A dead mall
Before my most recent trip to Denver, I was taking a look at the area surrounding the hotel I had booked. Just one block from the famed 16th Street Mall, with which I was already familiar, I was even more stoked to found that I would, in fact, be staying just across the street from Denver Pavilions, downtown’s open-air shopping mall.
1 & 2- The Colorado State Capitol and surrounding civic center in 2017. 3 to 6- The 16th Street Mall the same year.
On a trip years earlier to the Front Range city, I had taken a nice stroll down the entirety of the 16th Street Mall from the civic center area including the Colorado State Capitol all the way down to Union Station. At the time, I didn’t know that Denver Pavilions even existed or else I would have stopped by for a visit.
The first level of Denver Pavilions.
I’m pretty sure that the Denver Pavilions of years ago would have been a much better sight than what exists today. After the lockdowns of the Covid 19 pandemic compounded with a lengthy and over budget rebuild of the entire 16th Street Mall, the shopping center is barely a shell of what it used to be.
Denver Pavilions pamphlet ca. 2018. View the full PDF version here.
Denver Pavilions opened in 1998 in the southeastern portion of downtown. Unlike many of it’s city center peers, Denver Pavilions was an open air complex, built to take advantage of the region’s abundance of sunshine. Built with an entertainment focus, the original concept contained no traditional anchors.
H&M and the second level of Denver Pavilions.
Denver Pavilions was built to complement rather than compete with the already established businesses along the popular 16th Street Mall. The opening of the center’s Hard Rock Café proved to be a major draw in its earlier days while today’s one of the city’s top performing restaurants still calls the shopping destination home.
Denver Pavilions pamphlet ca. 2021. View the full PDF version here.
But good news for the nearly thirty year old has been difficult to come by in the past few years. Still recovering from the pandemic, the city embarked on a total reconstruction of the 16th Street Mall in 2022. This wasn’t just a simple renovation, but a total tear down and rebuild. However, while the tear down went well, the rebuild has been frustratingly slow.
The middle level of Denver Pavilions
I was dismayed to see how difficult navigating what is essentially an active construction site was. Bigger stores such as target and Walgreens still seem to do well, but many of the surrounding businesses like TJ Maxx, Banana Republic and McDonald’s have shuttered.
Denver Pavilions pamphlet ca. 2024. View the full PDF version here.
And Denver Pavilions hasn’t been immune to the churn. The iconic Hard Rock Café pulled out in 2023 when their lease expired. On my visit, nearly all of the second level was vacant. Though the addition of junior anchor H&M in 2016 remains today, there isn’t much else.
Scenes of the top level of Denver Pavilions as well as the surrounding skyline.
It’s not all doom and gloom for the facility, however. Maggiano’s Little Italy, Coyote Ugly Saloon and the United Artists Theaters on the third level are consistent draws, but there isn’t much else. Hopefully whenever the 16th Street Mall debacle comes to a close, Denver Pavilions will be able to recover.
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