Stapleton

Stapleton has reformed the the site of Denver's old airport into a new neighborhood with lots of opens space. Infact the developers have set aside nearly 30 percent of Stapleton's 4,700 acres to parks and recreation facilities, open space and trails. Bounded by Quebec, Havana, Montview and I-70, its new shopping and restaurants are conveniently located so residents don't need to leave the area. Downtown is still close enough to downtown to make commuting a breeze. New lofts, townhouses, detached single-family homes and mini-mansions in a variety of architectural styles provide character in this family-friendly neighborhood.

You can't go wrong with this neighborhood! If you work in downtown Denver, you're an easy drive away. Shopping???? Cherry Creek OR Northfield are both close by and offer great experiences. Take a look!

Stapleton neighborhood used to be Stapleton International Airport. We got pretty used to hearing planes over our Park Hill Neigborhood, but it seems wierd to think about it now that DIA has been established far from the city. I used to work at one of the shops there. The shopping there now is, to say the least, a lot more popular. Since the airport moved, Stapleton has turned into a huge, prepackaged community development.

It's pretty well done for that kind of planned community, but that's as far as my enthusiasm goes. It's got a very suburban feel, despite being part of the city. The Northfield section is an enormous shopping center, with many of the stores that you can find in oversized suburban malls. There are, of course, also chain restaurants, movie theaters, and the like.

It's built to be a safe family neighborhood, and that's what it is. Those who like the space and modern fixtures afforded by new construction, along with the shopping, will presumably be happy there. The housing has been built to accomodate most price ranges. There are rentals in addition to the single-family homes for sale. It takes about half an hour to get to Downtown from Stapleton, longer in rush hour.

Redevelopment has been a buzzword in Denver for decades. And the big daddy of Denver redevelopment projects is Stapleton.

The entire neighborhood was once Denver’s airport. Today, the old control tower is all that remains to serve as a visual reminder of the past. Starting in 2001, all other vestiges of the Stapleton International Airport were plowed under and rebuilt. Stapleton currently has 14,000 residents, with eventual plans to contain 30,000 by around 2020.

Controlled by a master “green book,” Stapleton bills itself as a sustainable, community-oriented, walkable neighborhood. And indeed, it’s crisscrossed by walking paths, has the Central Park green space at its core, and boasts a farmers’ market and a pedestrian town center. It’s an ambitious and laudable project.

As with many such projects, though, there have been blunders. The area was redeveloped with incredible speed, and homeowners have noticed that the quality of construction sometimes shows it. Many of Stapleton’s dining options, both in the larger plazas and in the pedestrian district, are garden-variety chains. Most residents need to drive to reach Stapleton's shopping and dining options, making it feel more like suburban renewal than urban renewal. The Northfields shopping center is a giant mall – which, aside from featuring a Bass Pro shop so huge that it draws stares from out-of-towners, is unremarkable. There’s not quite enough going on here to make Stapleton a destination in its own right – at least not yet.

Unlike many new developments, Stapleton has at least made an effort to avoid the common aesthetic blunder of having every home look alike. Architects used several different design types, with a variety of finishes and textures. The developers also took care to build different types of housing, from condos to townhomes to large single-family homes. Residents are mostly white-collar, with above-average incomes, and homes are well-kept. Since all the plantings are new, there isn’t a lot of shade, and the wind can really howl when it comes in from the plains. And some of the residents may be around that long. It takes a certain gung-ho spirit to buy a home on a former runway, but many Stapleton residents seem to have it. They’ve taken ownership of this experiment in redevelopment, and they want to make it work. This neighborhood isn’t done yet, and while it’s still finding its feet now, it may be worth a more lingering look in 20 years or so.