtimes.

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, operator of the Ikon Pass, has signed a 12-year lease for 65,000 square feet of space in the high-profile corner building at 101 W. Colfax Ave.

The agreement, made public Thursday, ends weeks of speculation about whether the ski giant would leave Colorado and where it might relocate within Denver if it stayed.

The company plans to spend the next year renovating the space with help of $11 million in state and city incentives, which include a mix of loans, grants and tax credits.

“Ultimately, after considering multiple options in and out of the state and the city, we decided that the Denver Post building specifically was where we wanted to be for the future of Alterra,” said Eric Resnick, chairman of Alterra and CEO of KSL Capital Partners, the private ski company’s owner.

Resnick said he didn’t fully appreciate the intensity of the efforts to revive Upper Downtown, and that KSL Capital wants to be part of those.

Seeing construction equipment at work in Civic Center Park, visible from the balconies of the Denver Post building, helped seal the deal.

A refreshed park is scheduled to reopen about the same time that Alterra moves into its new headquarters.

“This is not us hoping for that to happen in the future. It is seeing that reality coming to life and wanting to be part of it,” he said.

Alterra, which employs up to 25,000 workers at peak winter capacity, expects to eventually employ 400 at its new headquarters, up from 275 at its current space at Zeppelin Station in the RiNo neighborhood.

As the manager of the Denver-owned Winter Park Resort, Alterra, and before it Intrawest, has long had a close working relationship with the city.

That relationship will gain a new dimension as landlord-tenant, pending Denver City Council approval of the lease agreement at its next meeting on Sept. 14.

“We really wanted to have an anchor tenant that would help define the identity of Upper Downtown, and we really want to build that identity around this partner,” said Denver Mayor Mike Johnston.

What Alterra brings is an outdoor industry-focused magnet to Upper Downtown, he said. For a part of Denver that has seen more businesses flee than arrive since the pandemic, it represents a huge win.

The city’s larger vision, supported by the state, is to create a hub where other outdoor recreation businesses, from makers of snow gear to service providers, can set up a base camp and interact with each other.

“We approved $1 million in grants to recruit individual companies to the outdoor recreation hub that are part of this ecosystem,” said Gov. Jared Polis. “Alterra is very much the core anchor of that.”

Alterra won’t manage the hub, but city and state officials hope its presence will attract vendors and other outdoor recreation companies to the building and surrounding area.

Roughly half of the Denver Post building remains vacant, which represents about 150,000 square feet of available space.

After Alterra leases its share, another 85,000 square feet might be available for other outdoor recreation businesses, depending on the city’s own office space needs.

In 2020, the city thought it would need the building for new courtrooms and district attorney offices. In early 2024, it bought the building for $88.5 million, overcoming opposition from some members of City Council.

In June, Denver, in a $13.5 million settlement, took over the master lease from the owner of The Denver Post, which had defaulted on monthly lease payments of $650,000 in August.

Controlling the master lease opened a path for Denver to strike the current deal with Alterra.

Johnston said the demand for more judicial space didn’t pan out as projected. Plans to build new courts, which would have been an expensive undertaking in a city facing budget shortfalls, are off the table.

Plus, if more office space is ever needed, Upper Downtown has plenty of it available.

Of Denver’s 102 largest office towers, the median year of construction is 1980. Built in 2006, the Denver Post building is one of the newest available in that part of Downtown.

And it has something rare in Denver, something that might appeal to outdoor enthusiasts: Balconies that allow tenants to soak up the sunshine and fresh air.

Johnston described the Alterra headquarters and outdoor recreation hub as the eastern capstone on a string of projects that include the repurposing of the Independence Plaza as an education hub and the purchase and eventual revitalization of the Denver Pavilions, a large outdoor retail complex along 16th Street.

“As we’ve talked through each of those neighborhoods throughout 16th Street, this has really been the last one that was the most important for us to get right,” Johnston said.

And the benefits go beyond a single building. Alterra helped make skiing possible on Ruby Hill in southwest Denver; he sees the company and other outdoor recreation tenants turning Civic Center into a hub of wintertime activities.

A retention effort

During the summer, state and local economic development officials scrambled to put together an incentive package robust enough to keep Alterra from moving to Utah, the state’s chief rival in outdoor recreation.

Utah was the first state to create an Office of Outdoor Recreation in 2013, but Colorado was close behind in 2015 with its Outdoor Recreation Industry Office.

In 2017, Denver, with state help, lured the largest snow sports trade show away from Salt Lake City, only to lose it again in 2022.

But losing Alterra would have been a huge black eye for a state that prides itself on being a global hub for the ski industry.

Alterra is North America’s second-largest ski resort operator with 18 destination resorts available under the Ikon Pass, including Arapahoe Basin and the Steamboat Ski Resort.

Colorado is also home to Broomfield-based Vail Resorts, the world’s largest ski company with more than 40 resorts offered via the Epic Pass.

Yet, Alterra’s relocation incentives raise concerns about public interventions in the private market.

Apart from Cherry Creek and Douglas County, most of the region’s office market has a long way to go to recover pre-pandemic vacancy rates.

Upper Downtown may have gained a signature tenant, but Zeppelin Station and the RiNo neighborhood lost one.

“From a public-private sector standpoint, it is a very gray area,” said Bart Allen, a director at Benchmark Commercial Solutions in Denver.

Further complicating matters, Denver will benefit financially to the degree it can fill up a building it owns. It also has financial tools available that struggling private building owners lack in the current environment.

Resnick said the required improvements will take about a year to complete. The company will exercise its option to terminate its lease at Zeppelin Station, up for renewal in 2029, early.

Johnston emphasized that the DDA incentives were conditioned on Alterra moving into a building in Upper Downtown, not into a building the city owned.

The company researched four locations in the area, and it wasn’t a given that 101 W. Colfax would win out in the end.

The city also tried to structure a deal comparable to what a private landlord would have offered, but its financial limitations required going with a different structure.

Normally, landlords fund tenant improvements up front and recover the investment over time via a higher lease rate. But the city didn’t have the money to go that route.

“We didn’t have the capacity to write Alterra a check, so we agreed on a sort of loan forgiveness or a rent‑forgiveness structure to be able to cover some of those tenant improvements,” Johnston said.

A portion of the improvements will be funded through a $7 million loan at 2% interest that the Downtown Denver Development Authority agreed to provide Alterra in July.

That money will become available for other Downtown projects as it is paid back. But Alterra will spend out of pocket for some of the improvements. The city is making up for that by offering a lower lease rate.

Developer Asher Luzzatto, who picked up four distressed office towers at a steep discount and has been approved for a DDDA loan to help convert two of them, would have liked to have landed Alterra as a tenant.

But he is glad the company is coming to Upper Downtown and sees its decision as a rising tide that will lift all boats.

“We need the market to trust that Denver is open for business,” he said. “You can’t do this for every company, but you can do it for some companies that are really reflective of Denver‘s culture and community.”

Alterra fits the bill, he said.

“Looking at it from that perspective,” Tanner Roush sighed late Sunday night after Vegas 5, Colorado 3, “it’s been a pretty rough year to be a Denver fan.”

Welcome to 2026, the year when stars went on the shelf and seasons went off a cliff. Bo Nix’s ankle. Aaron Gordon’s calf. Cale Makar’s upper body. Nathan MacKinnon’s knee. Every time a Front Range team has looked about ready to lift a championship trophy, a key player suddenly couldn’t lift one of their arms. Or legs.

Boston’s a den of spoiled, entitled brats. Los Angeles is smogged with smug. What the heck did Denver faithful do to make the sports gods smite them so? And how do we reverse the curse? A goat? A chicken? Michael Lorenzen?

If one cruel injury is happenstance and twice is bad luck, what’s four times before July? A sign? A message? Cripes, isn’t having to look at the Rockies for seven months penance enough for one town?

“I think this one (hurts more),” Roush, an Avalanche fan from Parker, offered after his burgundy and blue suffered a brutal, historic and inexplicable come-from-ahead loss at Vegas in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final.

“The Bo Nix (injury) was really hard. I’m still worried about him coming back, obviously, with everything (I’ve read).

“But this (Avs-Vegas) series, like, I truly felt that we had this one in the bag. And I guess that’s over-confidence. That’s playoff hockey for you.”

Enjoy it while it lasts, kids. Colorado heads into Game 4 at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday a loss away from elimination from the Stanley Cup Playoffs — an unthinkable, stunning collapse for a roster that had breezed to an 8-1 record over the first two rounds of the postseason against the Los Angeles Kings (4-0 series win) and Minnesota Wild (4-1).

“So yeah. This one hurts,” Roush continued. “Obviously, they all do.”

Thanksgiving 2025: How will we ever find enough PTO to attend three title rallies at Civic Center Park?

Memorial Day 2026: Where will we ever find enough couches for a city’s collective sports therapy?

Sunday evening might’ve been the cruelest of all, if only because it baited us with hope. In the first period, the Avs looked like the Avs again, attacking the Strip with the speed, swagger and savagery of a starving polar bear. Makar’s very presence seemed to give the visitors a kick up their collective backsides.

Yet, just as with Games 1 and 2, after the Golden Knights scored once, the Avs started to fold like a house of casino cards. Watching MacKinnon take a puck to the right knee late in the second stanza portended the wrong kind of juju. Did Jared Bednar during the first intermission?

“I was like, ‘God (expletive) it,'” Roush said. “We looked so good in the first (period) and literally just switched off. I don’t know what (happened). I still don’t know. And then Nate (going down) was the cherry on top.”

Nobody cares what you do to wise-cracking sports columnists, sports gods. But why are you doing this to Tanner? Dude’s an Avs lifer, . That was just before Game 5 of the Minnesota Wild series —  a victory that feels as if it happened two years ago, not barely two weeks prior.

“When (Makar) came here in 2019, my dad was like, ‘holy (expletive), you look like him,'” Tanner recalled. “And it was kind of the inside family joke.”

No joke: Tanner can skate. Pretty well, in fact. He’s 29 now and grew up playing in hockey leagues around the south ‘burbs. Until his graduation from Legend High, Roush was primarily a center or a winger during his salad days. While fast, he wasn’t exactly the best blue line puck-mover of his generation.

“My stick skills weren’t nearly as good as (Makar’s),” Roush chuckled. “If I get handed the puck and try to rip a shot, they would be like, ‘Yeah, we’re playing with the imposter (Cale).'”

When his wife Lexi was coaching lacrosse a few years ago, one her kids looked at Tanner and said, “Oh, my gosh, it’s Cale Makar.”

“And every time he would come to games or practices after that, they’d be like, ‘Heyyyyyy, Caaaaaale,'” Lexi recounted.

“Do you remind your wife how cool it is to be married to Makar, though?” I asked.

“Oh yeah,” Tanner replied. “Many, many times. And then she says, ‘Where’s the money at?’

For winning the contest, Tanner scored two tickets to Game 5 against Minnesota, landing great seats to one of the greatest comebacks in Avs history. Again, that feels like a very, very, very long time ago now.

Roush’s day job is as a marketing specialist with the Heritage Title Company. If All Hail Cale ever needs somebody to double for him as a stunt man or on a commercial shoot, Roush says he’s happy to oblige. He even offered his services to Makar via Instagram.

“He ever get back?” I asked.

“No reply. Still waiting for it,” Tanner cracked. “He’s got time. I’ll give him as much time as he needs.”

Right now, he might need a hug. The sports gods are laughing at us. No team with the best regular-season record in the NHL has won a Stanley Cup since Chicago in 2013.

“You believe in the Presidents’ Trophy Curse?” I wondered.

“Man, I really don’t want to answer that,” Roush replied. “That should tell you everything about it. I don’t want to speak it into existence. But yeah, that answers itself.”

Pretty rough year to be a Denver fan, my friend. The Avs have never rallied to win a seven-game playoff series in which they trailed 0-3. Still, Tanner continues to keep the faith.

“It’s not over ’til it’s over. I’m a Bo-liever, for sure,” Roush said. “And I’m a big fan of Jaylen Waddle, too.”

At this rate, Mr. Waddle may want to take out a little extra insurance before training camp, just to be on the safe side. In December, we were lining up engravers. In June, we’ll be lining up tee times, waiting on a next year that was supposed to be this one.

Saturday. The grand Denver Derby Party is calling it quits, having fulfilled its mission of raising $5 million for the Sean Ranch Lough Foundation. That nonprofit was founded in 2001 in honor of 29-year-old Lough, who died after a mountain biking accident. Twenty-five years later, organizers say, it’s become the largest Derby party west of Kentucky, selling 90,000 tickets and raising the full endowment for the foundation’s scholarship fund.

The final event is, of course, going large: 17,000 square feet of open-air space at McGregor Square, the Kentucky Derby itself on a 66-by-20-foot LED stadium screen, live entertainment and DJs, a fashion contest, and “unlimited” food and drinks with your ticket purchase. All-inclusive tickets are $150 each, with VIP options already sold out. It runs 1-6 p.m. at 1901 Wazee St. in Denver. Find out more about the 21-and-up event at .

Cinco de Mayo 2026

Saturday-Sunday. Denver’s delicious Cinco de Mayo celebration returns Saturday, May 2, and Sunday, May 3, with a impressive menu, given that its host, Civic Center park, is partially shuttered for construction. That hasn’t stopped the nonprofit NEWSED from bringing back chihuahua races, taco-eating contests, a lowrider car show, three stages of live music and dance performances, and dozens of food, drink and retail vendors.

Don’t miss the 11 a.m.-noon parade on Saturday, which leaves the staging area (three blocks west of the City & County Building) and continues through downtown before arriving at Civic Center. Admission is free and all-ages, with items available for purchase. The festival runs 10 a.m.-8 p.m. both days at 101 14th Ave. in Denver. Visit for more details.

SeriesFest Season 12

Wednesday-May 10. Denver’s SeriesFest, which brings global talent to the city for the “Sundance of television” (their words, but also accurate), is celebrating its 12th year with another round of world premieres, pilot competitions, workshops and panels, screenings, awards and a gala. Like a film festival, it’s part industry, part come-as-you-are and all focused on discovery.

This year’s opening-night (May 8) includes advance screenings of the next season of Peacock’s “Ponies” and the Netflix version of “Lord of the Flies,” among others. The event kicks off on  Wednesday, May 6, and continues through Monday, May 10. Most events take place at Denver Film’s Sie FilmCenter, 2510 E. Colfax Ave. in Denver. Tickets range in price per event, with screenings about $19 each. Visit for more details.

Denver Fashion Week’s spring fling

Friday-May 9. It’s time to line up those outfits for Denver Fashion Week, which returns for its spring showing Friday, May 1, and Saturday, May 9. The packed schedule features eight runway shows with workshops, auditions, “new concepts, returning favorites, and inclusive experiences that spotlight both rising designers and established talent,” organizers said. “This season introduces the Outerwear & Athleisure Fashion Show, marks the return of the Swimsuit & Resort Wear Show, and continues the inspiring Adaptive Fashion Show, showcasing fashion innovation for individuals of all abilities.”

The spring events — more will take place later in the year — are at the Furniture Row Showroom, 5445 Bannock St. in Denver. Tickets start at $50 per show, with VIP front and second row runway seats available. Visit for the full schedule.

But in building years, it is a washed-up retail concept in failing health that needs radical action to survive.

Left on its current course, the Pavilions could suffer a slow death, hindering the recovery of the rest of Upper Downtown, according to a panel of experts with the Urban Land Institute who were brought in to offer a diagnosis.

“It has had its place. It has had its moment in the sun, and we believe that it is now time to move on, to close this chapter and start the next one,” Kristen Morris, president of Morris & Fellows, a mixed-use development firm based in Atlanta, told downtown leaders at a presentation earlier this month.

After gathering opinions and touring the Pavilions and the surrounding neighborhood, the ULI panel offered a plan of care more akin to amputating both legs and less like a prescription for statins and exercise.

Tinkering with the tenant mix or giving the three-story development more time to find itself won’t resolve the fundamental issue — stacked outdoor retail hidden away from the street is a concept that stopped working a long time ago, Morris said.

The move away from mall culture to online purchases, generational shifts in shopping preferences, the unexpected loss of downtown office workers — those accelerated the downward spiral, but didn’t cause it.

The development’s decline was underway before the pandemic, and it has failed to recover long after it ended.

The city, which finalized its purchase of the outdoor mall late last year, should demolish the western half of the Pavilions and a good portion of the eastern side to make room for a “culturally significant open urban space,” according to the ULI panel’s recommendations.

In their initial concept, the panel favors an active urban park, finding inspiration from places like in Manhattan and in Cincinnati.

The United Artists theaters should be preserved to provide an indoor gathering space, useful during the colder months. What’s left of the retail space should focus on community-oriented programming with small-scale, local tenants who rotate through, creating a “kaleidoscope” of experiences.

The 800-parking spaces underneath the Pavilions are a valuable, income-generating asset that will be hard to replicate and should be preserved.

Two residential towers with 1,200 units between them should go up on the two empty lots, but in different phases. Those residents are key to turning a one-time tourist retail destination into a neighborhood amenity. Their energy is required to breathe new life into the area.

If Union Station became Denver’s “living room” after its redevelopment, the ULI argues the Pavilions could become Denver’s “front porch.”

“There’s like, really, no end in sight,” Morris warned of the current trajectory. “You can leave it there, and you can continue to let it deteriorate, both economically and performance-wise, as well as the building.”

A convention hotel won’t work

The Denver Downtown Development Authority (DDA), which voters granted $570 million in future tax dollars for revitalization efforts, has made the Pavilions a focal point of its attention.

The DDA spent $37 million of its limited funds to purchase the struggling open-air mall, as well as $23 million for 1505 and 1518 Glenarm Place, two adjacent parking lots along 15th Street that had different owners.

Another $8 million was set aside for renovation costs and lease incentives, not enough to foot the bill for a major demolition and new park.

That the authority has dedicated more than a tenth of its spending capacity to buy up the two blocks and then sought a ULI advisory panel for advice highlights how important it considers the area to Upper Downtown’s revival.

But the panelists wasted no time in quashing two of the ideas floated early on. One involves freshening up the retail and restaurant mix and bringing in more local concepts. As more office workers return and more residents move in, a recovery could eventually take hold.

Another proposal suggests the two lots be used for a large-scale convention hotel that could host gatherings too small to fill up the Colorado Convention Center but too big to fit in area hotels.

Denver eventually will need another convention hotel, which could help it win over meeting planners who don’t like putting attendees in a variety of smaller properties, said Suzanne Mellen, a senior managing director with HVS, a global hospitality consulting and valuation firm headquartered in New York City.

But at best, a hotel on the two undeveloped Pavilion lots could provide about 65,000 square feet of meeting space, which is less than the 100,000 square feet meeting planners would be looking for, she said.

And convention hotels aren’t cheap to build. Construction costs run at $800,000 to $1 million per room, meaning a 1,000-room property could top $1 billion, Mellen said.

The high costs mean substantial public subsidies would be required, requiring a long and drawn-out approval and planning process. The Pavilions needs a more immediate intervention, Mellen said.

“The panel concludes that hotel use is not recommended for the vacant parcels,” she said.

Who makes the call?

Behind the facade of fun destinations like Coyote Ugly and Lucky Strike, behind the memories of family meals at Maggiano’s Little Italy or lunch gatherings at 5280 Burger Bar, hides an uncertain future, one that the panelists warn won’t be resolved by waiting around.

The ULI has guided Denver leaders at critical moments in the past, including where to locate Denver International Airport and the Colorado Convention Center, and how to integrate Coors Field into the LoDo neighborhood.

In July 2022, the for the Speer Boulevard/Cherry Creek corridor. That greenway was actually a redevelopment in the early 1900s of a bunch of shanties and businesses that were using Cherry Creek for waste dumping.

The recent recommendations are tamer and include taking steps to more closely integrate the Auraria campus and Downtown, and bringing more residential and retail onto the campus.

And while the ULI recommendations carry weight and will receive careful consideration, the advisory panel is urging a more extreme and faster course of action, which could generate pushback.

A more detailed report is expected in the next three to six months, and the final call will likely come down to Mayor Mike Johnston and his point person on redevelopment, Bill Mosher, as well as the DDA board, which must approve any spending.

If the amount crosses $500,000, then the Denver City Council gets a say. At the crossroads of those two groups is DDA board member and City Council President Amanda Sandoval.

One of the nation’s leading downtown redevelopment consultants, Brad Segal, president and a founding partner of Progressive Urban Management Associates, is also based in Denver.

He helped get the original Pavilions off the ground in the 1990s, when he headed up the Downtown Denver Partnership.

And if any group were likely to speak up if it saw value in preserving the retail development as it is, that would be Historic Denver. Spoiler alert, it isn’t opposed to tearing down a large part of the Pavilions.

The Denver Post talked to Mosher, Sandoval, Segal and Historic Denver to get their take on what the ULI recommended.

The start of a conversation

“It was well done, really thoughtful and big picture,” said Bill Mosher, Denver’s Chief Projects Officer, of the ULI plan, stopping short of endorsing it as the final word.

“I view it as the start of a conversation,” he added politely.

]Mosher has proven himself a master of turning the city’s losses into wins. He has become Denver’s patron saint of impossible development causes.

His signature victory in a long list involved turning Union Station, a neglected Amtrak stop, into “Denver’s living room” complete with an active transit hub, high-end hotel and restaurants.

His messiest save was the Asarco Smelter, a once-vital industrial site that helped make Denver prosperous in the mining days. But the land paid a heavy price. After decades of remediation, Mosher helped it find a new life as the Crossroads Commerce Park.

Mosher said he was joking with the ULI panel that reactions they could expect would range from nostalgia to good riddance, from “we celebrated our prom there, please keep it,” to “it has had its day and needs to be demolished.”

“There is something between in my view,” he said. “We need to be thoughtful.”

Although it is struggling, the Pavilions is still 60% occupied with some loyal tenants, which is more than can be said of many of the surrounding office towers. It contains 350,000 square feet of space, which would be hard and costly to replicate.

Mosher said he was surprised that the two lots along 15th Street were never developed, and that the DDA was able to put all the parcels under one umbrella. If residential towers are the way to go, he sees 800 units as a more manageable number than the 1,200 the ULI has proposed.

The calls for 2,000 new housing units in Upper Downtown, but that represents more of a starting point than a final destination.

L.A. developer Asher Luzzatto has purchased four distressed office , pennies on the dollar, and plans to convert them, with the help of DDA support, into 1,200 housing units.

Mosher may need more convincing that a hotel won’t work. He is the CEO of the Denver Convention Center Hotel Authority and the lead developer on the 1,100-room Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center, which was also considered a long-shot project at the time.

“We will look at what they say. I don’t know if it will be our roadmap,” Mosher said. “It provides some food for thought and a vision that makes us think in a larger context.”

Denver City Council President Amanda Sandoval said she appreciates the work that the ULI panel put into its recommendations, and agrees with most, but not all of them.

“I loved the idea of preserving the theater and connecting that to the Sundance Film Festival,” she said. She also “loved” the idea of adding two residential towers instead of a convention center hotel.

“I am not so sure about their recommendation of a park,” Sandoval said.

Rather than another green space, she envisions something more akin to a community gathering space surrounded by street-level retail, like a mercato or plaza that could hosts farmers markets in the summer and the Christkindlmarkt in December.

The DDA is investing heavily to revive two downtown parks, including one that is only a few blocks away from the Pavilions.

“I want to see those investments come forward,” Sandoval said.

The DDA is pouring $30 million into the redevelopment of Civic Center park, with another $7 million to overhaul the McNichols Building, which will add a garden dining area and an arts marketplace. The first phase is expected to cost $50 million.

The “, which rebuilds the stretch west of Arapahoe Street between 16th and 17th streets.

The DDA has approved $5 million in support, with $2.5 million coming from the Elevate Denver Bond Program, $1 million from Great Outdoors Colorado, and $19.5 million from Denver Parks & Recreation.

What will take the stage?

The land that now hosts the Denver Pavilions was part of a larger theater district that served as a draw for city residents looking for entertainment. Only the Paramount Theatre remains of that era.

In the push for urban renewal, the city tore down several beautiful buildings on the land, said Brad Segal, the urban consultant.

For more than two decades, the land sat fallow, hosting parks until the land was developed by Bill Denton and the Entertainment Development Group. Ken Gart and Gart Properties purchased the Pavilions in 2008.

Mosher was also active in trying to fill in the gaps along 16th Street. Segal, as director of the Downtown Denver Partnership at the time, was involved in the early stages.

Segal said a key takeaway out of the session for him was that the Denver Pavilions is an outdated retail format and most likely won’t be retail again. He agrees that a convention center hotel is a nonstarter, and he wishes the panel had gone beyond a single recommendation of an urban park.

The word carries different connotations for different people, and he envisions more of a town square, a point of comparison being the space in front of Union Station.

“When you characterize something as a park, that might have been a fumble,” he said.

Although compelling, the ULI recommendations are more important in terms of what they said not to do than what to do.

Reactions are mixed on tearing down the lion’s share of 350,000 square feet of retail space.

Sandoval, who has warm memories of time spent there with her children, questioned if a way could be found to create active gathering spaces without demolishing so much of the complex.

After three difficult years of construction along the full length of the former 16th Street Mall, she questions whether the area could survive another disruptive project.

Not communicated by anyone was a sense that the Denver Pavilions represents an architectural gem worthy of historic preservation, or that it should be preserved as a time capsule to late 1990s retailtainment.

Denver’s ordinance on historic designation requires a minimum of 30 years, more generous than most jurisdictions, which require 50 years.

That may reflect a realization that buildings are most vulnerable to demolition at that age, said Jay Homstad, senior director of preservation advocacy with Historic Denver, in an email.

Historic Denver, in an official statement, said the group was among the many stakeholders that the ULI team consulted during its weeklong study process in Denver.

“We’re supportive of the proposals, particularly the approach that retains a significant portion of the building, including the movie theater, while opening up space along 16th Street for the kind of street-facing retail that reflects how people actually use urban spaces today,” the group said in its statement.

Historic Denver also said it welcomed the addition of housing, which should “bring much-needed life to a part of downtown that has been struggling for activation.”

The development timeline for the Pavilions has been corrected. Bill Denton and the Entertainment Development Group built the Denver Pavilions, which in 2008 was acquired by Gart Properties. 

The long-running Mile High 420 Festival comes to Civic Center Park with rappers Juicy J, Paul Wall, Mike Jones, That Mexican OT and Trap Dickey. Meanwhile, Red Rocks Amphitheatre’s signature 420 on the Rocks concert will be headlined by Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube, with support from Too Short, and Czarface. The latter is a supergroup featuring Inspectah Deck of the Wu-Tang Clan and hip-hop duo 7L & Esoteric.

How will fans decide which one to attend? Ticket price might be a factor.

Though Mile High 420 Fest was traditionally a free event for adults 21 and up, organizers began charging for tickets in 2025. This year, it costs $30 for general admission entry or $185 for VIP, which includes access to a reserved lounge, private full bar, the front of the stage and a swag bag of 420 gifts. (Tickets available at .)

420 on the Rocks is pricier, with tickets starting at $199. (Tickets available at .)

Given that 420 falls on a Monday this year, timing could also play into decisions.

Mile High 420 Fest is typically a day party with a plume of smoke emerging from the crowd during a communal celebration around 4:20 p.m. The 2026 schedule has not yet been released, though the website says Juicy J performs at 4:20 p.m. From a logistics standpoint, it¶¶Òõap also unclear how the festival plans to work around construction currently underway at Civic Center Park. (The festival has not responded to inquiries from The Denver Post about what attendees can expect.)

By contrast, the 420 on the Rocks show starts at 7 p.m. (doors at 5:30 p.m.), making it a nightcap to the day. Come to think of it, that means locals could potentially hit both parties — if their stash lasts that long.

But with construction taking over most of the park this year, its biggest events will have to move, shrink or split into pieces. That’s due to the lack of regular space for beer tents, music stages, vendors and the public. The first phase, which includes reorienting the iconic Greek Theater on the south side of the park, is set to be completed by summer 2027.

“We are working with permit holders to continue to have limited activations in the park,” said Jenna Harris, downtown parks program manager for the city. “We’re doing our best to accommodate events as they come up, but it is a major, $50 million construction project. The more we delay it for big events that are about to happen around the perimeter, the harder it is to meet those milestones.”

The renovation project, which officials say will refresh Civic Center for another 100 years, includes glowing up the Greek Theater with a better stage and seating. “A new canopy arched over the stage will support contemporary theatrical equipment and provide shade and rain protection,” city officials wrote in a statement. “The design also improves accessibility and circulation through interconnected paths that better connect the park’s various outdoor spaces, including a new plaza commemorating the Gang of 19 protest and disability rights movement.”

The changes will close much of the park, including the Greek Theater, Central Promenade, and South Plaza of Civic Center, where big festivals often set up stages and vendors line the curving sidewalks. To continue at Civic Center this year, events must adapt.

Here’s what we know so far:

, which celebrates cannabis culture every year on April 20, is still scheduled to take place in Civic Center, according to city records. Event producers couldn’t be reached for comment, but general admission will cost $28.52 this year. Expect live entertainment and food vendors, although performers had not yet been announced at the time of this writing.

, May 2-3, draws about 400,000 total visitors each year. In 2026, the vibrant celebration of Mexican independence and culture will still take over parts of Civic Center, while shutting down Broadway just east of the park.

“The overall footprint is remaining almost the exact same, and we are reorganizing a few festival components that are impacted by construction,” said Austin Tafoya, special events manager for NEWSED Community Development Corp., which produces Cinco de Mayo. “Other than that, we will utilize the surrounding streets as we have in the years past.”

, the entertainment portion of Outside Magazine’s industry event in Denver, held its second successful gathering at Civic Center May 31-June 1 last year. This year, it’s moving to the Auraria Campus due to space constraints. Taking place May 29-31, producers changed the name from Outside Festival to Outside Days, added an extra day, and booked top live acts such as Death Cab for Cutie, My Morning Jacket and Cage the Elephant.

Denver PrideFest, which typically takes place in late June and draws more than 500,000 total visitors, rivals Cinco de Mayo in size and footprint. This year they’ll reimagine the event from the ground up, said organizers at the nonprofit LGBTQ organization The Center on Colfax, CEO Kim Salvaggio said.

The Denver Pride Parade will move to 17th Street on Sunday, June 28 (from East Colfax Avenue), while the Denver Pride Festival will be held the same day on 16th Street. The annual Denver Pride 5K will take place at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 27, starting at Cheesman Park Pavilion. A route is still being finalized, according to Salvaggio.

Independence Eve, a free, popular program that taps live orchestral music and a drone show to celebrate Independence Day, will not take place this year on July 3, said Eric Lazzari, executive director of the Civic Center Conservancy, which works with the city to program and maintain the park.

However, there will still be throughout the year, he said, such as the return of the food truck gathering Civic Center Eats, a Dia de Los Muertos celebration, and a local-vendor Night Market, among many others.

“We haven’t seen many public announcements yet about the bigger festivals, but we’ll have about 60 to 80 events over the course of the next year produced by Civic Center Conservancy and partners in the park, including some new events we’re working on.”

The long-running A Taste of Colorado festival, the food event that typically runs on Labor Day weekend, has not used Civic Center for a large-scale festival since 2022, so don’t expect that to jump to another large location. And by the time it’s fall, start looking for the wildly popular Christkindlmarket and Mile High Tree attraction to stay put at the Auraria Campus, where they moved for their 2025 event to make way for Civic Center’s November groundbreaking.

“The reality of an urban park in the 21st century is that it has to work for groups of 5,000 or 20,000,” Lazzari said. “On the other side of this construction, we’ll see a blend of what it’s traditionally been, but also how it is gathering people in smaller sizes for new events.”

hasn’t flashed a smile like that on the ice since, what, June 2022?

Just saying.

“I’ve been here a short while, and I think we’ve got what it takes (to win it all),” Kadri said Sunday after helping the Avalanche snatch a scrappy shootout win over the Minnesota Wild in Naz’s Denver return.

“Being around the guys and understanding their level of focus … they understand that we’ve got ourselves a great opportunity here. And when everyone’s on that same page … (During the) 2022 (Stanley Cup run), that’s exactly the feeling I had. So, I mean, there’s a lot of work to be done. Nobody’s going to give it to us. But we’re going to work for it.”

Speaking of work, it only took Kadri about a period-and-a-half to remind Avs fans exactly what they’d missed about him. The poking. The prodding. The pressing.

With 7:41 to go in the second stanza, the veteran Avs forward closed in and nagged Wild defenseman Brock Faber behind the Minnesota goal — intercepting Quinn Hughes’ drop pass for Faber in the process.

“I think we had some good pressure on the forecheck,” Kadri said. “Made a good read, picked off a pass and found Nate in the slot. He’s going to bury that.”

Whenever MacKinnon’s lurking nearby, it only takes a split second to turn a moment of chaos into utter genius.

Sure enough, Kadri spotted a charging Nate Dogg all alone in the right face-off circle, and fed the Avs center a laser from goalie Jesper Wallstedt’s blind spot. MacKinnon celebrated the gift by launching a wrister over the Wild netminder’s shoulder, putting the hosts on the board with a 1-0 lead.

Cue that smile. Oh, doctor. It was luminous. It’s the one MacKinnon saves for Cup clinchers, downtown victory parades, and reunions with his closest pals. Nate Dogg hugged Kadri. Avs fans hugged one another.

NHL? You’re

Lord Stanley? We’ve got a table

The helper was Naz’s first point with the Avs since his winning goal in overtime at Tampa to close out Game 4 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals.

Mike Penny actually saw that last one in the flesh. Sort of. The Avs diehard was part of a pack of about seven “KADRI 91” sweaters sitting shoulder to shoulder in Sections 128 and 130 Sunday.

“It was amazing,” Penny said of that Naz game-winner. “We were catty-corner from where the goal got scored. And we saw these four Avalanche fans just jumping up and down. And we’re like, ‘They must have scored! They must have scored!’

“So we started jumping up and down. And then next thing you know, the whole crowd erupts.”

“Even the Lightning fans?” I wondered.

“Well, not really,” Penny replied. “But all the Avs fans in the crowd.”

Can’t make this stuff up, kids.

“We knew Naz was coming back (today), right? So we all decided to keep our tickets,” Penny’s friend Marc Angel explained. “And we were all like, ‘Look, we are wearing the Naz (sweaters on Sunday).'”

Angel showed me a group text they’d put together after Avs GM Chris MacFarland landed Kadri from Calgary this past Friday. a coordinated effort to make sure everybody nabbed those old 91s out of the back of the closet. Like Colorado’s power play, it takes a village, sometimes.

“Ever year, (Penny) would get mad at me and tell me, ‘He’s coming back, he’s coming back, I know he’s coming back,'” Angel recalled. “This year, it actually happened.”

“Look, I kept the sweater,” Penny countered. “I don’t know what else you want!”

One more Cup?

One more summer cigar at Civic Center park?

“I’ve never been a (trade) deadline guy,” Kadri said. “But, you know, to come here and play in front of these fans and play with this team is exactly what I could have asked for.”

If Sunday was any indication, the love affair between Avs fans and Kadri burns as hot as ever.

Derek Huffman brought a 2019-2020 game-worn No. 91 with him from Thornton for Sunday’s homecoming. He’s got two more Naz sweaters back home.

“I call him, like, a Claude Lemieux. Like a hemorrhoid,” Huffman said. “The ones you want on your team. And hate when they’re not on your team.

“The guy just pokes and pokes and knows where to poke at.”

Huffman was on a Teams call in his home office around 2-ish this past Friday afternoon when news of the Kadri trade broke.

His daughter, working upstairs, let outt a cry.

“OH MY GOD!”

She went running down the steps and burst into Derek’s room. Huffman turned his mute on and his camera off. Why let a business call ruin a moment of absolute elation?

“We landed him,” she told Huffman. “Oh my God.”

“For what?” he queried.

Once they found out?

Oh. My. God.

“It’s the best thing in the world. I think (Kadri) might be the missing piece,” Huffman gushed. “When you add that back in there and the grit — you already saw it in the beginning of the game, just a grit, (his) back-checking. Getting his face in the middle of the net and everything else. Just being him.”

Naz skated with the top line and opened on the first power-play unit.  With 13:03 to go in the first period, the Avs ran a video tribute to Kadri’s first Denver stint, capped by a WELCOME HOME message on the scoreboard.

Kadri looked up, briefly, then wagged a gloved finger in appreciation. As the applause continued, his gaze turned back quickly to the ice.

“It’s almost like a ‘pinch-me’ type moment,” Kadri said later. “Like, ‘Wow, this is crazy. Hey, guys, can you settle down? I’ve got to focus here.’  But no, of course, I love the noise. I love the support. And these fans are special.”

You’ve heard of fans who can’t wait to drive a player to the airport, right? Avalanche faithful apparently tried to get Kadri from DIA back to Ball Arena quicker after his plane landed late Saturday night.

“You get spotted?” I asked Naz.

“Several times, yeah,” Kadri replied. “But they actually helped me out with my luggage.”

Denver fans with the assist. Naturally. Some legends write themselves. And some sequels are worth the wait.

The reimagined event introduces a new format and smaller footprint, cutting the main festivities down to a single day, according to nonprofit producer .

“At a time when LGBTQ+ rights are being challenged nationwide, Denver Pride 2026 stands firmly in both celebration and resistance,” The Center said in a statement. “Pride is where visibility becomes protection, joy becomes resistance, and community becomes strength — and this year, we are activating our entire city in service of that vision.”

Instead of focusing on one weekend mid-summer, as Denver Pride did June 28-29, 2025, producers are emphasizing all of June as Denver Pride (June is Pride month in general in North America and Europe), with citywide cultural events, nightlife, family programming, and community gatherings. Details are forthcoming.

The Denver Pride Parade will move to 17th Street on Sunday, June 28 (from East Colfax Avenue), while the Denver Pride Festival will be held the same day on 16th Street.

The annual Denver Pride 5K will take place at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 27. A route is still being finalized.

“With construction impacting some of our traditional gathering spaces, we’ve taken this moment to reimagine Pride in ways that ensure more people can see themselves reflected,” organizers wrote. “This year’s theme, ‘This Is Denver Pride,’ centers historically underrepresented communities — including BIPOC and trans community members, sober folks, families, and more.”

This year’s event is also closely tracking its sponsors to ensure their values align with The Center’s, the organization said. “We will not take money from companies who sponsor wars abroad or terrorizing our neighbors at home,” according to the statement.

The 2026 Pride celebration marks 52 years since activists met in Cheesman Park to create the first Denver Pride event, The Center said. Now it’s “one of the five largest Pride celebrations in the country — and the only one of our size produced by an LGBTQ+ community center.” Past events have drawn around 500,000 people to Civic Center.

This isn’t the first time Pride has had to adapt to a changed environment. During the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020, organizers moved the event fully online to comply with social distancing and health guidance.

This year, the in-person aspect is the focus. A calendar on , which launches at noon Monday, lets attendees make their own slate of events, with notable gatherings including “an all-abilities-welcome hike with the Mile High Queer Club and a joyful dog drag show at Skiptown,” The Center wrote.