Article Last Updated: 01/20/2007 02:04:02 PM MST

Three years ago, longtime renter Monique Elwell researched Denver neighborhoods for six months before she decided where to buy her first home.

She selected the Highland neighborhood because of its regal, turn-of-the-century Victorians, eclectic mix of family-owned restaurants and small businesses. She also liked the legacy of cultural and economic diversity left by Italian, German, Scottish, Irish, English and Mexican immigrants who settled there in waves beginning in the 1800s.

"The people who move to Highland choose to live in a community where everyone walks around and gets to know their neighbors very well," Elwell said.

Neighborhood walkers now have something else to cheer about. In December, the city opened a 320-foot pedestrian bridge that spans Interstate 25, connecting Lower Downtown to Highland at 16th and Central streets.

The opening couldn't have come soon enough for Denver Metro Chamber president and CEO Joe Blake, a vocal proponent of the walkway since 1995.

Photo (Right): The new Highland Bridge, opened to pedestrians last month and connects a burgeoning Highland neighborhood with Denver's Lower Downtown. (Post / John Leyba)

"This is a bridge in the true sense of the word," Blake said. "People in Highland will experience all of the economic benefits of being walking distance from Denver's employment center downtown. Additionally, they can walk from home to Commons Park, the DCPA, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Pepsi Center and all of the sports venues."

Blake predicts retail businesses on both sides of the bridge will reap financial rewards from the access. Elwell, now president of Highland's neighborhood association, said businesses on the east side of the freeway have already prospered from increased foot traffic.

Also poised to prosper are those with a stake in property around the bridge. Some single-family homes and familiar, long-standing businesses still thrive in the area, but new, upscale restaurants like Lola and Cafe Karma sprout in their midst. The landscape is now dominated by condos, town homes and multi-unit developments under construction.

As a result, Highland is a neighborhood in transition.

"When I first started selling in Highland in the '90s, there were a lot of Realtors who wouldn't even come up here. They were too nervous," said Paul Tamburello, a developer and broker associate with Distinctive Properties.

"There were syringes lying around. I'd have to kick bullets out of the alley. That's kind of common for any urban neighborhood, but it would scare some people off."

According to Trulia Real Estate Guide, Highland's average sale price jumped more than $86,000 in the new millennium, from $200,730 September-November 2001 to $286,956 September-November 2006.

The housing market west of Federal Boulevard was the first to take off, Tamburello said, but in the past four years interest in lower Highland properties has caught fire.

The average listing price just before Christmas was $310,097. From Jan. 1 to mid-December 2006, nine homes priced $500,000 or more were sold in Highland, triple the number sold in 2005.

"On the plus side, buyers are spending more money on their properties and bringing a vibrancy that encourages people who have been here longer to get more engaged with the community," Elwell said. "The negative is that you can't afford to buy a house here unless you make a lot of money."

Escalating prices combined with a heightened focus on deporting illegal immigrants have impacted the diversity of what was, historically, a gateway community - first for Europeans, later for Mexicans.

The 2000 census reported Highland as 66.8 percent Hispanic, but Tamburello and Elwell said that's not the case today.

"A lot of the immigrants went back to Mexico. They're too scared to live here anymore," Elwell said. "Local establishments that catered to them are hurting financially. We're losing a tax base because a lot of those businesses are going under."

Still, Highland's popularity shows no signs of abating. According to Tamburello, much of the enthusiasm is due to the bridge. "We now have our lifeline back to the heart of the city," he said.

Developer Susan Powers has spent the past eight years positioning herself to serve those who fall in love with the view from west of I-25. In 2001, the first buyers moved into her Highland Terrace Lofts. This fall, another 27 residential and two commercial units will be ready to occupy in her Highland Bridge Lofts, at 16th and Central streets.

"We were ready to start construction in 2002, but we pulled the plug because the economy was horrible. It wasn't the right time," Powers said. By 2005, when the project was deemed viable, "the neighborhood demographics had completely changed," she said.

Plans were redrawn to make rooms larger and add more two-bedrooms units. Most are reserved or under contract. Those still available range in price from $291,500 to $465,000.

"We'd love for everybody to walk or bike or just have a little scooter, but that's maybe 2-3 percent of what we have," said James Burton, marketing/sales director for Highland Bridge Lofts.

Powers expects that to change.

"I think you'll find the number of people who live in Highland and work downtown will grow in time," she said. "This connection is working. It's doing exactly what we thought it would."

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Highland

Where it is: Bounded by I-25 to the east, Federal Blvd. to the west, Speer Blvd. to the south and W. 38th Avenue to the north.

Size: About 7,500 households

Schools: Denver Public Schools - Valdez Elementary, Skinner Middle School, North High

Main attractions: Walking distance to downtown Denver with easy access thanks to Highland Bridge. Minutes from I-25. Growing number of neighborhood restaurants, small businesses. Eclectic architecture, including turn-of-the-century Victorian homes. Cultural diversity.

Common complaints: Traffic, rising property prices.

Price per square foot: $231, Sept.-Nov. '06

WHAT'S AVAILABLE? (as of Dec. 22, 2006)

Most expensive: $1.875 million. Roughly 4,400-square-foot, three-story Victorian on more than a third of an acre, completely renovated in 2005. Turreted corners, stained glass windows, wrap-around porch, 9-car garage, 1,872-square-foot carriage house. 3225 Bryant Street.

Least expensive: $99,999. A 589-square-foot studio condo in the Dakota Lofts with dishwasher, disposal, microwave, double-pane windows, security entrance, air conditioning, high-speed Internet access. 1441 Central Street.

Sources: Paul Tamburello, broker associate, Distinctive Properties; Trulia Real Estate Guide; Jake Marsh, broker associate, The Home Team - Keller Williams Realty