State of Downtown Denver 1 2021 38TH ST Table of Contents Boundary Map 38TH AVE E 37TH AVE E 36TH Boundary Map 01 ST MARION LAFAYETTE ST LAFAYETTE City of BRIGHTON BLVD E 34TH ZUNI ST Cuernavaca PECOS ST PECOS Park Introduction 02 RINO GILPIN ST HIGHLAND 30TH ST FRANKLIN ST BLAKE ST Downtown Users & Forecast Data Curtis Park 03 ST LAFAYETTE CURTIS PARK/ E 30TH AVE ST GILPIN 2 WILLIAMS ST 0 E 29TH AVE N T FIVE POINTS SP H 2021 Rankings EE PLATTE ST S ST MARION 04 R T 25 CENTRAL CHAMPA ST COORS PLATTE VALLEY FIELD South Platte River Park Employment 05 Commons ST HUMBOLDT JEFFERSON BALLPARK PARK AVE S P DENVER E 25TH AVE E UNION PARK E R STATION Office Market E 24TH AVE 08 Sonny CentennialGardens 16TH ST MALL LawsonPark C LODO h ARAPAHOE e Jeerson r ry Park C re SQUARE GILPIN ST e WILLIAMS ST Talent 10 k BALL Skyline Park Gates ARENA ST DOWNING Benedict Crescent ST LINCOLN 20TH AVE Park FountainPark FEDERAL BLVD Inclusivity 12 ST FRANKLIN E 19TH CENTRAL E 18TH AVE EMPOWER FIELD AT Development & Investment 14 MILE HIGH AURARIA BUSINESS UPTOWN DISTRICT Civic ST HUMBOLDT Center GILPIN ST Sta- COLORADO Mobility 16 CONVENTIONCENTER W COLFAX AVE ST WILLIAMS W COLFAX AVE Civic Center Residential 18 Park E 13TH AVE Rude Park E SPEER BLVD GOLDEN B GRANT ST GRANT R Retail & Restaurants 20 Lincoln TRIANGLE O ST HUMBOLDT Park A D CAPITOL LA ALMA/ W A HILL LINCOLN PARK Y 22 Public Realm SUN VALLEY SANTA FE DR FE SANTA Sunken Gardens Park Tourism 24 W 8TH AVE E 8TH AVE HUMBOLDT ST HUMBOLDT A I GILPIN ST L 26 L Benchmarking I E 6TH AVE FRANKLIN ST W Board 28 Center City Downtown All data in this report Neighborhood Denver uses the Downtown Boundary Legend: Denver boundary, Boundary Boundary unless otherwise noted. Contact 29 State of Downtown Denver 1 2021 Boundary Map Daily Downtown Activity The State of Downtown Denver 2021 Ready to Rise through Recovery Great cities are not built by accident, and in challenging times, it’s clear which cities Downtown rise above the rest and are truly great. This has never been more evident than over the past year. Users & This year’s State of Downtown Denver report tells the story of a truly resilient city; Forecast Data one poised for recovery — ready to emerge from the shadow of the pandemic stronger than ever. Our community has remained resilient — together we stood tall Letter from Tami Door, and focused on supporting our city, our people, and our businesses. We were here In Downtown Denver, people are President & CEO of the when the streets and sidewalks were quiet, making sure downtown was ready when everything. And over the past 15 months, the number of people in Downtown Denver Partnership everything restarted. Today, downtown is on track to return to pre-pandemic levels of activity, and we have the data to prove it. downtown has shifted. Downtown went from a pre-pandemic average of 250,000 people in downtown In fact, Denver is one of the only metro areas to grow its labor force since the every day, to a low of 40,000 to pandemic began, continuing our decade of strong growth; and this growth didn’t 50,000 in March and April 2020. happen by accident. We’ve worked diligently to build an economically strong urban While downtown activity increased Source: Placer core for decades, and even in challenging times, this strength shines through the slightly over the summer of 2020, darkness. it fell again during the winter. Forecasted vs. Actual Monthly Downtown Activity It is also inspiring to see that population estimates for 2020 show Metro Denver March 2021 marked the start of was the ninth fastest-growing large metro area over the past decade. It’s clear that a sustained increase in downtown Downtown Denver remains an attractive destination for businesses, employees, activity. Average daily activity in residents, and visitors alike, a theme which you’ll see throughout this year’s report. April was 123,000 people, and thus far the May 2021 average daily activity has been 148,000. As you read through this State of Downtown Denver report, I urge you to remember The Downtown Denver Partnership that both our triumphs and challenges help us tell the story of our city. Our continued forecasts continued increases in commitment to making our place will help us rise through recovery, ready for what’s daily activity as more employees next. Successful cities are resilient cities. It didn’t take a global pandemic for us and visitors return to the center to know we need to be resilient, but it taught us that we are. Where there is a city, which can be seen in the community of forward-thinking, collaborative and inclusive city builders who commit to Downtown Activity Forecast on this standing tall together, there is always a strong path forward. page. We, as a community, have spent decades building that path. Thank you all for being For the most recent Downtown Activity data visit part of it. downtowndenver.com/data Source: Placer, Downtown Denver Partnership State of Downtown Denver 3 2021 Introduction Downtown Activity Colorado 2021 Rankings 2ND Highest educational attainment Employment Downtown Denver Total Employment 4TH Best economy After a decade of strong year- 145,077 125,390 over-year employment growth, 5TH Best performing state economy during COVID total employment in downtown decreased by about 20,000 jobs between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020, ND America's favorite state 2 based on the most recent data available. Over half of jobs lost were in the Leisure and Hospitality TH Highest number of VC deals 6 sector due to downtown’s reliance on a halted tourism industry. On the other hand, employment at information and high tech firms increased in 2020, showing Source: Quarterly Census on Workforce and Wages, Q3 data the resiliency and increasing Denver importance of these jobs to Downtown Denver. Looking at the Annual Employment Growth in Downtown Denver and Metro Denver past decade, high tech jobs have 1ST City where millenials are moving grown from 5% of downtown jobs 4.7% in 2010 to 12% of downtown jobs 2.4% 2.0% 3.9% 2.6% 2.6% in 2020. 2ND Best place to live Companies from around the US, and the world, continue -6.6% 3RD Best job market to relocate and expand into Downtown Denver. While many -13.6% recent relocations have yet to TH Fastest growing large city 5 make a final office location decision, new-to-market companies are continuing to see ND Highest rate of entrepreneurship 2 the value in a downtown office location including AgriWebb, Source: Quarterly Census on Workforce and Wages, Current Employment Statistics, Q3 data Snowflake, Palantir, Amazon and Facebook. Sources (from top to bottom): WalletHub, USA Today, 24-7 Wall Street, YouGov, Access Ventures, SmartAsset, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, WalletHub, Inc. Surge Cities 2020 State of Downtown Denver 5 2021 Rankings Employment Employment Changes in 2020 in Downtown’s Largest Industries Recent Relocations and Expansions Absolute Change Percent Change Share in Notes 2019 Total 2020 Total 2019 to 2020 2019 to 2020 2020 Downtown’s largest industry shed almost 5,000 jobs over the last Professional year, most of which were in building cleaning services that were not MotoRefi & Business 2021 47,011 42,612 4,400 9% 34% needed during the pandemic. (Through April) HQ2 for Virgina-based auto refinancing company Services Victrola Government remains downtown’s second largest industry and a significant user of downtown office space. HQ relocation from New York for record company Government 25,706 24,822 884 3% 20% AgriWebb This industry sector is a long standing part of the downtown economy, New U.S. HQ in Denver for Australian agriculture tech company Financial made up of finance, insurance, and real estate firms. Kleos Space Activities 17,942 16,961 981 5% 14% New U.S. HQ for Luxemburg-based space company Employment loss in downtown’s Leisure and Hospitality sector was Leisure & 21,308 9,848 11,460 54% 8% substantial in 2020 and larger than the change in Metro Denver 2020 iSpace Hospitality (-54% vs -26%). New U.S. HQ for Japan-based space company Information was the only major downtown industry to add jobs in Contentful Information 5,985 7,745 1,760 29% 6% 2020. This industry contains high paying technology jobs, although New office for Berlin-based content management firm most tech firms are categorized in other industries. Palantir Technologies Inc. Natural This industry is almost entirely Oil and Gas jobs, which were heavily HQ relocation from Palo Alto to Denver for software and data company Resources & 9,828 7,092 2,737 28% 6% impacted at the start of the pandemic, and is the continuation of Amazon Construction downtown’s decreasing reliance on Oil & Gas employment. One of six U.S. tech hubs where Amazon will expand and hire Facebook Source: Quarterly Census on Workforce and Wages, Q3 data One of three key employment hubs for Facebook Marqeta New HQ2 for Bay Area fintech firm High Tech Employment Total and Annual Growth Over the past decade, Downtown Denver has Wix.com High Tech grown into an established technology hub. While 16,000 25% New office for Tel Aviv headquartered website creation company technology firms are spread across all industries Employment 14,000 Todyl and thus hard to measure, we can look at a subset 20% HQ relocation for New York cloud network and security startup Continues of tech employment by totaling jobs at firms in 12,000 OTA Insight specific high tech NAICS code categories.