(Music) I think any city that has a vibrant culture has a vibrant downtown.

It's more than just having a really fantastic airport that flies everywhere.

It's more than just having access to the outdoors that very few cities can rival.

That's our brand.

But the city itself needs to be above a certain threshold of multiculturalism, of attracting cultural institutions, where you can meet people.

There's some nightlife.

That's what makes a city a city, and it's what makes the world's great cities great.

I've always believed that the 16th Street Mall is the heart and soul of our city.

When I say the word "heart," I mean it is the energy.

It is the vibrancy.

It is the arts.

It is the sports.

It is the restaurants.

It is the transit systems that all converge in Lower downtown, on the mall.

So that's the heart, and the soul is our spirit.

(Music) People love 16th Street.

I'm not the only one.

I've been fascinated with it since I was a little kid.

From an early age, my parents would always take me downtown.

We went for parades and breakfast with Santa when I was seven years old.

And theen as a teenager, I would come downtown on the bus, go to the library to do research or do my banking, and I just love being down there.

That's my fascination with downtown Denver, and 16th Street particularly.

I was always on 16th, so.

(Music) I was a student of Dr.

Tom Noel, also known as Dr.

Colorado at the University of Colorado Denver And one semester he said, "Pick any place in Colorado and write a history of it."

And I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

(Music) Before the 1880s, well, maybe the late 1870s, Denver's main street was Larimer.

The city hall was built there on 14th and Larimer, and the city's best hotel was at 18th and Larimer.

And people thought Larimer would remain the main street of Denver for for years, but it was the horse car line that turned from Larimer onto 16th Street that shifted the momentum so that it extended up 16th instead of staying on Larimer.

(Music) But also, Horace Tabor, the silver mining millionaire who'd made a fortune in Leadville was very interested in making his mark on the Denver cityscape.

And at the corner of 16th and Larimer, not only was it the first five-story building, It was the first one was a dressed stone facade instead of brick, and the first one was an elevator.

It housed the first National Bank.

It had the first telephone exchange.

He built an opera house at 16th and Curtis, Denver's most beautiful theater for years, and it was bustling because everyone came to 16th to do everything.

One of the real highlights of the mall, of course, is the DNF Tower, which for years was the tallest building in Denver.

Everybody would go and go shopping there, go have a tea there, they had a tea room, and go to the very top where you got the best view of Denver.

And that tower later becomes a sparking point for the preservation movement.

The Urban Renewal Authority was tearing down much of downtown, including a large part of 16th Street, but History Colorado and the preservationists said, "No, that's the symbol of the city.

Don't tear down History Colorado."

So they tore down the store that was attached to it, the Daniels and Fisher store.

You can still see the scar, if you look on the side of the tower, where the old building was ripped away, but the tower was saved.

So the Daniels and Fisher Tower was modeled after the Campanille of Saint Marks in Venice.

In 1902, this medieval tower that had stood for centuries collapsed into a pile of bricks and the Venetians decided to rebuild it.

There was a much worldwide fascination with their efforts, and all around the world, architects decided to build towers that looked like the Cap and Isle of St.

Mark's.

(Music) And so that's why we have one.

(Music) When they put lights in Civic Center originally, they also lit up the street lights along 16th Street.

It was really a thrill to go down there and see the city and county building go down 16th Street and find shops open and bright lights lighting up the wholestreet.

And places like the DNF Tower actually put a big Santa Claus at 20 feet high.

(Music) The 16th Street Mall was already a reality, and the previous administration, Mary McNichols and the business community and RTD built out the mall.

It was probably one of the most successful malls in the United States, because it was a mile long.

But back in those days, there were about 150,000 people who worked downtown, and so it was very vibrant.

(Music) And then when I became mayor, we went into a recession.

And in the recession, 30% of the Class A office spaces in downtown became vacant.

Our unemployment rate was 2% above the national average.

We had record foreclosures, record bankruptcies.

Every sector of the Colorado economy imploded.

We used to have very nice clothing stores in downtown on the mall.

They moved to the suburbs, all to the malls, because the malls were being built all around Denver.

And a number of the other stores left, so slowly downtown started to deteriorate.

And so my job was to find a way to revitalize downtown.

And so we came up with the idea of small business support, providing financial assistance to small businesses to help them stay in downtown.

We tried to diversify the economy, because we were heavily reliant on oil and gas.

We wanted to get into high tech and other sectors of the economy, so we wouldn't rely on the price of oil and gas going up and down.

And we then started to provide incentives, and slowly the office spaces started to fill up.

And then we made lower downtown a historic district, because people were losing so much money, they were knocking down these beautiful buildings and making them parking lots.

And I worked with historic Denver, and he said, "No, we're losing all these beautiful buildings."

And that's why when you walk to Lower downtown, whether you're going to Coors Field, you still see all those old buildings.

Because I wanted to marry the history of Denver with the future of Denver.

I grew up in the house of someone who was building a tech company.

And I watched him take that company public from zero employees to 1,600 employees.

About five years into practicing law, I realized, you know, I want to be part of something that's more creative, that I'm building, something that's giving back more clearly to society.

And so I had the idea of a cashback mobile app.

Over the years, we've grown the company now to over 800 employees.

And it's really that creative part that is why I changed from career one to career two.

The spine of Denver is 16th Street Mall, and the part of Denver that's the most kind of iconic and distinctive culturall is the lower downtown part.

All those buildings carry the character of the city, much more than the skyscrapers that were built in the 80s and other parts of town.

And so we wanted to be in a Lodo on 16th Street Mall.

And that is why we made such a priority of signing a 10-year lease there.

(Cheering) (Music) I took the leap in 2005 when I opened Parallel 17 in Uptown.

And at that time, that stretch of 17th Avenue was still growing into what we now call Denver's Restaurant Row.

And that project really, I would say, helped shape who I am as a chef and as an entrepreneur.

And it showed me the power that hospitality has in revitalizing neighborhoods and bringing people together.

(Music) In 2013, I launched Olive & Finch with really a clear goal.

I really wanted to create a welcoming neighborhood spot that offered value and chef-driven food and scratch-made meals at affordable prices.

And that really gave us the ability to scale to 16th Street.

(Music) Well, 16th Street is an incredible example of how the Downtown Denver Partnership works as truly a partner.

We have led a lot on the business outreach.

We have advised on a lot of the urban design elements with our team and worked really closely with the departments at the city.

So as we look at the future, that's truly what we're leaning into and wanting to recreate, is this is the place where all of Denver celebrates, loves, and makes memories.

The Downtown Denver Partnership had this new program to revitalize 16th Street Mall.

There were a couple hundred businesses that applied, and we were one of the first six that got selected.

(Music) I started Tea With Tae in April 2020, so Rod and I just got married two years prior to that.

And then COVID kind of happened right around then, but I started it as basically a side project.

I wanted to give somebody a gift, a beautifully packaged gift of tea, but I couldn't find anything.

That wasn't just a cardboard box that was in a store.

So I put together this beautiful box called our Tea Bento box.

It was beautiful, and then there was maybe a market for it.

(Music) The exposure of in-person, face-to-face with your customers, you can't you can't replicate it online.

It's just impossible.

We have a little physical space here in the warehouse where people can come in and pick up their orders, and we get to interact with them.

But it's still not the same as having that cafe where you could actually serve your customers a cup of tea and let them try it and taste it and experience the product right then and there.

(Music) Downtown Denver hasn't fared quite as badly.

We're nowhere near where we were in 2019.

What's keeping workers and tourists away and how the city hopes to lure them all back?

The 16th Street Mall is the most visited place in Colorado, but since the pandemic, the mall has been quieter with fewer shoppers and more empty storefronts.

Small business Tea with Tae opened on 16th Street last year, but soon safety concerns popped up.

One thing that made it really difficult was the homelessness and safety and drugs.

The first day we opened, someone came by and just broke the window when we had customers in there.

We had people selling needles.

I mean, honestly, a lot of problems that are just really challenging, and I think it's what a lot of cities faced after COVID.

They're not the only business on the mall struggling.

When that happens in front of your retail location, people get scared and they don't come in.

It has definitely affected us.

From 2019 to 2022, there was a more than 20% increase in Denver County's unhoused population, according to point-in-time surveys from the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative.

We had to call the 16th Street Mall security multiple times, and then we had to call the actual police, maybe what, like five to ten times, I would say.

We had to keep multiple staff members at the cafe at all times So instead of just paying one person, we had to pay two people to keep our customers and our staff safe as well.

After just six months in business, Tea with Tae closed the doors at the end of 2022.

(Music) It was difficult to activate that space.

It was difficult for difficult for those businesses to operate.

Youn know, people didn't feel comfortable coming down with the unhoused community.

There were a lot of blind corners and a lot of areas where people could hide.

It created a challenge because now we're dealing with a perception of safety, too.

A lot of people stayed out of downtown because they came downtown and saw a bunch of fences and a bunch of hazardous signs.

And they thought, oh, I guess they're closed for business.

That made it hard for restaurants or bars or stores that rely on foot traffic.

We lost some businesses over those three years or people that didn't renew leases or moved on or moved elsewhere.

And so we have a really dedicated effort once the construction was done to make sure we can actually bring back the retailers that bring the street to life.

(Music) There are really two reasons why the renovation of 16th Street became important.

And this really came to light before the pandemic.

Primarily, this is actually an infrastructure project.

When you have a transit corridor, inevitably you need maintenance.

The trees were having a hard time surviving because the infrastructure beneath the ground was not deep enough in order to support them.

So we often say that enough in order to support them.

about 80 percent of the project is actually what you don't see today.

Then we came on and layered in the new pavers, the new landscape, the new hardscape with all the new tables and chairs and programming elements.

And that is really reason number two for the project, is to refresh the space and modernize it so that it's as relevant for the next 40 years as it was when it opened in 1992.

We have come in with a different paver and a different texture so it's not slippery when it's wet.

And we've also upgraded the drainage so that they will not have the problem with the tree's thaw.

The mole itself was not ADA compliant either.

Additionally, the trees at that time, they were in little concrete boxes.

They didn't grow well.

So part of this design was to put in a soil cell with a thousand cubic foot soil per tree.

(Music) We had meetings with each individual business and business owner and we got feedback to use this lower fence, this crowd control fence that you can see, and having more wayfinding signs right over the walkway where people could actually see that's how you get into a business.

(Music) We start this Monday at 4 o'clock with a man in custody, now accused of stabbing four people this weekend in separate incidents along Denver's 16th Street Mall.

The stabbings occurred randomly along Denver's 16th Street Mall on Saturday and Sunday evenings.

Two of the victims died, including flight attendant Celinda Levno, who was staying in Denver on a layover.

We looked into Caudill's criminal history and it shows a troubled past full of multiple arrests for assault and criminal mischief.

We put ten more police officers in that vicinity, both on foot, on bicycles, motorcycles and cars, just a greater presence down there.

And you know, we are working with the downtown Denver Authority to help us pay for additional foot patrols and so there's just a constant presence in that area.

(Music) If you go into the target on 16th Street right now, everything's under lock and key.

You can't even get a you know, a jar of, you know, lotion without having to go ask someone to unlock it for you, right?

That's that's off-putting when everything's like you're in a sort of locked down environment feel.

So retail depends on safety.

Bigger picture, you know, we're reducing crime, but it just takes one or two high profile crimes to undo a lot of those gains.

So it's important that we continue to focus on safety.

That's critically important.

But it's not just that, it's also affordability.

So affordable housing has to exist if you want employees to come to an office in Denver, right?

They have to be able to live within some reasonable radius of that office and there has to be some place they can afford to live.

We moved Little Finch on 16th Street and Blake right in the middle of ongoing construction and as downtown was still finding its footing post-COVID.

And I mean, I knew it was going to be a challenge.

People thought I was crazy.

When people don't feel safe walking into your business or sitting outside, it directly impacts whether they show up and whether they come back.

But, I saw and I still see what the street could be, what could be again.

We want to be part of leading the solution to that.

For example, one of the things we're going to do is every Friday we're going to host all the CEOs in our office because all of us CEOs come into the office on Friday and none of our employees come in.

And so we figure let's get together and let's create that community and cross pollinate, trade insights and represent that thing that makes Denver so different from Silicon Valley.

There are so many young people in the city who are longing to get involved if you ask them, if you provide an opportunity for them.

I was one of those people.

I was 36 years old and I was very upset with the city, the city government, because I felt the city government was not listening to we young people.

Those of us who were professionals, we were architects, we were lawyers, we were doctors.

So when I was elected and I ran for mayor, I reached out to those young people and I said, I need you.

I want you to be part of the solution.

We came up with all these new ideas for the city.

We need to continue to do that.

Cities play a great role in appreciation of the people and it's not all about where do you live and where do you buy stuff, where do you shop, where do you work.

It's like, where do you hang out?

Where do you play?

Where do your kids play?

I believe that cities are motivated to empower artists and to create beautiful spaces.

You know They care about the aesthetic of the environment.

If you're going to sit in a courtyard, why not have something beautiful there?

Why not create some shade for the people?

Denver put out a request for proposals, like a competition for people to come and submit ideas, sort of what's an iconic thing in Colorado.

And Aspen trees seem like the obvious thing.

It's just so iconic in the mountains and they change color and they move beautifully and they have a very distinct bark texture.

And, so it just seemed like a really good fit for for Denver.

And, so this is a prototype.

The leaves moves, spin in the wind.

The whole thing is that it plays with color and light.

(Music) I'm so grateful to Denver for seeing the value in art and seeing the you know, the potential and the power of creating like a jewel in the center of the crown of Denver, which is 16th Street.

(Music) Good morning, Denver!

This is the moment we have all been waiting for because it is now official.

Downtown Denver is back.

Yes, welcome home.

Are we going to go on a three, two, one.

(Cheering) Welcome to 16th Street!

(Cheering) We open the Golden Door.

It comes from the idea that it is on the Statue of Liberty, which is I stand beside the Golden Door and open opportunity.

You see you got artists back, you got retailers back, you got patios open, you got people sitting in the park having a cocktail out on the patio.

Exactly what we hoped would happen.

One thing that's so special about 16th Street is that there are endless activities to do.

I bring my nine-year-old son here.

He now has loads of like art installations that climb and to jump on.

The Denver Performing Arts Center is right there.

It shows all the time.

And some of my favorite restaurants are downtown.

We're standing next to one of them.

And being downtown and supporting the community and the local businesses is super, super important.

And it's evident up and down 16th Street every single day.

Chief, not bad, huh?

Look at that, man.

He's great, yeah.

Looks fantastic.

I couldn't be happier.

(Music) The reopening this year to me has felt like a second major high point on the day that I wept walking down 16th Street.

They couldn't be more excited, couldn't be more joyful.

It was like a family reunion.

It was like a homecoming party.

Because now what you have are really these much broader, wider pedestrian walkways.

You have new retailers.

You have more arts and activations.

For us, we felt that we couldn't bring Denver back without bringing downtown back.

And you can't bring downtown back without bringing 16th Street back.

We have to do things that make sense for us.

What is natural for a city that doesn't have an ocean We're isolated.

We have a great airport.

People come here because they love the outdoors.

If they're in New York and they say, "Where are you from?"

They don't say, "I'm from Lakewood.

I'm from Denver."

So Denver is the soul.

And the downtown is the soul of our city.

I live in downtown.

I walk it every day.

I sense it.

I've seen the good and the bad.

And every time I walk through, I think of the possibilities of the future and how great we can have a downtown, unlike other cities that are still struggling.

We're struggling, but we can come back.

We always do that.

As a kid, downtown Denver was this place of excitement and possibility.

As a teenager, that Mall Shuttle, it felt like freedom.

I mean, It made the city feel accessible and full of so much potential.

And now, I think it's incredibly meaningful to be part of bringing that energy back.

Things that give people a reason to come downtown, but a reason to come downtown and stay.

(Cheering) (Music) 16th Street!