We can finally celebrate the eradication of perhaps the worst parking lot along the 16th Street Mall. Construction has begun on The Thompson Denver Hotel, formally known as the 1600 Market Hotel, which will end up providing 214 hotel rooms contained in a 10-story building.
As of this past weekend, the parking lot has been completely scraped with excavation equipment starting to show up on the project site. In addition, covered walkways are now in place for safe pedestrian travels.
Below are two additional photos of the project site showing the alley and 16th Street Mall corners. Between this project and Market Station, this block of 16th Street Mall will be infinitely better than it used to be: an abandoned bus station and surface parking lot.
We will check back in on this exciting project in a couple of months when excavation has commenced and, hopefully, some vertical action is taking place.
Ken, Ryan and team I want to make a general comment saying how much I love this site and its post, photos and comments. I visit daily and go into withdrawal when you all take (well deserved) vacations. I have been a regular for more than a decade. THANKS for all you do!
I’m going to ask a stupid question, but does Denver really need this many hotels?
Probably. They wouldn’t build them if the demand wasn’t there.
Great question. I found this article, but I don’t know what our target should be. This seems to suggest we could use more: https://www.denverpost.com/2018/10/20/denvers-hotel-occupancy-report/. I like the fact that each hotel will also provide some ground floor retail and/or restaurants, which is better than surface parking.
Also found this: https://www.cbre.us/about/media-center/cbre-forecasts-denver-hotel-market-to-reach-near-record-occupancy-in-2018. Personally, I’m more dismayed that downtown seems to have more of a hunger for rental apartments vs. purchased condos. I can’t figure that out – I came from DC, where everyone is transient, yet it seemed the own vs. rent ratio was better.
Yes, many companies want to bring meetings & business to Denver.
I think that is a very prudent question and one that should be continually asked. However, from what I’ve heard, it sounds like Denver has long had too few hotels. Same thing with the apartments, which is why we have been able to absorb so many new buildings, however, that seems to be topping out now. With the expansion of the Convention Center, I think the need for hotels will only increase.
We do. But interestingly we also need parking lots and while this parking lot wasn’t that big, I hope downtown parking is a consideration with our city planners. Parking fees are pretty high for a moderately sized city. Public transportation isn’t feasible so instead I work from home.
Such a regressive, disappointing comment.
Denver has long been dominated by auto-centric planning – and still very much is.
As this city’s population and density increase, costs associated with the personal automobile will only increase. This will drive a demand for public transportation. As the public transportation network improves, it will become more and more viable for more and more people.
High parking fees are okay with me. Disincintivize driving and parking downtown, especially those who don’t carpool. I don’t mind parking garages as a replacement to surface lots because its a much more efficient use of space (but I bet a lot of people on this website don’t even want those downtown).
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2019/06/19/visit-denver-tourism-hotels-restaurants-16th-street-mall/
My company has people who frequently need to stay a few nights a month in Denver. Often the downtown hotels are fully booked (including this week) so people will have to stay in Cherry Creek or Broomfield. We definitely need more hotel rooms downtown.
Even broomfield was booked this week. There was an event and I couldn’t get a hotel outside of a LaQuinta
This is a great project. Hopefully in the future there won’t be ANY surface lots that border 16th directly.
Welcome back from vacation!