The Next Chapter for Dahlia Square

By Mary Hashem

Almost from its beginnings as a city in the mid-1800s, Denver was built for permanence in brick and stone. Unlike many early Colorado towns that were built using predominantly wood frame construction that easily succumbed to fire, Denver took advantage of the abundance of clay underlying the city to use brick as a primary building material. Later, following the depression of 1893 and the early mining bust, Denver rebuilt through economic diversification, by relying on its stockyards, flour mills, breweries and brickyards.

The Dahlia Square Shopping Center shares this important aspect of the city’s history. From 1929 to 1950, the Farrey Brick Company operated one of more than 20 brick companies in Denver on the site. Major portions of the property were mined for clay and housed ovens that turned that clay into bricks. Over time, as the Farrey Brick Company ceased operations, the deep pits that had been created from the excavation of clay were filled with construction debris and solid waste to create a flat site.

In 1955, the property was purchased from Mabel D. Farrey, and in the following year the Dahlia Square Shopping Center was developed on top of the landfilled site. Over the years, Dahlia Square changed owners multiple times and was a very successful retail center playing home to a grocery store, barbershop, laundromat, dry cleaner, clubs, a roller skating rink, restaurants, a health clinic and a host of other businesses that supported the local community.

The shopping center was at the heart of Denver’s Northeast Park Hill neighborhood, and is remembered fondly by area residents who grew up when it was a thriving center. Reportedly, Dahlia Square was at one point in time the largest minority-owned shopping center in the United States.

Over time, however, shifting market forces concentrated the majority of area retailers into large-scale centers along major thoroughfares. As a result, true neighborhood centers such as Dahlia Square became unable to compete. While some neighborhood retail areas in central Denver have become home to specialty niche-retailers and restaurants, at more than eight acres, Dahlia Square remained an anomaly — with a sea of parking lots, it was too large to be recast as quaint, but it lacked the traffic counts and accessibility required to survive as a modern shopping center.

Revitalization Attempts

As a result of these changing market forces, Dahlia Square became blighted, largely vacant, and viewed by area residents and the city as a detriment to both the safety and the economic viability of surrounding neighborhoods. Redevelopment of the site into a more appropriate and viable mix of uses became a priority for the local community and the City of Denver.

Various attempts were made to redevelop the property, but difficulties in assembling adjacent parcels, attracting major retailers to the property and dealing with environmental issues derailed all of the plans. At every turn, redevelopment of Dahlia Square continued to present a major challenge.