The Great Hall of downtown Denver’s Union Station is fully open after months of construction — and people quickly filled its space again Friday morning.

Travelers with suitcases sat in the station’s custom modernist booths drinking coffee with friends and family. Workers propped their laptops out on the ledges with charging outlets. Men in button-up dress shirts leaned against new light poles, which also functioned as barrier gates for private events, while they conversed.

It looked like any other bustling terminal in a major metropolis.

But it’s been months since the center of the Great Hall had people walking around as the area was covered in construction barricades until earlier this month.

“As soon as we dropped the walls, did a final clean, touched up a few things, boom, it looked like this,” said the station’s general manager, Ed Blair, about people returning to the century-old space.

For most of the year, the city’s central transit hub has been working on a renovation project costing more than $11 million.

It included upgrading the terminal’s Great Hall, building a new lobby for The Crawford Hotel, renovating all 112 hotel rooms, as well as updating the upstairs cocktail bar The Cooper Lounge.

The project marked a decade since Union Station’s 2014 renovation and elevated some of the development’s goals to make the terminal a vibrant cultural destination for Denver and the state of Colorado — especially as more residential developments have popped up around the terminal in that time.

“It was time to lift it,” Blair said. “It was time to replace all the furniture, change the lighting and really try to create a space that was even more enjoyable.”

History and future of downtown collide

Denver’s grand train station first came to the area in 1881 and was known as the Denver Union Depot. A fire burnt major portions of the building several times. And Denver quickly outgrew the train station’s replacements.

By 1914, the city needed a more modern terminal.

That year, Union Station debuted to the public.

The transit hub took inspiration from Beaux-Arts architecture, a Parisian-style popular for government and public buildings that mixes Roman and Greek classical ornamentation with Baroque influences.

But after train travel fell out of favor with the rise of cars and airplanes, Union Station struggled.

In 2001, city officials began to explore ways to save Denver’s central train station. It culminated into a $500 million vision that turned Union Station and the surrounding area into a dining and shopping hub — as well as a more centralized transit hub, including buses and access to Denver International Airport. It cost $54 million to renovate Union Station and create The Crawford Hotel, named in honor of historic preservationist Dana Crawford, in time for the terminal’s 100-year anniversary in 2014.

The major project led to the creation of the Downtown Development Authority in 2008, a taxing authority collecting sales and property taxes within the area to create a stream of money to invest in the neighborhood’s infrastructure.

The tax increment financing model, or TIF, played a key part in paying back the federal loans that funded Union Station’s redevelopment.

As the city has paid off its debts from the major 2014 project, a Regional Transportation District official told reporters in May that the DDA has little reason to exist as it is now.

Mayor Mike Johnston announced earlier this year that his administration plans to expand the powers of the authority created for Union Station’s project to cover the rest of downtown, as the area struggles with the “doom loop” of rising office vacancies, homelessness and crime that many other cities are experiencing in their urban cores since the pandemic.

The DDA’s expansion could generate another $500 million to use between 2025 and 2038 for projects such as office-to-residential building conversions, beautifying public spaces or improving child care options for downtown employees.

While the 2014 project was funded by the DDA and federal loans, the 2024 renovation project was privately funded by the Union Station Alliance.

Union Station is positioning itself for the time downtown will get through its labor pains, which include the 16th Street Mall’s lengthy renovation to RTD’s downtown loop maintenance work, which shut down all center city light rail stops except for Union Station. Once those projects are complete, Blair said, Lower Downtown (LoDo) is bound to “explode.”

Union Station wants to stay relevant, given the popular public realms nearby, such as Larimer Square, Dairy Block, Base Camp at Market Square and McGregor Square.

But no place has as much history and connection to the rest of the region as Union Station, Blair said, which sets it apart from some of the city’s newer developments.

“There’s so much going on in LoDo, as well as the rest of the city, and our intent is to continue to breathe more life into this part of the city,” Blair said.

Hotel changes

The Crawford Hotel got some of the most extensive renovations as every room got a refreshed look and a brand new private lobby. Visiting guests will get the experience of going through Union Station’s main terminal but will also have a quieter welcome when checking into their rooms, Blair said.

The wings of the station building have been there since 1881, but they were offices and attic spaces for decades until the 2014 project’s conversion into a hotel.

The 112 rooms got a makeover with warmer tones and further highlights to the exposed brick and wooden beams left from the original historic structure.

The design calls back to the train glamor days, with nods to art deco and featuring rich jewel tones. A floral wallpaper decorates room ceilings and will even be incorporated into hotel staff uniforms, Blair said. 

“No two rooms are the same,” Blair said, explaining how the building’s historic landmark status constrains room modifications. “Every room is a little bit different.”

A more flexible Great Hall

The grand center of Union Station’s terminal added an elevated seating area with custom furniture.

It’s surrounded by modern light fixtures that have hidden doors in its base to act as gates for private events, such as conferences or wedding receptions. Its first event is the transit hub’s $500-per-ticket gala Saturday night to support local nonprofits and commemorate its redevelopment anniversary.

“We’re able to close down that central portion, but people will still pass through,” Blair said.

It’s one of the big trends leaders have noticed since the station’s redevelopment a decade ago. People want to rent out the historic venue.

Costs start at around $10,000 for half the space or $20,000 for the entire center of the station depending on the time of the year, Blair said.

“Over the last 10 years, we didn’t really think that people will want to book that space. They’re not private events. They’re semi private. But people love it,” said Union Station spokesperson Julie Dunn.

Another new element is the kiosks that will hold a flower stand, a visitor’s booth or third-party vendors such as a pastry shop.

On the second floor, The Cooper Lounge also reopened on Friday after the upstairs cocktail bar was closed for months to get new custom furniture and booths.

During its closure, a pop-up jazz bar temporarily took over the basement. While it’s gone now, Blair said, its popularity sparked conversations on what to do with that space next — and permanently.

But for now, Union Station is celebrating — and bracing to become an active hub once again.

“Materially, the idea of a public space where people can sit and interact and work, that is, in essence what it was 10 years ago,” Blair said, “but it’s been dramatically elevated.”