Dive Brief:
- Denver voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure authorizing $570 million in city bonds to revitalize the downtown area.
- The city plans to use the money — approved by over 80% of voters — to invest in housing, support local entrepreneurs, revitalize public spaces and bring in new businesses.
- The city created a plan to guide how this money will be spent, based on surveys of residents and visitors. The city council will vote on that plan in December.
Dive Insight:
Like many communities, Denver has seen a slow post-pandemic recovery in its downtown, the city said in a press release. Foot traffic is 67% of 2019 numbers, and more than 13 million square feet of office and retail space is vacant, according to an October report by the Common Sense Institute, a Colorado-based research organization.
The Urban Institute named the Colorado city as one of the top five U.S. cities prime for office-to-residential conversions, given its office real estate market and housing needs.
Denver’s downtown revitalization plan involves expanding the Downtown Development Authority, a body that allows the city to use some of the incremental taxes collected in its central business district to reinvest in that area. Currently, the authority covers the area of Union Station and Market Street Station, but it wants to expand to a much larger swath of the city center.
The city council is expected to vote on those new boundaries in December, at the same time it will vote on the development plan for the downtown area. If the plan is approved, the city will immediately open applications for downtown revitalization projects to receive funding.
The $570 million in bonds will be repaid by tax increment financing, according to the Downtown Denver Partnership. This financing tool allows cities to use the new tax revenue that projects generate to finance future improvements in the area. The total repayment cost for Denver’s bonds will be up to $847 million.
