Downtown Colorado Springs recovers from pandemic struggles

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - A new report shows downtown Colorado Springs has recovered from pandemic woes. 

The area is making one of the fastest pandemic recoveries in the country and even out-performing top cities like Nashville, San Diego, and San Antonio, according to the '2024 State of Downtown' report.

Worker, visitor, and residential numbers are all up.

The Colorado Springs Downtown Development Authority says worker, visitor, and residential numbers are all back at pre-pandemic visitation numbers.

“We have an annual sort of return to office rate of 87%, which again is about one of the highest in the country of people coming back to work physically, which of course is great for all our businesses downtown, because then they're also going out to eat and doing other things in the city center,” President & CEO Downtown Partnership Susan Edmondson said.

29 new businesses including retail and restaurants opened last year.

Residential units in the area are also opening at a record rate; 431 units opened and nearly 2,000 are set to open in the next year and a half.T

There are now more than double the number of hotel rooms than there were in 2019. The number of people staying in downtown hotels decreased 4.6% from the pre-pandemic rate.

However, the downtown partnership says we had a record year of hotel room stays in 2023 due to the larger number of rooms. 

The full report can be read here.