LoHi, Cherry Creek & Aurora — Cannabis Beyond Denver’s Core

Last verified: May 2026

LoHi (Lower Highlands)

LoHi (Lower Highlands) — the heavily gentrified north-side neighborhood across I-25 from downtown — sits at the intersection of Denver’s long-established Italian-American community heritage and its 21st-century gentrification wave. The neighborhood’s commercial corridor along West 32nd Avenue has become one of Denver’s most desirable dining and shopping districts.

Simply Pure at 2000 W. 32nd Avenue is LoHi’s marquee dispensary — founded by Wanda James and Scott Durrah, the first Black-owned dispensary in the United States. James was elected to the CU Board of Regents in 2022. ⚠️ As of early 2026, Simply Pure was negotiating a lease renewal at its longtime Highlands location amid industry-wide retail contraction. Full Simply Pure detail.

LoHi has emerged as the Black-owned-cannabis flagship neighborhood through Wanda James’s two-decade presence. The combination of LoHi (Simply Pure) + Five Points (Denver Kush Club, The Cannabis Experience) + RiNo (Tetra) makes the cluster of Black-owned cannabis businesses across this geography one of the most concentrated in the U.S. Five Points.

Cherry Creek

Cherry Creek is Denver’s upscale shopping district, with the Cherry Creek Shopping Center anchoring the commercial core and high-end residential streets surrounding. Zoning has limited dispensary count in the immediate Cherry Creek commercial area; Green Dragon’s Cherry Creek store is among the few operating in the area.

Cherry Creek’s patient and consumer demographic skews:

• Older — meaningful 50+ patient base
• Higher-income — among the highest median-household-income ZIP codes in Denver
• Pharmaceutical-formulation oriented — tinctures, capsules, low-dose edibles
• Discreet — delivery is heavily preferred

The pattern parallels Brickell in Miami or Coral Gables — affluent professional patient demographics with strong discretion preferences.

Stapleton / Central Park

Stapleton / Central Park is a family-oriented residential neighborhood (formerly Stapleton, renamed Central Park in 2020 over the namesake controversies tied to Benjamin Stapleton, a former Denver mayor and Ku Klux Klan member) with limited dispensary presence. The redeveloped former Stapleton Airport area was built as a master-planned community emphasizing residential density and walkable retail; cannabis-retail siting has been deliberately limited.

Washington Park

Washington Park is an affluent residential neighborhood. LivWell’s flagship at 1568 S. Broadway sits at the southern edge of Washington Park — technically in the South Broadway Green Mile geography but adjacent to Washington Park residential. South Broadway Green Mile.

Park Hill

Park Hill — the largely residential, racially diverse east-side neighborhood — has limited commercial cannabis presence due to zoning. The neighborhood is one of Denver’s oldest and most racially-integrated residential districts, with strong civic-community institutions.

Aurora (Adjacent Suburb)

Aurora — the adjacent suburb in Adams and Arapahoe Counties — is a separate jurisdiction with its own marijuana code. Aurora has approximately 25 dispensaries operating; cannabis-tax revenue has fallen from ~$3 million annually in 2021–2022 to about $1.5 million in 2023 — a comparable contraction trajectory to Denver itself.

Aurora has differentiated cannabis policy in a few ways:

• Cannabis hospitality businesses are permitted — including JAD’s Mile High Smoke (rebranded as High Society Dispo & Lounge in 2025) at 7667 Washington Street in unincorporated Adams County (just over the city line).
• Adams County operates Colorado’s only licensed cannabis farmers’-market-style event series — “Taste of JAD’s.”
• Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora is federal property — cannabis prohibited regardless of state law for federal employees and military personnel. Federal jurisdictions.

Lakewood (Adjacent Suburb)

Lakewood — the adjacent suburb in Jefferson County — is the site of the Denver Federal Center (a ~600-acre campus housing 28 federal agencies including USGS, FEMA Region 8, Bureau of Reclamation) and several dispensary chains. Cannabis is prohibited on the Federal Center property regardless of state law.

Lakewood’s residential cannabis-retail footprint is part of the broader Denver-area retail ecosystem; many Lakewood dispensaries serve Denver west-side residents who don’t need to drive into the city.

Denver Tech Center (DTC)

Denver Tech Center (DTC) is a suburban office hub south of the city. LivWell opened a DTC location in August 2023 — an outlier suburban-office-zone entry into a market that has historically concentrated dispensaries in residential and entertainment districts. The DTC opening coincided with the late-pandemic period when office-traffic patterns were still rebuilding.

Companion Pages

For other Denver neighborhoods, see South Broadway, RiNo, Five Points, LoDo & Capitol Hill.