Cherry Creek center to welcome back shoppers

160-store mall is among several to re-open in Denver area

The reopening of metro Denver’s centers of commerce continues this week, with Cherry Creek Shopping Center announcing that it will swing its doors back open for business at 11 a.m. Wednesday for the first time since the novel coronavirus struck three months ago.

The Denver mall, with 160 stores, will operate on reduced hours for the time being — from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Cherry Creek will abide by strict measures to reduce the likelihood of

COVID-19 transmission, including cleaning and disinfecting the center around the clock, requiring the use of masks, using signs and decals to help customers with social distancing, offering hand sanitizer, closing the play area and disabling drinking fountains.

The re-opening of Cherry Creek Shopping Center comes on the heels of several other metro area malls welcoming back shoppers after shutdowns that went into effect in March, as the coronavirus began its spread in Colorado.

On Tuesday, dozens of shops inside Flatiron Crossing Mall in Broomfield opened for the first time since March, while stores with exterior entrances at the mall — such as Dillard’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Forever 21 — re-opened in recent days.

Several more stores at Flatiron, like J. Jill and Aeropostale, are scheduled to re-open by the weekend.

Colorado Mills mall in Lakewood opened to the public last week, as did Southwest Plaza mall, following state officials granting Jefferson County a variance to re-open shopping centers.

Of all the major metro malls, only Park Meadows in Douglas County has been open a significant amount of time since the pandemic hit. It reopened on May 24. But it too is reopening in fits and starts and Park Meadows senior general manager Pamela Kelly told The Denver Post earlier this month that it likely won’t be 100% operational until August.