DOWNTOWN DENVER
COMES
OF AGE
Tami Door leads the charge
in making
downtown the
best and brightest
Written by ELLEN GRAY
Photography by KIT WILLIAMS
Standing at just over 5 feet tall, Tamara Door is a
force to be reckoned with. A veritable whirlwind
of activity, she exudes a positive energy that can
make an Olympic runner appear lethargic by
comparison. She is energy in motion in both her physical
being and her mind, which seems to spill over with ideas and
thoughts surrounding Denver and its glorious potential.
Even her last name befits her status as one who has paved
the way for the revitalization and renewal of downtown
Denver, who literally and figuratively has helped open the “door” of opportunity and made the Mile High city the envy
of its brethren nationwide.
True, Door is quick to point out that when it comes to
charting the progress that has enveloped the downtown
Denver area, the impact would not be nearly so dramatic
were it not for a phenomenal public/private partnership that
allowed change and progress to occur. Yet for so intricate a
plan to unfold, a single individual had to spearhead the effort
and successfully combine the ideas being tossed around,
while cleverly working to ensure all involved entities received
their share of credit, appreciation and respect. Door is the
individual who has allowed that to happen, largely because
of her passion to make Denver the best city in the nation.
Originally from Detroit, Door and her family moved to
Denver in 2004. She had been working with the Detroit
Regional Chamber for eight years, serving as its executive vice
president in charge of membership, marketing and events. The
job was a terrific challenge, and her efforts helped propel the
Detroit Chamber into becoming the largest in the United States.
A chance dinner with another couple changed everything. “One night, we (Tami and her husband, Rick) were out with
some friends, and they kept saying, ‘We wish we would have
...’” she recalls. “When Rick and I got in our car, we looked at
each other and said we never want to be like that, wishing we
would have done something and never doing any of it. So we
spent the next year asking ourselves and others, ‘If you could
live any place in the country, where would it be?’ Our thinking
was that if we were still living in Detroit 10 years from
now, it would be because we chose to be there and not
because we never did anything to change.”
Somehow, she recalls, Denver kept coming into the picture.
Then one day, out of the blue Tami received a call about
a potential job in Denver. The opportunity did not materialize,
but it did lead to another possible job with the Downtown
Denver Partnership, where she currently serves as president
and chief executive officer. As head of that organization, Door
works to build on growth and development initiatives that
were first implemented in 1986 as part of a 20-year plan for
downtown Denver. “What resulted from that plan is that
today we have new stadiums, a great transportation system
in the works and a variety of big projects. Our challenge now
is to seam all the progress together and make it work in the
best possible way,” she explains.
The key to such planning, Door says, is the strong commitment
to work within a public/private partnership. “This is what
I greatly enjoy, and it has allowed me to have an interesting role
within the community. It has brought together developers, the
business community and civic leaders, all working together to
achieve common goals that will benefit Denver,” she says. The
ability to achieve a true 50-50 partnership, Door says, has made
Denver the “envy of many other cities.”
The plan that is now being implemented, which follows on the heels of the original 20-year plan started in 1986, represents
the culmination of 18 months of strategizing and the resulting
input of more than 2,000 individuals. “What we are working on
now represents the vision for the next 20 years,” Door says. “When the first 20-year plan was presented in 1986, the economic
times were not that great. But there were true visionaries
who knew it could be done and knew what it took to accomplish
it. Today we are able to build on their vision and to make downtown
Denver a vibrant and exciting place to live and work.”
The streets of downtown Denver are a far cry from those
early days, when Mile High Stadium and Larimer Square
were among a handful of attractions that drew outlying residents
seeking entertainment. The 16th Street Mall once
enticed shoppers, but suburban and urban malls, with their
high-end retailing, began eating into retail revenues. Door
and others are working to permanently change that landscape
and to reintroduce locals and visitors to a downtown
that can rival other cosmopolitan cities with a variety of shopping,
dining and cultural attractions.
“We’re working hard to get on the radar of national retailers,
but this is a process that can take three to five years,” Door says. “At the same time, we recognize that downtown retail must be
unique because people are not going to drive downtown when
the same retailer is a mile from their house. I like to look at
Portland, Ore., as an outstanding example of a vibrant downtown,
with great retail mix and a wonderful pedestrian environment.
We recently took 40 top civic and business leaders to that
city to see what could be done, given the commitment and the
vision. The good news is that the private sector in Denver is very
willing to invest in the infrastructure in partnership with the
public sector, something that is unique to Denver.”
It appears that this willingness to work so closely together
can be credited to Door’s experience and can-do attitude. In
fact, her first job out of college, working for Comerica Bank,
placed her on a team of individuals working to implement
banks in grocery store settings. Walk into any grocery store
today, and banks and automated teller machines (ATMs) are an
expected amenity. Back then, the concept of electronic banking
services was a vague idea that had yet to take hold as a marriage
of the financial and consumer marketplaces.
Door says, “It was a challenge to get people to use an
ATM, and we would instruct the tellers on how to teach customers
to use an ATM and to point out they wouldn’t have to
wait in line. Many customers would be offended and would
walk out. I remember this challenge to teach something new,
and I use it as a great reminder that whenever you’re trying
to introduce a new idea, you have to have a long-term vision
to get it off the ground.”
Door says her good fortune was in being part of a process
that would ultimately help shape a whole new way of banking.
The team that was working on this program had limited
experience in banking and no preconceived notion of what
could or could not be done. “In the end, it taught me that people
can learn how to do anything if they keep their minds
open. However, anyone can learn a skill set, but you cannot
teach a person to feel passion for something. That has to
come from within,” she reflects.
Door’s willingness to take on new challenges and open up
her world to limitless possibilities extends beyond her professional
life and encompasses her family. When she and her husband,
Rick, decided to adopt a child, they realized that an international
adoption was the path they wanted to pursue. Working
through an agency, the couple traveled to Romania, a country
with an excellent foster care program. “International adoption
changes at different times, and in any given year it can become
easier or more difficult to adopt from specific countries,” Door explains. The couple stayed in Romania for two weeks, bonding
with their new son, Parker, who had been living in foster
care. Today, the Doors remain very involved with Global Hope,
an organization that moves children in Romanian orphanages
into foster homes and private settings.
Shortly after the couple adopted their son, the Romanian
adoption program shut down, and no more adoptions were
allowed. The Doors filed paperwork to adopt a child from
Ukraine and spent one month in that country visiting their
soon-to-be son three times daily, filling out paperwork and
appearing for court dates. “The process of getting our son,
Hayden, was such a different experience from what we faced
with Parker,” Door recalls. “But now our family is together in
Denver, and we feel so fortunate to be able to live here and call
this our home. We try to take advantage of everything this state
has to offer, whether close by the city or farther away.”
Door was recently awarded the Livingston Fellowship, an
award given annually to five nonprofit leaders. As part of the
$25,000 grant, Door will work with others to develop a game
plan on how to take her skills to the next level, both personally
and professionally. The goal is to encourage and inspire others
to remain in the nonprofit realm and not use this sector as a
steppingstone or transitional vocation.
As part of her fellowship Door will visit other cities to better
understand how individuals have effected change in the public
and private sectors and what those changes mean for the city.
In July she traveled to several national and international cities,
meeting with key individuals, such as mayors and CEOs, to better
understand how they initiate and implement change.
Once the fellowship is completed, Door plans to write a
book featuring the nonprofit leaders she met. She will showcase
their work to better demonstrate how others can turn
nonprofit work into a career.
Door says, “There are so many people coming and going in
the nonprofit world, and this is a detriment to the organizations
themselves. We need to give young people the experience and
opportunities that will make them want to remain in the nonprofit
realm and to grow with the organization and help see it
through to its potential.”
With so many projects to implement, it appears that Door’s
work in this particular nonprofit agency is far from complete. “It’s remarkable to think about all the things that need to be considered
in order to create a vibrant downtown, whether it’s
streetscaping a street or finding the type of business that will
thrive in a particular location. We’re also working hard to create
a true downtown theater district by recreating 14th Street. All of
these efforts require a partnership working together to create
the horizontal infrastructure that will in turn attract the vertical
development,” she explains.
“We have so much support to make this happen,” she
says. “The downtown stakeholders care so much about this
area, and they take so much pride in it. It makes an impact,
and it’s obvious to all who see it. We truly are the envy of so
many other cities across the country.”
