This page will provide you with information regarding the history of the area contained within the Colfax Business Improvement District.
“Denver’s Capitol Hill and its Colfax ‘Main Street’ have exciting potential. The infrastructure is there for a terrific inner-city neighborhood, not unlike some of the great neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. It is certainly has our interest and attention these days.” -- Matt Lynett, Sr. Vice President -- WellsFargo.
Locals who take great pride in our historic architectural treasures and community diversity might take umbrage at a banker’s comparison of “Our Town’s” ‘potential’ to compare favorably with a Georgetown or Nob Hill, but we appreciate the fact the region’s largest bank shares our enthusiasm for what’s happening around here.
Local and regional press is writing us up these days as a “hot spot” of redevelopment.
Colfax is the gateway to Downtown on the West and Lowry, Stapleton and Fitzsimmons on the East.
At the east end of our Colfax corridor less than ten minutes away from our business district, master plans are in place for the redevelopment of the 1,800 acre former Lowry Airfield into a new urban community, which, impressive as its size and scope is, pales by comparison to the masterfully-planned redevelopment of the former Stapleton International Airport on its 4,700 acres.
So what are the whys and hows behind all this Colfax and Capitol Hill redevelopment?
Certainly, a strong economy and metro Denver’s over-all population growth contribute mightily.
But there’s more to it than that.
There is a national trend of in-migration back into America’s central cities which has become a national phenomenon known variously as the “new urbanism” or “neo-traditionalism.” The new urbanism is further changing Capitol Hill’s demographics by its infusion of upwardly mobile younger adults and financially-secure empty-nesters who want something more than the long commute to homogenous suburban communities too far removed in distance and spirit from the vital, eclectic, culturally-rich center city lifestyle. 
At the peak of urban flight, Capitol Hill lost over 25% of its population base in the 70’s and 80’s.
Now, demographers estimate more than 4,000 people have moved back into the neighborhoods in just the past five years to help recreate our town of 53,866 people. Ten years ago, who would have thought that urban flight was a round-trip ticket?!
C-BID’s strategy for revitalizing its business district was simple. First, make the street safer for all our constituents, i.e. shoppers, pedestrians, employees and business and property owners. Then, literally, clean up the street...clear out the trash, litter and graffiti.
The public safety component took a dramatic leap forward over five years ago when the Denver Police Department created the new Police District 6 to deal with crime prevention and law enforcement issues endemic to the inner city. Part and parcel of the new police district was its commitment to community policing, whereby the police, business owners and residents work together to identify specific public safety problems and rank them by priority of actions that will make the most difference in crime reduction and prevention. Moreover, the police literally moved into the neighborhood by locating its District 6 headquarters and police station in the middle of what once was Denver’s highest crime area of North Capitol Hill.
The literal cleaning of Colfax came on the heels of putting the public safety component into place via the new police district and station. The Colfax Business Improvement District hired maintenance workers to devote 80+ man-hours a week to removing trash, litter and graffiti from the District.
Much has gone into the community rebuilding pipeline over the past decade and a half. The results are now coming out the other end of that pipeline in dramatic fashion, which is why the media and investment communities have us on their radar screen these days. They are now beginning to see the results of all those years of community activism.
Colfax is still the street of entrepreneurial dreams. A new cadre of entrepreneurs are arriving, including one NFL quarterback who caught our inner-city redevelopment wave a few years back and opened John Elway Ford on Colfax.
What next? Our business district has the dual advantage of being the gateway to a resurgent Downtown and the Main Street to Capitol Hill’s revitalized neighborhoods.
As you’ll see documented elsewhere here, Greater Capitol Hill’s $1.44 billion in personal income generates a potential retail sales market of over $680,000,000 annually from the 53,866 residents who live within five minutes of here.
Each market share point our existing and new businesses can capture from this retail sales market will generate almost $7 million in new sales revenue on the Street. A ten-point market share increase would yield $70,000,000 in added retail sales in the District. A 20 point market share increase would add $140,000,000...and we would still have less than a third of the total retail sales dollars potential spent annually by Capitol Hill resident/consumers.
What needs to happen now... and is indeed now happening...is for the entrepreneurial push to provide the products and services that will satisfy the new neighborhood-driven demands for a wide range of new products and services previously unavailable or under-delivered by Colfax merchant.
And to package them in a traditional Main Street retail shopping environment that is bright, pedestrian, shopper-friendly and fun.