Downtown Boulder is in need of revitalization.

Every year for the past four years, more than 26% of commercial offices in downtown Boulder have sat empty. This year, that figure is nearly 29%, according to a report from Dean Callan & Company.

Myriad factors of post-COVID life have led us to this point — and it will take myriad innovative solutions to ultimately address this issue.

Boulder, of course, is not alone in seeing commercial vacancy rates soar. Denver’s downtown vacancy rate hit nearly 35% at the start of this year. Around the country, vacancy rates are at almost 20%, with tech markets, such as Denver and Boulder, seeing some of the highest rates.

The principal catalyst for this is the shift to remote work that was brought on by COVID. The tech world, more so than other industries, embraced working from home. With so many tech companies here in Boulder, we wound up being particularly hard hit. A December 2024 report from the Flex Index, which tracks office requirements across the workforce, reported that 96% of tech companies offer work location flexibility.

Other issues are playing their part too, including the cost of rent downtown. Many companies, as they grow or shrink and look for new office space, have found that other areas of Boulder are simply cheaper.

“You go from five to 10,000 (square) feet, or whatever it may be, that’s a big jump in rent,” Shane Tebo, director of leasing at Tebo Properties, told the Camera recently. “You’re doubling rent when you could move to east Boulder, where you could pay the same rent you were downtown but for double the space.”

The commercial hollowing out of downtown is a bigger issue than just having a few more empty office spaces.

At its simplest, having occupied commercial properties is an economic boon. Not only is our precious space being well used, but having employees downtown means they are spending money on parking and buying lunch, it means getting a coffee in the morning and maybe a drink after work. Pure and simple, it means our city’s sales tax revenue — the main foundation for our city’s funding — is going up.

When businesses leave downtown, that can mean workers who were once in-commuters staying home — no parking or coffee or lunches in Boulder. It can mean those who once contributed to our local economy no longer spend any money in Boulder at all.

Some folks might like the sound of a less-busy Boulder. Less traffic. Less noise. Fewer people. But fewer people means a lower sales tax revenue, which means a city with less money to fund the programs and initiatives that define Boulder.

That means our community must be considering addressing this issue in every way possible — including in reimagining what a downtown fundamentally is.

Last year, we discussed the possibility of turning vacant commercial space into residential properties. This idea has been steadily gaining steam around the country, and it remains one potential action that property owners should consider and something the city should provide a smooth process for.

The city is also considering creating a downtown development authority in an effort to spur economic activity. A hypothetical Boulder DDA would be funded through tax-increment financing, a mechanism that’s often used for blighted areas. The TIF would capture a portion of future tax revenue growth — in this case, possibly brought on by spending related to the Sundance Film Festival — from property and sales taxes.

Considering the state of downtown, a DDA is absolutely worth pursuing. In part because it would likely help facilitate other innovative initiatives to address vacancy rates.

For John Tayer, president and CEO of the Boulder Chamber, solutions also include incentives from the city, a focus on marketing what downtown provides to potential businesses, addressing the gaps in housing, and bolstering public transportation.

Incentives from the city would not only make downtown more inviting, but such local funding is also often necessary to unlock state tax incentives.

“These incentives don’t have to be huge,” Tayer said. “But it definitely has to be genuine and attractive compared to competing areas.”

Increasing marketing to help let businesses know about the amenities of downtown Boulder would also likely prove beneficial.

“Do you like being in this generic office park?” Tayer said as an example. “Maybe your staff would be more attracted to the workplace if they came into Boulder and could enjoy the downtown environment, access to trails and everything else that you get when you have an office in Boulder.”

But beyond simply trying to lure businesses downtown, our community also has to work to make Boulder an attractive place to live and work. This starts with housing, primarily with more middle housing. In order for businesses to believe they can succeed in Boulder, they have to know their employees can thrive here. Middle housing is the sort young families need to put down roots and make a place home. Boulder is sorely lacking it.

Similarly, continuing to bolster our public transit will help improve the quality of life and make downtown a more inviting place. For those workers who might not be able to buy a house in Boulder, or simply don’t want to, the Boulder County region needs to feel within reach. Getting to and from work on public transit shouldn’t be a barrier — it should be a convenient, effortless alternative.

Finally, and potentially most importantly, our city needs to continue working to address our homeless crisis.

Homelessness, first and foremost, is a humanitarian issue. The fact that members of our community must resort to living in our parks and on our streets is a damning indictment of our social safety net and our failure to make good on our social pact.

But the encampments around downtown and the associated criminal activity are also making downtown less inviting — to businesses, residents and tourists alike.

Continuing to address homelessness, then, will help address the humanitarian issue, and it will help make downtown more inviting. As we have noted time and again, the City of Boulder and Boulder County are doing a laudable job of lifting people off the streets and into housing. As a community, we must continue to support those efforts and continue pushing for more investments in our social safety nets to prevent people from winding up on the street in the first place.

As we plan for the future, our goals for future development should be to create dense, mixed-use and environmentally friendly communities that are walkable and bikeable, where people can live, work, shop and play, and where everyone feels safe and welcome.

The shape of work is changing, which means the purpose of downtowns across the country are in need of changing too. Now is the time for Boulder to reimagine what a downtown can and should be.

Gary Garrison for the Editorial Board