If you live in Cherry Creek, you have a running list of complaints from the last twelve months. The block you used to cut through is fenced off. The garage you counted on has a new hourly rate. A crane sits where the Sears used to be, and another one blocks your morning view down Fillmore. The gripes are legitimate. They are also the mechanism producing an unusually dense wave of restaurant and retail openings that will change the way you spend a Tuesday night here for years.
That is the thesis worth holding onto as you read the news out of the neighborhood this year. The construction is not happening despite Cherry Creek's success. It is happening because the leasing math works out before shovels hit dirt, and that same math explains why the openings feel bunched, why the tenants keep getting bigger, and why the next twelve months matter more than the last.
The number that reframes the year
The neighborhood generated nearly $120 million in tax revenues in 2025, up 3.9% from the previous year, and its retail vacancy rate grew by 0.4 percentage points to 1.9%. A vacancy rate rising is usually a warning sign. Here it is the opposite. Cherry Creek North was already at a record low, and the tick upward reflects natural turnover between a departing tenant and the next one moving in, not softness in demand.
Cherry Creek North CEO Nick LeMasters has described the district as effectively fully leased, with a 94% occupancy rate and vacancies limited to the window between one store closing and another moving in. Read that against the ten large-scale infill projects completed or in process since 2020, with five more currently in review, adding roughly 300,000 square feet of office space and thousands of residential units to a sixteen-block area, and the picture snaps into focus. New space is being pre-leased before the drywall goes up. That is why the openings arrive in clusters instead of a trickle.
"We've got a lot of development happening but what you'll see over the next 12, 18, 36 months is going to be revolutionary." — Andy Boian, chair of the Cherry Creek Alliance, quoted in the Denver Gazette, May 2026
What has already opened at the Shopping Center this year
If you have not been inside Cherry Creek Shopping Center in six months, you have missed a full retail refresh. Eight new stores have opened there so far in 2026, including Captain Crêpes, Skims, Gucci, Ash & Agave, BYLT Basics, Swarovski, H&M, and a relocated and expanded Lululemon.
| Opening | What it is | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Captain Crêpes (Feb 5) | Sweet and savory crêpes | Cherry Creek Shopping Center |
| Skims (Feb) | Kim Kardashian's apparel brand | Cherry Creek Shopping Center |
| Gucci | Relocated/expanded flagship | Cherry Creek Shopping Center |
| Ash & Agave (Apr 5) | Coastal Mexican, wood-fired | Former CPK, next to Kona Grill |
| BYLT Basics | Men's essentials | Cherry Creek Shopping Center |
| Swarovski | Crystal jewelry | Cherry Creek Shopping Center |
| H&M | Apparel | Cherry Creek Shopping Center |
| Lululemon | Relocated and expanded | Cherry Creek Shopping Center |
Ash & Agave is the one worth walking over for. The group behind Blue Island Oyster Bar and Oliver's Italian took over the shuttered California Pizza Kitchen space at the Cherry Creek Shopping Center and opened Ash and Agave in early April, a Mexican Riviera concept with a coastal, resort-style atmosphere, wood-fired meats, and seafood sourced from the group's Blue Island Oyster Farm. The restaurant features a "Carne Locker" of premium cuts prepared over a 900-degree fire, shareable plates including wood-grilled oysters, an agave-forward beverage program, and sits next to Kona Grill and 801 Chophouse.
What is landing between now and the holidays
The mall's owner Simon Property Group has said Milk Jelli, STUDS, and Crate & Barrel are expected to open by the end of the year, with Rothy's anticipated in 2027. Milk Jelli is expected to open in July 2026, followed by STUDS and Crate & Barrel in the fourth quarter. That is a $200-per-piercing appointment shop, a Korean dessert café, and a full-format home store landing inside a single quarter.
The bigger news for anyone who eats out on First Avenue sits three blocks north. The eight-story tower at 201 Fillmore is scheduled to complete before the end of the year, bringing Antero Resources and its workers to the block along with The Henry from Fox Restaurant Concepts. The Henry will occupy the ground floor, feature both a restaurant and bar concept, and open onto a patio in the alley with string lights and greenery. Fox is the group behind North Italia, Flower Child, and Culinary Dropout, so the operational bar is high.
Uchiko is the third opening the neighborhood is watching. The buildout is one of the more expansive in Cherry Creek, taking over 7,400 square feet with a central sushi bar, a private dining room, bar seating, and a large sunroom addition.
And in the "did not see that coming" category: Chicago-based Boka Restaurant Group has submitted plans for three new dining concepts in Cherry Creek, including two restaurants, Picchi and Varda, along with 2nd & Adams Rooftop, a rooftop bar and restaurant at 3250 E. Second Avenue. According to the Denver Business Journal, Picchi appears to be an Italian concept with pappardelle, cavatelli, mussels, and scallop crudo, while Varda is expected to offer a Mediterranean-inspired menu. No opening date is public yet, but three concepts from a single out-of-market operator is not a scouting trip. It is a bet.
Summer has its own story. Michelin two-star chef Kelly Whitaker's rooftop pop-up SHEEP took over the rooftop of Cherry Creek's Clayton Hotel from July 8 through October 4, flipping the script on The Wolf's Tailor with open-fire cooking and grain-forward plates, and it marks the first time the Clayton rooftop has been open to the public rather than members only. If you have never been past the Clayton lobby, this is the summer to try.
The construction is the product
The single project that most explains the boom sits on the west edge of the Shopping Center. A vacant 1950s Sears store is being redeveloped into Cherry Lane, an upscale mixed-use project on a nine-acre site. The Tryba Architects and PCL team's $500 million mixed-use project will comprise 379 multifamily units, 59,063 square feet of office space, and 132,665 square feet of high-end ground-floor retail. BMC's $500-million Cherry Lane development will completely reimagine the west end of the neighborhood when it opens for business in 2028.
That timeline matters. If you are wondering why national brands are quietly signing leases in 2026 for spaces that do not exist yet, Cherry Lane is a lot of the answer. It is also why parking has become the year's most reliable dinner-party topic. Available parking spots have become more of a hot commodity, and the cheeky signs poking fun at the construction are part of a wider initiative to ease the public's frustration.
The small-business side of this equation deserves its own footnote. Show of Hands, a gift shop selling artisan goods in Cherry Creek for nearly 50 years, was affected by the 201 Fillmore construction, and owner Katie Friedland worked with PCL on street-closure scheduling; the contractors made signs pointing customers to the shop and bought gift cards for their employees during the holidays. That is the kind of neighborhood-scale accommodation you do not read about in glossy openings coverage, and it is worth remembering the next time you buy a birthday gift.
One thing to watch that could reshape the retail feel of the corridor: the neighborhood is keenly watching the city's recent efforts to potentially bring Bus Rapid Transit to Colorado Boulevard, and the alliance has voiced concerns about the impact on car traffic and the area's retail experience. Wherever you land on transit policy, the outcome will affect how you get to dinner in five years.
What it means for how you use the neighborhood
The practical takeaways for a resident are smaller than the headlines suggest, but they are real:
- Restaurant reservations at the newest arrivals will be tight through the fall. Uchiko and The Henry will be the hardest tables in the neighborhood the week they open. Book five to seven days out on weeknights.
- If you have a favorite spot on Fillmore or Second, walk instead of drive on Friday and Saturday nights through year end. The parking friction is temporary, but it is real.
- The Shopping Center is a different place than it was in January. If your last mental map still has the CPK, it is time to update it.
- Cherry Lane in 2028 will move the neighborhood's center of gravity west. If you own on that side, that is a tailwind. If you own on the east end of Third, the pedestrian pattern will shift but the block character will not.
The way to read a year like this one is not as a series of grand openings. It is as a compressed moment when a mature commercial district refreshes its tenant mix at a pace it will not sustain forever. In 2029, when Cherry Lane's first phase is finished and the current cycle settles, the neighborhood will look different, quieter on the construction front, and denser on the retail one. The homes here will be inside that new footprint. That is worth thinking about now, not later.
If you are considering what all of this means for the value of your home, or wondering how buyers are weighing the construction noise against the amenity gain, the team at Julie Egan and Sallie Grewe has been representing Cherry Creek owners through cycles like this one for decades. Request a private consultation or a market evaluation, and we will walk your block with you.
