Mayor Mike Johnston, together with other city leaders, announced the expansion of a strategic funding tool to restore vibrancy and economic opportunity throughout Downtown Denver in front of Union Station in Denver on Thursday, May 9, 2024. City leaders have zeroed in on a strategy they hope can break downtown Denver out of what Mayor Mike Johnston has described as the area’s post-COVID “doom loop.
Johnston and other city and business leaders stood in front of the dormant fountains outside Union Station on Thursday morning to announce a plan they say could generate $500 million in public investment in downtown Denver over the coming decade. Once expanded, that entity — created to pay off $400 million in public debt incurred building infrastructure around the station — would collect incremental property taxes from participating businesses and property owners to back bonds that can be used to fund a host of economic development work and projects, officials explained.“This campaign will start with a conversation with downtown residents,” Johnston said Thursday morning.
Property owners in the proposed new footprint would not be obligated to pay into the authority. They would opt in, Tisdale said.Nearly a third of downtown Denver’s office space sits empty. That’s the highest vacancy rate since the 1990s.A new lease on life: Denver unveils 16 office towers best suited for conversion to residential