Metro Denver: Mile High Advantages
Infrastructure
Thinking big and intelligently to develop a growing region.
Wait-and-see simply isn't our style. Although the Metro Denver region faces many of the same growing pains as other major metropolitan areas, how it's channeling expansion is decidedly different.
Rather than watching and waiting, Metro Denver took charge of its future by building a new international airport, proactively designing a multimodal transportation infrastructure, and intelligently planning residential, commercial, and retail development.
The result is the nation's leading model for smart growth to accommodate growing population areas, complete with one of the country's most advanced transportation systems, new transit-oriented developments, sports facilities, and innovative mixed-use developments.
Maybe it's the grand views or our pioneering spirit. But Metro Denver has never shied away from thinking big. The region has a history of making bold and intelligent transportation and land-use decisions to shape its future.
- Denver International Airport is the fifth busiest U.S. airport and is 10th busiest in the world.
- Initial daily ridership on the new Southeast Light Rail (built under T-REX) is just over 62,000 people, nearly double the original estimate.
- FasTracks is the largest simultaneous construction of a mass transit system in U.S. history.
Shaping our future with the nation's best transportation system.
Two decades ago, Metro Denver's citizens approved plans for an expansive international airport. Completed in 1995, Denver International Airport (DIA) is the only major U.S. airport built within the last 25 years. And to keep pace with growing passenger traffic, DIA is now undergoing over $1 billion in enhancements.
DIA served as a catalyst for other big ideas, namely a revamping of the area's constrained highway system with the Transportation Expansion Project (T-REX).
T-REX pumped $1.67 billion into the metro area by adding new bridges and lanes 
as well as a 19-mile light-rail line connecting downtown Denver and the Denver Tech Center, the region's two largest employment centers. T-REX has been heralded by national transit officials for its successful completion on budget – and not to mention – two years ahead of schedule.
And even before T-REX was finished, metro-area voters approved the Regional Transportation District's (RTD) FasTracks mass transit expansion that will connect every corner of the region with 122 miles of light rail, commuter rail, and bus rapid transit by 2017.
Every mayor in the region supported FasTracks, and the initiative was actively supported by the Metro Denver EDC, which was the largest single campaign contributor and commissioned the study "The Economic Impact of FasTracks on the Metro Denver Economy."
For a region in motion, new centers in which to live and work.
With the $6.1 billion FasTracks multimodal transit system moving forward, Metro Denver is quickly transforming growing suburbs into teeming cityscapes.
The Regional Transportation District (RTD), Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG), Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), and area municipalities 
are coordinating transit-oriented development (TOD) plans throughout the region. Projects integrating job, housing, and cultural centers are taking shape in both urban and suburban areas – on infill sites and on vacant land.
Overall, up to 50 transit-oriented developments are planned along eight different light rail and commuter rail lines extending in all directions from the downtown core, making every corner of the region accessible to workers, residents, and visitors.
Downtown Denver’s historic Union Station, will be the central hub of this new regional transit system. Subsequently, it is undergoing a $1 billion redevelopment on 19.5 acres, with offices, residences, and retail – a 24-hour center of urban activity.
- The San Francisco Chronicle's article "Instant Urbanism" highlights Metro Denver's Belmar and Stapleton developments as models for the Bay area and other cities.
- The San Francisco Chronicle's "Instant Urbanity" online slideshow details why Metro Denver redevelopments represent the future of urban planning.
- When fully developed, the 578-acre, $4.3 billion Fitzsimons Life Science District and adjacent Anschutz Medical Campus will employ more than 30,000 life science workers.
Reinventing our urban and suburban landscape.
In addition to up to 50 new transit-oriented developments, Metro Denver is experiencing exciting redevelopments throughout the region:
- The construction of Denver International Airport left the site of the old airport free for redevelopment into the Stapleton community.
- Another key parcel was vacated due to the closure of the Lowry Air Force Base, and is now the site of the thriving multifaceted Lowry community.
- The former Fitzsimons Army Medical Hospital is being transformed into the largest medical-related redevelopment in the country, the Fitzsimons Life Science District.
- The closure of an aging mall gave rise to a new town center for the city of Lakewood, called Belmar.
- The long-vacant Gates manufacturing plant along I-25 in central Denver is now being transformed into the Cherokee redevelopment.
- The new Downtown Area Plan provides a blueprint for ongoing public and private investments in Denver's urban core.