RiNo

RiNo, short for River North, is the old rail and warehouse district just northeast of downtown, along the South Platte River. It isn't one of the city's official neighborhoods. The art district behind the name reaches into Cole, Globeville and Elyria-Swansea, but the blocks most people mean sit inside Five Points. The district draws its own lines at I-25 on the west, I-70 on the north, Park Avenue West on the south and Arapahoe Street on the east. Larimer Street and Brighton Boulevard are the two main drags.

Foundries, rail yards and a 2005 arts district

Before anybody called it RiNo, this was where Denver made things: factories, warehouses, foundries, rail yards and auto repair shops. As manufacturing left the city's core in the first half of the 1900s, a lot of those buildings sat empty. Artists started setting up studios in them, and in 2005 Tracy Weil and Jill Hadley Hooper founded the River North Art District with eight members. It's a nonprofit today and one of Colorado's first certified Creative Districts.

Plenty of the old buildings still stand, doing new jobs. The Source Hotel and Market Hall, at 3330 Brighton Boulevard, lives inside the old Colorado Iron Works building. Hop Alley's dining room at 35th and Larimer was a soy sauce factory in the 1950s.

What to know before you buy

The district grew out of warehouses and factories, so it isn't a place of old detached houses. If that's what you want, cross Arapahoe Street into Curtis Park, a historic district listed on the National Register in 1975, where most of the homes date to the late 1880s. If you're looking at a condo or loft building here instead, budget for HOA dues on top of the mortgage and ask for the reserve study.

There's one more line item. The RiNo general improvement district assesses commercial and residential properties, mostly in the western half of RiNo, to pay for streetscape and sidewalk upgrades, riverfront work along Brighton and ongoing maintenance. Ask whether a property falls inside it and what that adds to the yearly bill.

River North Park, the ArtPark and the promenade

River North Park opened in August 2020 on 3.5 acres along Arkins Court between 33rd and 35th Streets, the first green space in a stretch that had always been warehouses, rail and manufacturing. It has a playground, river access and a concert space. Two of the old industrial buildings were kept and became the RiNo ArtPark, which the art district runs, with artist studios from RedLine Contemporary Art Center. The Bob Ragland Branch Library, at 1900 E. 35th St., opened there in February 2022.

North of 35th, the old Arkins Court roadway up to 38th became the Arkins Promenade in July 2022. Its steel walkway runs about 400 feet along the river and reaches up to 30 feet above the ground, with decks, seating and adult-sized swings.

Beer and dinner on Larimer

Ratio Beerworks pours at 2920 Larimer, its original taproom, and made 5280's 2022 list of Denver's best craft breweries. Hop Alley, at 3500 Larimer, is chef Tommy Lee's Chinese restaurant, with a Sichuan lean, shared plates and a wood-fired grill. It's listed in the Michelin Guide.

Brighton Boulevard and the A Line

Brighton Boulevard got a 20-month, $30 million rebuild that finished in June 2018. It added sidewalks, a separated cycle track, more than 400 trees and over 80 on-street parking spaces. If you'd bike downtown, that track keeps you out of the car lanes for a good stretch.

The A Line's 38th & Blake station, at 3737 Blake Street, opened on April 22, 2016. It's the first stop east of Union Station on the way to the airport, with a 200-space lot, and a pedestrian bridge connects it to Wazee Street on the northwest side.