They paved a parking lot and put up a Colorado Rockies MLB paradise. That very MLB paradise is the Colorado Rockies-owned mixed use development on a former parking lot across from Coor's Field in Lower Downtown Denver (Lodo).
When I visited Denver in the summer of 2022, I had seen some of the Covid-19 economic casualties. However, I saw promise with the birth of a new mixed-use development that celebrates the Colorado Rockies to the degree of it being named after the late Colorado Rockies President Keli McGregor. Opened in March of 2021, this promising development is McGregor Square. After spending quite a bit of time here, I consider it Coor's Field's fourth base. It has a Colorado Rockies spirit that is especially felt in the Rally Hotel that overlooks Coor's Field and could be home to a Colorado Rockies Hall of Fame. This Colorado Rockies spirit is felt in Tom's Watch Bar where patrons can watch the Rockies, in the hilly grassy area that mimics a dug out, the plaza with a stadium sized L.E.D. screen and the MLB fans filling up the place.
When we visited Denver in 2017, I remember that they were building McGregor Square and that most of the pre-game and post-game action seemed to be around Blake Street. Fast forward to 2022, we would visit McGregor Square three times before the game and twice after. I was impressed by the way it helped transform Wynkoop Street between the 16th Street Mall and Coor's Field into this vibrant series of blocks. With Denver Union Station and the Dairy Block to the west, McGregor Square has made Wynkoop Street a fun place to visit (when it is populated) throughout the year. The three times that we saw the Colorado Rockies games this summer, we entered by means of Gate E (near the outfield) which truly is a continuation of the McGregor Square walkway and east terminus of Wynkoop Street. Due to the crowds of people these developments attract, especially before and after the game, Wynkoop Street was my preferred walking route between Coor's Field and the 16th Street Mall Freeride.
After walking around LoDo before the game, the McGregor Square benches made a nice spot to relax and watch the MLB fans. From my bench of choice where walkways continue to the stadium and turn towards the plaza, I took in the contrast between the historic LoDo architecture with the modernism of two of the three towers topping off at thirteen feet above the central Plaza that includes a grass area resembling a dugout. The skybridge that connects the two towers, the Rally Hotel with the residential tower was a contract from the former warehouses. This was a picturesque spot to relax before the MLB action. At nighttime, when we passed through here after the game it was especially picturesque when all lit up. With McGregor Square being very new, I saw the want for mature trees to provide shade. In our latest visit here we'd get shade here sitting on a cozy couch in their Milepost Zero Food Hall before dining down the walkway in Tom's Watch Bar.
From the time that I spent here with my family, it was so obvious that McGregor Square is doing a fantastic job entertaining Colorado Rockies fans before and after the game. Remembering seeing the Colorado Rockies in 2017, I am aware that McGregor Square has brought a lot more people onto Wynkoop Street. In MLB terminology, you can say that the Colorado Rockies have hit a home run with McGregor Square. read more