Southmoor Park

Southmoor Park is one of Denver's official neighborhoods, down in the city's southeast corner along I-25. The Denver Tech Center is right next door, and Cherry Creek State Park is a short drive east. Thomas Jefferson High School's campus at 3950 S. Holly Street sits inside it, and Belleview Station, the mixed-use district around the light rail stop at 4855 S. Quebec Street, is its busiest corner.

Ranches, lawns and a few Cape Cods

Drive the residential streets and the first thing you notice is how much grass there is. The houses are mostly low, ranch-style homes set back on wide lawns, and the whole place reads more like an older suburb than a neighborhood inside city limits. Not everything is a ranch, though. You'll also find other styles from the same years, like a 1968 Cape Cod-style house in Southmoor.

Thomas Jefferson High School opened in 1960, and both the building and its athletic fields date to that year. Both are going through major renovations, so expect construction on the campus for a while.

If a yard is high on your list, the ranch blocks are where to spend your Saturday. If you'd rather trade the lawn for a short walk to the train and a coffee shop, Belleview Station is the other half of the neighborhood.

Belleview Station, the newer end

Belleview Station grew up around the light rail stop that opened in November 2006. It now mixes apartments, offices, shops and restaurants within a few blocks of the platform. Housing here means a multifamily building rather than a detached house, so read the building's documents as carefully as you'd read a house's history.

The tallest thing on the block is the Kimpton Claret, a 19-story, 190-room hotel at 6985 E. Chenango Ave. that opened in July 2024. Its rooftop bar, Halo, sits on the 19th floor at 5,817 feet, with fire pits on the terrace and views of the Rockies. Saverina, on the ground floor, does Italian food from breakfast through dinner, including sourdough pizzas and house-made pasta.

On S. Newport Street, Le French at 4901 is a French bistro run by sisters Aminata and Rougui Dia, with classic French plates next to Senegalese dishes and a weekend brunch. A few doors down at 4925, Corvus Coffee Roasters runs its DTC shop, open every day from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. From May through October there's a farmers' market here on Sundays.

Parks close by

The park that shares the name sits at 3551 S. Poplar Street, technically over in neighboring Hampden South. The city is renovating it, with the playground, basketball court, shade structure, picnic areas, sidewalks and irrigation all on the list and completion slated for late 2026. Cherry Creek State Park and its reservoir, a few miles east, are the big open-space draw for walking and getting outside.

Getting around

I-25 runs right along the neighborhood, and downtown is about a 15-minute drive north on it. Two light rail stations serve the area. Southmoor station, at 3737 S. Monaco Parkway, has the E and T Lines (the H Line normally stops here too but is suspended during the downtown rail rebuild), 788 parking spaces and connections to RTD buses 35, 40, 46, 65 and 105. From the neighborhood side, you reach it through a pedestrian tunnel under I-25, since there's no direct access from the west. Belleview station serves the E, R and T Lines plus the 73 bus and the Belleview FlexRide, but it has only 59 parking spaces, and you get across I-25 by the stairs up to East Union Avenue.

If you plan to drive to the train, Southmoor's lot is the one to count on. If you want to walk to it, time the trip from the front door to the tunnel or the Union Avenue stairs before you make an offer.