RIVERFRONT PARK Lifestyle Recommendations
	RIVERFRONT PARK Condos Lofts For Sale Today

Neal Cassady grew-up on the city streets of Denver and left for Manhattan at the age of 21 where he met Jack Kerouac in the late 1940’s. Kerouac is the face of the Beat Generation. Cassady, the irreverent car-stealing cowboy from Denver fascinated Kerouac and his friend Allen Ginsberg. So much so, that Kerouac’s Dean Moriarity character in his “On The Road” novel was patterned after him. Both Kerouac and Ginsberg would travel to Denver repeatedly and the storyline of “On The Road” would pass through Denver’s rail yards, the very rail yards where you can find Riverfront Park today.

The banks of the South Platte River were home to Denver’s turn-of-the-century rail yards and siding track. Rail cars arrived,  were shunted, unloaded, reload, and departed again. Many “hobos” and “beakniks” called this area home. This was an area of dead-end streets and transients. This has changed over the past decade as the City of Denver, together with urban planners and private real estate developers have combined to create a new Denver urban village neighborhood.

Of the roughly 120-acres in the Central Platte Valley, 90-acres have been developed into parks and public facilities along the South Platte River and confluence with Cherry Creek including Commons Park, Cuernavaca Park, Fishback Park, Confluence Park, Gates-Crescent Park and Centennial Park. The surrounding area also boasts of the Museum Of Contemporary Art Denver, the Pepsi Center, the Denver Children’s Museum, Elitch Gardens Six Flags Amusement Park, the Denver Aquarium and the Denver Public Skate Park.

The City of Denver includes this area in the Union Station statistical neighborhood. Urban planners refer to the area as the Central Platte Valley. Others refer to it as “The Commons” in association with the largest of the public parks. East West Partners, the principal developers of the master planned community in the area, call it Riverfront Park. This is the name commonly referred to the neighborhood by the locals.

The Riverfront Park master planned community has developed over 2,500 residential units together with over 3-million square feet of commercial space housing restaurants, offices, hotels, and retail.   It is estimated that full-development of the area will take place over the next 20-30 years.

This area was isolated from LoDo and Denver’s Central Business District by the endless number of railroad tracks behind Union Station. The rail track was consolidated in the area and the Millennium Bridge for pedestrians was constructed to span over the remaining active rail track for easy access. The Platte Pedestrian Bridge was also constructed to allow easy access over the South Platte River. Finally, the Highland Bridge was constructed to allow pedestrians to cross over Interstate-25 to the Highland urban village neighborhood. 

The Cherry Creek Trail connects to the Riverfront trail system for endless outdoor activities of running, cycling, walking, or even paddling on the river. Stroll into one of the many parks and have a picnic. Walk down to the South Platte River or Cherry Creek and skip stones or watch the water birds.