Project Updates

In September 2012, the Denver City Council adopted the Welton Corridor Urban Redevelopment Plan (WCUR), which established the Welton Corridor Urban Redevelopment Area. The redevelopment area is bounded by Broadway Street on the west, Glenarm Place and 24th Avenue on the south, Downing Street on the east and by California Street or the alley between Welton and California Streets on the north. With support from the Five Points Business District and the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, and incorporating recommendations from the 2011 Northeast Downtown Neighborhoods Plan and the Welton Corridor Urban Redevelopment Area, the WCUR encouraged new development inside the corridor, taking advantage of Five Points’ advantages to business: its location close to  downtown, ready access to light rail, and its rich history. The area for all of these reasons has become a very attractive investment.

The core redevelopment area includes comprises some 85 acres located just northeast of downtown Denver,centered around Welton Street. It is also important to note that the Five Points / Welton corridor is one of the few areas in Denver designated for mixed use zoning, incorporating a mix of housing, retail and other uses.

Historically, the Welton Corridor — approximately 85 acres of land situated just to the northeast of downtown Denver and centered around Welton Street, has long  been the heart of the Five Points neighborhood. In the earliest years, starting in the 1860’s,  this area was home to members of Denver’s aristocracy, including mayors, governors, and prominent businesspeople. Beginning  in the 1920’s, as many African-Americans left southern states like Texas as part of the Great Migration, Five Points emerged as a majority black neighborhood. And the Welton Corridor was its heart; comprised of more than fifty bars and nightclubs, as well as numerous churches and local stores. Beginning in the late 1950s, the neighborhood’s fortunes began to change.

The phenomenon of “urban flight,” in which black Denverites with the means began to quit downtown for the suburbs, contributed to a growing rash of poverty, drugs and crime, abandoned properties and closing shops and businesses in Five Points. By the 1970s and 80s, Five Points faced increasing numbers of abandoned properties and blight. Revitalization projects like the Blair Caldwell African American Research Library and the Central Corridor Light Rail System were key beginning to reverse the area’s decline, but much more can be done to restore Five Points as a multi-ethnic, multi-income residential and commercial enclave.