{"id":8784,"date":"2026-06-12T20:31:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T20:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherrycreek.life\/?p=8784"},"modified":"2026-06-12T20:31:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T20:31:42","slug":"dtd-lodo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherrycreek.life\/index.php\/2026\/06\/12\/dtd-lodo\/","title":{"rendered":"DTD LoDo"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Could LoDo\u2019s success point the way for the rest of downtown Denver?<\/span><\/h1>\n

Analysis shows much higher rents, lower vacancies in LoDo compared to rest of Denver\u2019s central business district<\/h2>\n

An analysis shows that Lower Downtown is increasingly outperforming the rest of the central business district in attracting commerce, which a business organization says could provide a roadmap for rejuvenating Denver\u2019s core.<\/p>\n

The new analysis by the Denver office of\u00a0real estate firm JLL<\/a>\u00a0shows that rents in LoDo for buildings characterized as Class A or trophy\u00a0were only about $1 per square foot more than the rest of downtown in 2019. The current rents are more than $12 per square foot higher than the rest of the central business district.<\/p>\n

Rents for the most sought-after buildings in LoDo shot up 32% since 2019, compared with just 7% across the entire central business district.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows these buildings are performing better. What I found striking, putting the numbers to it, is just how wide that LoDo premium has become,\u201d said T.J.\u00a0Jaroszewski, senior director of research for the mountain region of JLL.<\/p>\n

LoDo has consistently outperformed the rest of downtown since the COVID-19 pandemic, said Kourtny Garrett, president and CEO of the\u00a0Downtown Denver Partnership,<\/a>\u00a0which promotes economic development. She said the area demonstrates the strength of a mixed-use neighborhood, dating back to\u00a0the revitalization of Union Station,<\/a>\u00a0completed in 2014.<\/p>\n

The business organization\u2019s vision \u201cis moving much more toward what you see in LoDo for the whole of downtown,\u201d Garrett said.<\/p>\n

Downtown Denver<\/a>\u00a0has been looking to get its groove back since the pandemic hit. Businesses closed their doors to the public and many people started working from home. Although activity has picked up and more employees are working at least a few days a week in the office, several downtown buildings remain underused and\u00a0the loans on some business towers have lapsed into delinquency.<\/a><\/p>\n

Building vacancies soared to the highest levels in decades,<\/a> surpassing rates during the Great Recession and not seen since the region\u2019s oil and gas bust in the mid-1980s.<\/p>\n

One of the problems, real estate experts agree, is that the large stock of older buildings have suffered from what the industry calls a \u201cflight to quality:\u201d newer sites with up-to-date amenities in more diverse neighborhoods. Areas such as LoDo have fared better because of a mix of offices, restaurants, stores, entertainment spots and walkability, Jaroszewski said.<\/p>\n

LoDo was attracting more interest than other parts of downtown even before COVID, he added. A real estate seminar focused on what people called the tale of two cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were positing even back then that all the pulse, all the lifeblood, all the attention was going toward the LoDo\/Union station area,\u201d Jaroszewski said.<\/p>\n

But Jaroszewski was surprised when he separated the LoDo numbers from the rest of the central business district by how sharp the differences had become.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s the scale of the separation that\u2019s opened up inside downtown once you actually put hard numbers to it,\u201d Jaroszewski said. \u201cAt this point, it increasingly feels like certain parts of downtown are still competing for demand, while other parts are competing much harder just to stay relevant in the conversation.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n