Central Park

Central Park sits on the 4,700 acres that used to be Stapleton International Airport, east of Park Hill, whose eastern edge is Quebec Street. It's the biggest neighborhood in Denver by area. The south edge runs up against Aurora, and Dick's Sporting Goods Park, home of the Colorado Rapids, sits just past the north end. A small southeastern piece, around Bluff Lake, falls inside Aurora.

From runways to front porches

Denver Municipal Airport opened here on October 17, 1929, and took Mayor Benjamin Stapleton's name in 1944. It closed on February 27, 1995, a day before Denver International opened. Crews then broke up about 1,000 acres of pavement, three to four feet deep in places, and hauled 6.5 million tons of it to a recycling yard on 56th Avenue. Chunks of runway concrete still turn up in the open spaces.

Homebuilding started in 2001. The neighborhood carried the Stapleton name until 2020, after years of argument over the mayor's ties to the Ku Klux Klan. Residents picked "Central Park" on August 1, 2020, with 63% of the vote.

Houses newer than 2001

Home building only began in 2001, so you're comparing builders and floor plans rather than eras. The mix runs from single-family houses to rowhomes, duplexes, live-work townhomes, condos and apartment buildings, and the styles go from traditional to ultra-modern. Most single-family houses have their garages off an alley, so the street side is mostly porches, front yards and sidewalk.

The neighborhood is split into 12 named sections, including Beeler Park, Conservatory Green, Westerly Creek, Bluff Lake and Central Park West. That last one went up after the airport's final parking structure came down in 2011.

Parks, Westerly Creek and Bluff Lake

The plan set aside about 1,100 acres for parks and open space, and there are now 50 parks and 7 pools. The 80-acre Central Park, which opened in 2007, gave the neighborhood its new name.

Westerly Creek spent nearly 40 years in a pipe about 30 feet under the airport's east-west runway. It was dug back out in 2002, and the 75-acre greenway around it was finished in 2004, with six ponds and about 50 acres of native prairie. The work shrank the creek's floodplain from about 183 acres to 66. If a house backs onto the greenway, pull its current flood map anyway before you write an offer.

Bluff Lake Nature Center, at 11255 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., is Denver's largest open space managed as native habitat.

A control tower brewery and two shopping centers

The old 12-story control tower still stands. FlyteCo Tower, at 3120 Uinta St., is a brewery and restaurant in its base, and it runs tours up to the top of the tower. Little Man Ice Cream's aviation-themed shop at 10175 E. 29th Drive sits under a 75-foot airplane. For breakfast, Four Friends Kitchen at 2893 Roslyn St. serves Southern-inspired comfort food through lunch and weekend brunch.

Avenues at Northfield, which opened in 2006 as the Shops at Northfield and took its new name in 2026, and Eastbridge Town Center are the two open-air shopping centers. Stanley Marketplace sits just past the south edge in Aurora.

Trains, buses and the interstates

The A Line's Central Park station, at 8175 E. Smith Road near Central Park Boulevard, opened April 22, 2016. It runs to Union Station one way and the airport the other, and its 1,500-space park-and-ride is the largest on the line. Buses 28, 37, 38, 42, 43, 65, 73, 88 and 105 stop there too. Central Park Boulevard connects to I-70 and I-270.

Association dues and the metro district

The neighborhood has a Master Community Association. Park Creek Metropolitan District financed the roads, parks, drainage, water and sewer lines with bonds and developer advances. Before you offer, ask for the master assessment, whether the house also belongs to a smaller association, and the full property tax bill, so you know the real monthly cost.