{"id":395,"date":"2025-08-11T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/?p=395"},"modified":"2025-08-14T10:37:49","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T10:37:49","slug":"ping-pong-padel-and-public-art-find-a-temporary-home-in-private-denver-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/11\/ping-pong-padel-and-public-art-find-a-temporary-home-in-private-denver-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Ping pong, padel and public art find a (temporary) home in private Denver park"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a lot packed into the new pocket park that opened on the corner of Ninth Avenue and Albion Street in East Denver.<\/p>\n

The site has just 1.7 acres, but planners managed to weave into the landscape playground equipment and picnic tables, hammocks and walking paths. There are lounge chairs positioned under shady umbrellas, and benches made of giant logs, split down the middle.<\/p>\n

\"Artist
Artist Ana Maria Hernando\u2019s \u201cTo Let the Sky Know.\u201d The installation is the centerpiece at Cloud 9 Park, located in the 9+Co development in East Denver. Photo by Daniel Tseng, special to the Denver Post.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is even a notable piece of public art installed in the form of artist Ana Maria Hernando\u2019s \u201cTo Let the Sky Know,\u201d a tall trio of cloud-like bouquets made of lilac and yellow tulle that flutter in the wind. That piece fits neatly with the open space\u2019s official name: Cloud 9 Park.<\/p>\n

The attraction, designed by the landscape architecture firm Dig Studio, opened at the end of June, but it\u2019s already popular. Visitors hang out all day and into the early evening, working on laptops, jogging across gravel trails, facing off at ping pong, corn hole and foosball. There\u2019s a steady flow of people showing up to play on Denver\u2019s first padel court. (The sport is a cross between pickleball, tennis, and squash, and players can reserve a time by using an app or downloading a QR code.)<\/p>\n

Nearly everything is free.<\/p>\n

If it sounds too good to be true, well, in a sense it is — or at least it is only true for a year or two, or maybe three. Then Cloud 9 will likely disappear.<\/p>\n

The park occupies a space in the middle of 9+CO, the burgeoning development that is turning the former University of Colorado medical learning campus into a planned community. The 26-acre parcel is already home to apartment buildings, retail shops, offices, a movie theater and a number of restaurants, such as Blanco, Culinary Dropout and newcomer Le French. Construction continues at a steady pace and will eventually consume the new park.<\/p>\n

A project from Denver\u2019s Continuum Partners (recently joined by investment concerns M Development and Carlton Associates), 9+CO is about as urban-positive as a money-making development can be. It\u2019s pedestrian-friendly and restores the traditional street grid that the old university facilities displaced. The buildings are low-rise and design-forward. The spacing is dense, but breathable. There\u2019s not much for anti-infill critics to complain about.<\/p>\n

Considering the site was once designated for a new Walmart — until locals rose up against that idea \u2014 the development is a nice gift to a neighborhood that needed a lift.<\/p>\n

But 9+CO, which has been in progress since 2015, lacked a few things that a perfect planned community needs, and the developers clearly knew it, and so their motives for investing in a park are both pro-community and pro-commercial success.<\/p>\n