Arapahoe Road -- PHOTO TOUR (Denver, Aurora: leases, home, employment)

[vegaspilgrim]

One of my personal favorite streets in the metro area, Arapahoe Rd. This street goes through stretches of Littleton, Centennial, Greenwood Village, and Aurora. Up until just a few years ago, it had a semi-rural feel to it, especially east of Havana. Now though, every square inch of land is being rapidly developed into yet more new strip malls-- which continue to fail to gain tenants. Yet, the old strip malls seem to be chock full of independent businesses and cool chain franchises. Go figure???

I'm now experimenting a little with varying the sizes of these photos in an attempt to make this easier to download. I realized that it's not necessary for a full page blow-up of every strip mall sign. Pretty soon I'll be back in LA so you won't have to be subjected to these things too much longer.

The beginning (or end) of Arapahoe Rd at Broadway, at the border between Littleton and Centennial.



:





Hollywood, CA or Centennial, CO?















A new Southlands/Northfield/Belmar in the making:









Detour: now we're up by Orchard & University







Back to Arapahoe Rd:







Slight detour into the DTC:



Fiddler's Green, 2nd best concert venue in the metro area (after Red Rocks):



Strip mall mania:



























I-25 (and light rail) at Arapahoe interchange:

















This is one of the only Persian restaurants in Denver:







Arapahoe Station-- a gigantic sprawling shopping center chock full of mom and pop businesses. Unfortunately when they remodeled it last year they took away the iconic rail car.







Interestingly, this chain is only in two cities: Phoenix and Denver-- both of which I have lived in:

















How filling:











I highly recommend eating here:



This was an Applebee's, then was remodeled into a phony "Mexican" restaurant that didn't last long at all... who knows what it will turn into next?







Many of these new strip malls going up on Arapahoe Rd (and even though it's already way too overbuilt and existing properties can't even fill the leases more keep going up. Go figure? ) are built at pretty steep grades from the road and require a lot of earth moving. As a result you get some pretty good views from the top:









Here's the latest overbuilt shopping center on the SWC of Parker & Arapahoe:



Pretty good sunset shots, huh?





Eastbound Arapahoe Rd gets pretty backed up in the evening, with so many people who work in the Tech Center/ Centennial Airport/ south I-25 area who live in Southeast Aurora and East Centennial:

[McGowdog]

Arapahoe road was where I worked for about 8, almost 9 years. I worked off of Jordan Road. I saw the Country Dinner Playhouse! That brings back memories! Dinner and a show! Without leaving your seat! I saw The Phantom and Fiddler on the Roof there. Mosh! Oh, and how about the Traildust! Bring a tie and get your free drink and have some Rocky Mountain Oysters!

Don't go back to LA! Keep up the photo tours! Please do one of the north end of Federal, like from the McCoys place on 70 and Fed on up to... at least to 104th ave. See how many nudie bars you can find too! Ask about the infamous place called Aloha Beach. Friends and Lovers, the Liquor Box liquor store, Cheerleaders, then maybe jog over to Pecos at about 64th and see if the Boogie Down is still there... ask about the infamous Pecos Junction, then back over to Federal at 72nd and see if there isn't some Asian cuisine over in that area now... The car dealerships on 104th.

And how about a Broadway photo tour. You could start at about 84 and Conifer and work your way south all the way to south of C-470 as Conifer turns into Broadway or bears left into it and you can stop in at Mickeys at hwy 224 (??) or about 70th and Broadway and have 2fer beers and maybe get a steak. And you know what Broadway is like once you start getting south of Alameda! Lot's of businesses down there. Just pull out the business section of an old Denver phone book. If it wasn't on Colfax, it would probably be on Broadway.

How about a Wadsworth and Sheridan photo thread? An Alameda thread?

[David Aguilar]

Vegas! Why did you stop at Parker? There's some good ruralish spots on Arapahoe east of Parker up until Grandview High School. It's nice to see a road I drive daily put into pictures, kind of makes me appreciate it a little more.

Good job, once again!

[suzco]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

. . . I saw the Country Dinner Playhouse! That brings back memories! Dinner and a show! Without leaving your seat! I saw The Phantom and Fiddler on the Roof there. . .

Unfortunately, Country Dinner Playhouse shut down in May, 2007:

Country Dinner Playhouse closes doors

05/22/2007

The Country Dinner Playhouse, the second-largest theater in the state, abruptly closed its doors Tuesday after having entertained more than 5 million theatergoers in Greenwood Village for the past 37 years.

Majority owner David B. Lovinggood posted a padlock and a note stating the renowned theater that had staged more than 220 productions, mostly family musicals and many featuring TV and Broadway stars, had run out of money.

Another great photo thread, Vegas.

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

Vegas! Why did you stop at Parker? There's some good ruralish spots on Arapahoe east of Parker up until Grandview High School. It's nice to see a road I drive daily put into pictures, kind of makes me appreciate it a little more.

Good job, once again!

Well for one, it got dark. Also between the Southeast Aurora tour and the Exurbs tour, I pretty much nailed down what southeast semi-rural developments look like.

Originally Posted by suzco

Unfortunately, Country Dinner Playhouse shut down in May, 2007:

Country Dinner Playhouse closes doors



Another great photo thread, Vegas.

Yeah, it looked like it was closed. That's a shame, it was a fun institution. Another great place that closed down-- at least ten years ago-- was the Southshore water park. In terms of good eats on Arapahoe Rd that are no longer there was Bennett's Pit BBQ, and an AWESOME quick casual Mexican grill place by Arapahoe and Boston St (which I believe is in the building currently occupied by an Arby's).

[JstPam]

WINGIN' IT!!! Best wings in Denver....now I'm hungry, going there for lunch!

[Moonwalkr]

There's a Traildust steakhouse just up a little bit from the playhouse on S. Clinton, food is not great but it's an interesting place for the kids. I saw you recommended Hoong's Palace, great food for a normal looking Chinese restaurant. There seems to be a lot of regulars there. My belly is rumbling just thinking about it.

[Antlered Chamataka]

vegasman, the rep tool of C/D should have 100 hit points, and I'd give that one for this post.

Arapahoe is a weird road yet fun. One section is completely cars

Then there's serious FUBAR right now beyond quebec, they're constructing it and I don't recommend anyone venturing into terra incognita after 8pm, and it's been the same way since I moved here.

Can the poor econ halt road construction??

Anyway, today I popped into Suzie's buffet (first time) and if you really don't mind packing some serious belly, this place rocks. I started my fooding the reverse way, with the dessert. Suzie caught my arm and dragged me to the carnivore section, this lady is super-nice

I've been to many chinese buffets, this one's a piece of work.

[zenkonami]

I have to confess, this tour kinda depressed me a little...the photos are great, but really drive home how automobile-centric Arapahoe is.

[MantaRay]

Look at it this way, Arapahoe is playing it's part in dispersing Denver's traffic. Having a DTC that is NOT in downtown Denver and people commuting to and from it that DON'T add to the "suburbs to downtown, downtown to suburbs" typical rush hour commute, makes it better for Denver overall.

Denver's clustering of employment centers at various points in the city: downtown, DTC, Cherry Creek, Commerce City, coupled with its grid street pattern, coupled with its dispersing of Northfield/Belmar/South Glenn type town centers around the city helps to disperse traffic patterns. Arapahoe plays its part in that overall structure.