A Developing Situation: Saturday Night at the Denver Pavilions

Denver already knows the Pavilions isn’t what it used to be.

When I was a kid only a couple of years older than the Pavilions, which opened in November 1998, my mother would take us there on the RTD bus from Aurora almost every weekend to see a movie and do some shopping. For me, the gray United Artists cylinder and lively walkways of the Pavilions were Denver.

While the Regal UA Theater, one of the original Pavilions tenants, is still going strong, others — like the Hard Rock Cafe and Wolfgang Puck’s — left years ago. Today, more than half of the units are vacant, and even Robo Mike is gone.

The city has a plan to bring back this key, two-block complex on 16th Street. In August, the Downtown Development Authority announced that it was buying the two parking lots behind the Pavilions for $23 million; a month later, Denver officials revealed that the DDA would also facilitate the purchase of the Pavilions for $37 million plus another $8 million for improvements. With the two lots under city control, the plan is for Denver to come up with a financially feasible development proposal — say, a project with a hotel behind the Pavilions that would reactivate the facility and make it attractive to a buyer.

On November 24, Denver City Council approved the DDA’s planned $68 million purchase of the two parking lots and the Pavilions; a final vote is coming Monday, according to the mayor’s office. While a proposal is developed for the entire property, the DDA plans to hire an international retail specialist to bring in new shops and create “the renaissance of the Pavilions,” Doug Tisdale, the chair of the DDA board, said in September. And in the meantime, the city can finally collect all that parking income.

Ahead of this renaissance, Westword decided to revisit the Pavilions. On Saturday, November 22, I returned to this much-loved mainstay of my childhood with my sister, who fondly remembers teenage outings to Forever 21, Uniqlo and Express, to see what remains. Our conclusions:

The Pavilions Needs More Shops to Stay Open

We started our night with a 6 p.m. movie at the UA theater, and by the time we came out, shops such as I Heart Denver, the Nook on 16th and even H&M were locked up tight. The closing crews at sweet-tooth shops like Cinnabon, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and IT’SUGAR were helping the last customers and sweeping up. While Maggiano’s was doing a good business and 5280 Burger Bar was open, it was too cold to sit on their patios.

After sitting for two hours, I would’ve enjoyed walking past a few clothing and gift racks, especially with the holidays coming, but that wasn’t going to happen. On the sad second floor, both Francesca’s, a clothing boutique, and the Museum for Black Girls were closed. But there was a sign of hope: A gallery is moving into the former home of Express, a clothing outlet whose name remains overhead despite the artwork in the windows.

The Pavilions Needs to Fix the Simple Stuff

Escalators can never break; they can only become stairs, as comedian Mitch Hedberg once joked. Funny enough, the Pavilions has found out a way to disprove that.

The downward portion of the first escalator coming from Tremont Place was blocked by yellow gates. While we were inside the theater, the escalators to the second floor were entombed by more yellow gates, and we had to take the elevator.

A couple of outdoor escalators weren’t running, but they weren’t blocked off. All told, it seemed like only one or two of the scalators were actually operational. Until about a decade ago, the Pavilions had a Barnes & Noble with an escalator inside; I never thought I’d miss it.

Another softball is fixing the lights on the letters spelling out United Artists: The sign now reads “ITE TTS.” On the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory sign, both “Rocky” and “Chocolate” are in the dark. The “BOWL” sign for Lucky Strike works, though.

The Classics Are a Bright Spot

In fact, Lucky Strike is a real bright spot at the Pavilions. All the bowling lanes were taken, and nearly all the pool tables were full, too. Although the two-room arcade wasn’t that busy, at least a handful of people were skeeballing, racing or collecting prizes. Using the pool table costs $20 an hour, and the bowling is advertised at $13 per game. The drinks and food can really add up here: An order of wings is $18 and a cocktail about the same.

The only place as lively than Lucky Strike was Coyote Ugly, which had a small but loud crowd that was likely to get louder by 2 a.m.

The newest nightlife option at the Pavilions is XSO Night Club, a Latin dance venue that was opened in October by a member of the family behind 3 Margaritas, which has a location across the street; you can see it through the big windows overlooking 16th. XSO opens at 9 p.m. and doesn’t charge a cover until 10 p.m.

The spacious club, the former home of Lime (which relocated to 16th Street last year) has two rooms, each with their own bar and style of music. We saw a few couples dancing salsa in the smaller room; the larger room, with a DJ and VIP section, was empty when we left at 10 p.m. But it had time to fill up.

Thanks to the DDA deal, the Pavilions does, too. I’m glad it’s sticking around, but it could definitely use some help.

Let’s see what develops…