If the recent apartment boom near Union Station and in Highland is any indication, the location of Denver’s “central city” has started to shift—thanks, in part, to the popularity of LoDo and LoHi and the rebirth of the historic transportation hub. At its core: Denver’s newest neighborhood in the Central Platte Valley just west of the train station between 15th and 20th streets. With the debut of the area’s first finished project—the 219-unit Cadence Union Station, which welcomed residents after Christmas—a picture of this hot (and haute) emerging ’hood is starting to take shape. And what a picture it is: The Cadence’s glass-walled apartments offer stunning views of Denver’s skyline, an amenity that surely helped encourage at least one resident to sign a lease four months before the project’s completion. Cadence is just the first, though. Several new complexes expected to open in the next year or so will continue to alter the face of Denver’s downtown—and perhaps ease our city’s superlow vacancy rates.

Read also: Will Denver’s apartment bubble burst?

5280 February 2014
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—Image courtesy of Cadence Union Station