According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 101,000 people moved to Colorado in 2015. And that expansive growth is palpable throughout the Denver Metro area: From the seemingly ever-rising rents to the highly anticipated Light Rail expansion to the very real affordable housing crisis, Colorado’s economic buoyancy has catalyzed unprecedented urban growth over the last 10 years.

Rent Café, a nationwide real estate listing service based in Santa Barbara, is highlighting the significant changes in Denver’s cityscape. The service’s parent company, Yardi Systems, has an office in Centennial, Colo. that is devoted to Yardi Matrix, a business development tool that delivers real-time intelligence on multifamily properties based on in-depth real-estate market research. Their analysts report that in 2015, downtown Denver saw a 16 percent (4,080 units) growth to the area’s overall apartment stock, with a rent increase north of 10 percent.

As part of Rent Café’s broader project to visually represent this expansion, online content developer Ama Otet used Google Street View to put together a series of time-lapse images that show the Denver blocks that have gone through the most marked transformation. The examples we’ve included below exhibit some of the most dramatic changes between 2007 and 2015. You can find more of these then-and-now images on Rent Café’s website.

To view the before and after photos, simply click the arrows on the images and drag right.


1. Four Seasons Hotel & Private Residences (2010) — Central Business District

The Four Seasons’ $350 million project marked a distinct move toward luxury in the downtown Denver market. The 45-story hotel boasts 239 guestrooms, plus 102 private residences with unobstructed views of the Rockies, which (unsurprisingly) sold out in 2012.


2. 1900 Sixteenth Street (2009), DaVita World Headquarters (2012), Triangle Building (2015) — LoDo

The three LEED Gold-Certified mixed-use buildings—a combination of office space, retail space, and parking facilities—have transformed the area surrounding Union Station. And this corner will continue to change, as DaVita—a kidney dialysis healthcare provider and one of the first tenants to move into the Union Station area—announced in October 2015 that the company would develop an expansion project across the street from its global headquarters. The expected completion date is summer 2018.


3. Cadence (2014), Platform at Union Station (2014) — LoDo

Together, these two luxury apartment buildings added 507 apartment units to LoDo.


4. Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center (2013) — Capital Hill

This 696,000-square-foot, LEED Gold Certified compound near the Civic Center is the headquarters of the Colorado court system. The $258 million project includes two buildings—a four-story courthouse and a 12-story office tower.


5. Spire (2009) — Central Business District

This 478-foot building consists of 42 stories, complete with residences, retail space, and an eight-story parking facility.