Union Station in Denver (Landmarks) by Beck Rhonda

Author:Beck, Rhonda [Beck, Rhonda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2016-02-08T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

REVITALIZATION

IMAGINE A GREAT CITY

Although Union Station had been the transportation center since 1881, it began to lose the battle to airplanes and automobiles in the 1950s. Adding the “Travel by Train” neon sign in 1953 wasn’t enough to prevent the lure of faster or more popular methods of travel.

By the 1960s, the station saw fewer than twenty-three passenger trains a day while the city was being torn down all around it by the Denver Urban Renewal Authority to make way for modern construction and progress. Amtrak took over operation of passenger service in the early 1970s, and the station was perhaps saved from more threats of demolition by being listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, all while Denver’s population and economy were declining.

As the city rang in the New Year of 1980, Downtown Denver’s office vacancy rates hovered at 30 percent, while as much as half the hotel rooms remained empty; however, the Regional Transportation District (RTD), the City and County of Denver and the Downtown Denver Partnership would be instrumental in the development of the 1.2-mile Sixteenth Street pedestrian mall with transit centers at both ends—a $75 million investment that would give life back to downtown.

The Rocky Mountain News reported in February 1983 that lower downtown was on the “verge of a rebirth” and that an overhaul of Union Station would be “crucial to revival.” It went on to state:

A block from Union Station is a low-lighted business named the Terminal Bar & Café that sells a glass of beer for 60 cents and a working man’s breakfast for a couple of bucks. Three blocks from the Depot a nouveau chic dining room, The Manhattan Cafe, attracts a different clientele—food fanciers who prefer a cloth cover on their tables and attendants who know the wine list by heart. The menu includes African rock lobster and Long Island duck. The two eateries typify lower downtown’s urban schizophrenia. One distinctly blue collar and well-worn. The other upscale and neatly appointed. Both are part of the same neighborhood—but probably not for long. The city of Denver and five railroads that own Union Station have an idea that may transform lower downtown out of its grit and decay once and for all.

Under study by the City Council is an idea to build a convention center behind Union Station. A 1,000 room hotel and some office space to go with it. Also looming is a possible three-block extension of the 16th Street Mall to connect downtown with its long-neglected neighbor, lower downtown. The idea is simple enough. But many are concerned that the development on that scale will clash with lower downtown and perhaps destroy its character—something the city saw value in last year when it approved a zoning revision that offered incentives for preservation. Property owners who bought lower downtown land for $15 a square foot—or less—suddenly will have a distinct incentive to “build out” to a full density if the convention center arrives.

“Imagine a Great City” was Mayor Peña’s campaign slogan in 1983.

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