Wild for Denver Real Estate

Lower Downtown or LoDo as Denver residents call it, is a vibrant, busy by day and night downtown neighborhood. You can find just about all you would want for entertainment within walking distance. Theater, comedy, nightclubs, great restaurants, 16th Street Mall, high-end shopping, sporting events at either the Pepsi Center for the Nuggets or Coors Field for the Rockies, and ? You name it, its either in LoDo or close by! As for residential– of course LoDo has many lofts and condos to consider, some with rooftop dog parks!

 

LoDo’s boundaries are Speer Blvd. to the southwest, Larimer St. to the southeast, 20th St. to the northeast and Wewatta St. to the northwest.

*History of Lower Downtown

Before European exploration of the area, Native Americans, particularly the Arapahoe tribe, had encampments along the South Platte River near or in what is now LoDo. In 1858, after gold was discovered in the river, General William Larimer founded Denver by putting down cottonwood logs in the center of a square mile plot that would basically be the current LoDo neighborhood. Therefore, LoDo is both the original city of Denver, as well as its oldest neighborhood. Then like now, LoDo was a bustling and sometimes wild area known for its saloons, and brothels. During the Sand Creek Massacre, it was LoDo where the heads of the slaughtered Arapahoe tribe were paraded in victory.

As Denver grew, city leaders realized a railroad was needed to keep Denver a strong city, especially when the transcontinental railroad bypassed Denver for Cheyenne, Wyoming. In 1870, after much cajoling from town leaders, residents passed bonds that brought a 106-mile rail spur from Cheyenne. This and later train lines ended up in the Central Platte Valley, adjacent to LoDo. Union Station became the place most people traveled into the city and LoDo would be the first part of the city they would see.

What was once a thriving business area was, by the mid twentieth century, a skid row. This was especially true after highways and airports took away from the importance of Union Station and train transportation. The original urban renewal plans were not realized, which would have leveled much of the area to create a multi-lane highway.

The Lower Downtown Historic District was formed by an act of City Council in March 1988, with the intention of encouraging the preservation and vitality of an area that is significant because of its architectural, historical, and economic value. The historic status granted protection to the community’s historic resources and to 127 historic structures (approximately 20% of Lower Downtown’s buildings were demolished in the 1960s and 70’s) by enactment of a zoning ordinance.

It was during this time, that the neighborhood started to experience a renaissance. New businesses such as John Hickenlooper’s Wynkoop Brewery opened, and slowly LoDo became a destination neighborhood. By the time Coors Field opened on the edge of the LoDo Historic District in 1995, the area had begun to revitalize itself into a new, hip neighborhood filled with clubs, restaurants, art galleries, stores, bars, and other businesses. Pepsi Center, located on the other edge of the neighborhood, opened in 2000 and further encouraged the neighborhood to become a sport fan’s paradise. New residential development came to LoDo, transforming old warehouses into pricey new lofts.

Check out this article at Planning.org, a member of the American Planning Association. In 2010, LoDo was selected as one 10 Great Neighborhoods in America!