70 years of Denver and Aurora history, commerce meet at Stanley Marketplace

Editor’s note: This is part of The Know’s series, Staff Favorites. Each week, we offer our opinions on the best that Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities and more. (We’ll also let you in on some hidden gems).

It was probably hard to imagine playgrounds, breweries and an ice cream shop on the site of Stanley Aviation when it opened 70 years ago on the Denver-Aurora border.

The company, which for a time was the largest employer in Aurora, made ejection seats for the military and in a few short years nearly doubled its operation to 140,000 square feet, according to History Colorado. The area to the northeast was Stapleton Airport, serving the metro area starting in 1929 and all the way up to the 1995 debut of Denver International Airport.

These days, it’s known as Central Park (formerly: Stapleton neighborhood), a housing-and-condo redevelopment concern where the trees still feel freshly planted and the lots are still sprouting wooden frames. That makes the Stanley Marketplace, which opened on Dec. 20, 2016, in the former Stanley Aviation space, all the more valuable next to the scant food-and-retail offerings in Central Park.