The cities of Denver and Aurora formed a nonprofit authority charged with bringing this empty lot back from the dead. But ordinary redevelopment wouldn t cut it. The vision was a supercharged technology mecca intended to lure the savviest of homeowners and businesses. Fast-forward to the present. The planned community called Lowry is winning awards.
Planners consider it a national model.
And perhaps most strikingly, it boasts the most high-tech telecommunications network in Colorado. But getting from point A to point Z is always a challenge. When bases close, they commonly are transformed into airports or trading posts. The infrastructure limits a redeveloper s options, but a good economy and the base s location open other doors, said Jeffrey Simon, president of the National Association of Installation Developers, a Washington, D.C., organization dedicated to redeveloping bases. But when the noisy planes stopped flying in 1965, the metropolitan area that became modern-day Denver sprung up around the base, thriving in the absence of the air traffic.