Though the 16th Street Mall improvement project signals better times for the 39-year-old corridor, it had to have experienced its worst year in 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic shut the mall down like it has never been before. The Regional Transportation shuttles stopped running April 5 after some 145,000 employees that usually work downtown stayed home under shut-down orders. Gone were the 17.7 million overnight visitors, whether for business or pleasure, who visited Denver in 2019 and spent an estimated $6 billion according to Visit Denver.

Those RTD shuttles used to move 35,967 people from Civic Center to Union Station daily.

The Downtown Denver Partnership data shows 250,000 people were downtown on any given day pre-pandemic. That number plummeted to an average of 50,000 in 2020.

There used to be up to 200 pedicabs working the downtown area on any given weekend, now there’s just a handful, said Sammy Kosechequetah, 52, a 5-year pedicab operator.

Denver poised to invest $100 million-plus in 16th Street Mall upgrades

“There’s no one else here,” he said of his fellow drivers, looking around Tuesday. “The downturn has been hard. Thankfully the company (Mile High Pedicabs) lowered our rent rates. There’s just not much business at all.”

The numbers are starting to climb back. RTD started the shuttles again in June and ridership has climbed back up to 5,700 riders a day the week of Feb. 12.

There are also 27,000 downtown residents and the DDP forecast 35,000 by 2025.

“We’re going to see a quick return to people coming downtown,” said Tami Door, DDP CEO. “Denver is a primary destination, according to surveys, after lockdown. There’s a reason people came here before the pandemic, and that’s not changed.”