Downtown Vacancy Forces a New Urban Playbook

Remote work has exposed the fragility of office-dependent downtowns.

Denver’s downtown vacancy has become part of a larger national reckoning over how urban centers function when office workers no longer arrive with the same frequency or predictability. Once buoyed by migration, development, and a strong quality-of-life narrative, the city now faces a more complicated condition: underused office space, uneven foot traffic, and housing pressures shaped by years of rapid growth.

Otis Odell, AIA, LEED AP, Business Leader for the Housing sector at HED, contributed perspective on how Denver’s market reached this point and what recovery may require. His comments frame the issue as more than an office problem, pointing to housing supply, hybrid work, public space, entertainment, mixed-use development, and integrated placemaking as part of a broader downtown reinvention.

In its article, “Experts: Denver has emptiest downtown in US and the rot is spreading,” Daily Mail examines Denver’s high downtown office vacancy, cooling housing market, and the larger challenge facing American cities built around a five-day office economy. The piece places Denver within a national conversation about how downtowns can adapt when the old economic engine is no longer enough.

View the original publication here:
https://www.dailymail.com/vertical-galleries/article-15882863/Experts-Denver-emptiest-downtown-US-rot-spreading.html