The capital of Colorado is the place for green power, modern infrastructure and forward thinking, says Lindsay Sutton
You see, we’re not just a Wild West cowboy town any more,” Denver International airport spokeswoman Laura Coale tells me as she sweeps a hand around its state-of-the-art facilities.Yes, you might see the occasional high-booted rancher strolling by, sporting the traditional cowpuncher hat, check shirt and statutory jeans held up by a big-buckled belt. You may also spot a few people wearing the classic popper-fastened cowboy shirt that was invented here, with a yoke collar and smile pockets – especially if you’re here in January, when America’s National Western Stock Show and Rodeo takes place. Meanwhile, the airport’s tepee-style, mountain-inspired architecture hints at the historic Native American influence in this Rocky Mountain frontier state.
But nearly everything else about the Colorado capital shows that this is a place that has travelled from Wild West to a more sophisticated Mild West. What’s more, it wants to go a lot further to position itself as a world-class player.
Denver has become a model of reinvention and regeneration, with an innovative style of leadership. When you fly into the Mile High City, which stands exactly one mile above sea level before the 4,267-metre-high backdrop of the mighty Rockies, you’ll land at an airport that symbolises this fast-track journey.
Open since 1995, it’s the fifth-busiest in the US, after Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles and Dallas/Fort Worth. In world terms, it ranks number ten, with its six giant runways, one of which is 4.8km long and can accommodate any jet plane – even the Space Shuttle, if required.
None of the runways intersect, and there is room for six more, with ultimate plans to accommodate more than 110 million passengers a year (some 52 million travelled through the airport last year). The airport’s 138 sq km site is twice the size of Manhattan City and sits beneath the Rockies, just 37km from Downtown Denver.
The city’s population may be only 600,000 – though Greater Denver incorporates around three million inhabitants – but its aspirations to grow into a metropolis are firm. John Desmond, vice-president of non-profit economic development organisation the Downtown Denver Partnership, says: “Denver is an adolescent city – we’re still growing up. The city might have wanted greatness but it’s only taken off in that direction in the past 20 years. We aspire to be like the Pacific Coast cities – Vancouver, Seattle and San Diego. We’re like them in that we have creativity and a well-educated population that welcomes new ideas. They may have seaport settings, but we have our airport setting at a key US crossroads.”
Rich Grant, director of communications for Visit Denver, which handles the city’s tourism and convention business, cites the inspirational leadership of three men who transformed the city’s fortunes.
“After the 19th-century Rocky Mountain gold and silver mining era, the city went to sleep until the 1980s. It was a nice, end-of-the-world place, with little vision. Then along came these guys who broke the mould. They became successive mayors, even though they were not your usual meat-and-potato politicians, and kick-started the change.”
Federico Pena, a shock victor as mayor in 1983, used the slogan “Imagine a great city” and instigated buying the land for a new international airport. He also had the vision for a mile-long, traffic-free city-centre street mall (at 16th Street), with a free loop-style, low-energy bus system that unified the downtown area. These buses now take more than 50,000 people every day between LoDo (Lower Downtown) and Upper Downtown, the home of the state government, arts institutions, shops and major hotels.
At the same time, more than 20 skyscrapers went up in a city not famed for its high-rise vision. Pena also saved a number of historic buildings from demolition. His successor, Wellington Webb, finalised the airport project and brought a huge new stadium for the Colorado Rockies baseball team into Lower Downtown, a previously run-down area of warehouses.
Then came John Hickenlooper, a Pennsylvania geologist-turned-micro-brewer and restaurateur who turned the word “regeneration” into cutting-edge reality. Hickenlooper’s three-point plan to reboot Denver – one now being followed by US cities such as Houston and Cleveland to revitalise their inner-city core – was simple. Build big public projects to attract people into downtown, create an environment that would attract a critical mass of restaurants and bars, then make your inner city attractive enough to build up a large number of residents within a 2.4km radius.
Hickenlooper aimed at consensus politics, keeping at arms’ length from the conventional party-orientated battles, and in tax-averse Colorado, the citizens voted to pay tax-raising levies to turn Upper Downtown into an arts and culture centre, culminating in the city’s Daniel Libeskind-designed Arts Museum, open since 2006.
The city is increasingly attracting visitors before they travel onwards to upscale ski resorts such as Aspen, Vail and Telluride, to Rocky Mountain attractions such as “dude” ranches (the Old West “cowboy” experience) or to take nostalgic steam train journeys in the former mining towns of Durango and Silverton.
Tourism and conventions rank number two in the city in terms of economic importance, generating US$3 billion in spending last year, with 12.7 million overnight visitors passing through, according to Visit Denver. (Number one is an amalgam of many business interests, rather than there being one dominant sector.)
The city’s Colorado Convention Centre – another brainwave of Frederico Pena’s – offers nearly 55,740 sqm of exhibit space and 9,290 sqm of meeting space, with 63 meeting rooms. Ed Bucholtz, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Denver and Visit Denver’s chairman, says nearly 370,000 delegates used the convention centre last year, drawing in an estimated US$500 million in spending on accommodation and booking fees.
He adds: “Tourism will be up by 8 per cent over last year, and was up by 10 per cent on the previous year.”
It’s no surprise that distribution and transport is a major player for a city that is the biggest in a near-1,000km radius. Desmond says: “Being at the junction of two geographical phenomena – the Rockies and the Great Plains – makes Denver a natural nexus and jumping-off point for people and for goods and services.”
Colorado also has the third-largest aerospace economy in the US, with most of the big-name players having significant operations in Metro Denver and Colorado Springs – firms include Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics Corporation and Alliant Techsystems. Nearly 400 bioscience companies have their home in Denver’s Front Range, just east of the Rockies, and in Colorado as a whole, there are 5,500 IT companies involved in software, hardware, storage and semiconductor firms. Meanwhile, the state claims to have the largest concentration of micro and craft breweries in the US, and the Coors plant at Golden, near Denver, is the largest single brewery facility in the world. Free tours, with free samples, are available (millercoors.com).
Another string to Denver’s bow is energy, with an emphasis on high-tech, green energy following the downturn of oil and natural gas extraction in the 1980s. The city is a leader in developing alternative energy and is home to the National Renewable Energy Laboratories, which acts as a magnet for the industry.
Danish-based wind turbine manufacturer Vestas, the biggest in the world, opened its first North American manufacturing plant in the state, as well as a research and development centre in Louisville (40km north of Denver). The company employs 1,500 people in Colorado.
According to Desmond, the Mile High City has been able to take advantage of the fact that it does not have one dominant industrial sector. He says: “We are a branch office city, not an HQ one. That means there is no great residue of old, big corporate money to either invest in or influence business life, and no dynasties dominating society.
“We have to join together to get things done. Collaboration and egalitarianism are the city’s hallmarks. Because there is little class division or natural hierarchy, there is a freshness that allows dreams to take shape with popular backing and involvement.”
One project under way is a US$4.7 billion light rail scheme. Five light rail lines already link the city’s core areas to the southern suburbs, with 56km of track and 36 stations. Links to the airport and the Rocky Mountain districts are in the pipeline, and the aim is to triple the network by 2016, with the airport station to be ready by 2014. Until then, travellers get into the city from the airport via minibus shuttle service.
Denver’s main railway station – a wonderful cavernous building adjacent to Lower Downtown – is to be the hub. As well as serving Amtrak’s Chicago-San Francisco train service, it will be the centre of a system connecting all of Denver’s suburbs, ultimately stretching out to embrace Aspen and the university town of Boulder.
Denver has differentiated itself from other cities to become a place where the quality of life and outdoorsy lifestyle has attracted talent and creativity. It is the fifth-healthiest city in the US, and the state with the lowest obesity rate, according to a 2011 report by the American College of Sports Medicine.
Visit Denver’s Grant says: “People have traditionally come for a winter vacation but have returned permanently when they realise that working here gives them an enviable and affordable lifestyle. You can make more money in California or the East Coast, but can you enjoy life to the full? You can here.” n
Continental Airlines flies daily from London Heathrow and Manchester (via New York Newark) to Denver. Visit continental.com
WHERE TO STAY
Brown Palace Hotel Dating from Denver’s Wild West days, this four-star hotel retains great charm and style. It’s housed in a characterful landmark building dating from 1892, though its 241 rooms and suites have been extensively modernised, and are impeccable. The eight-storey atrium is eye-catching, and the property even has its own artesian well. Eating options range from fine dining in the Palace Arms and contemporary US cuisine in Ellyngton’s, to burgers and steaks in the Ship Tavern. It has 1,208 sqm of meeting space, free wifi in the lobby (in-room internet is US$11 per 24 hours), plus fitness and spa facilities. It’s handily located for Downtown’s attractions, including the Colorado History Museum and Denver Art Museum.- 321 17th Street; tel +1 303 297 3111; brownpalace.com
- Rooms from US$135
- 1,750 Welton Street; tel +1 303 295 1234; granddenver.hyatt.com
- Rooms from US$96
- 1,550 Court Place; tel +1 303 893 3333; sheraton.com
- Rooms from US$109
- 1,110 14th Street; tel +1 303 228 1100; hotelteatro.com
- Rooms from US$189
- 1,881 Curtis Street; tel +1 303 312 3800; ritzcarlton.com
- Rooms from US$209
