Denver’s Regional Transportation District (RTD) is adding a new station to its East Rail Line, which will open in the spring of 2016 connecting downtown Denver’s Union Station with Denver International Airport (DIA).

The Peña Boulevard Station will be the sixth eastbound stop on the trip from Denver Union Station to the airport. The travel time from downtown to DIA will be 37 minutes with trains running every 15 minutes during peak times. The travel time from 61st and Peña to DIA will be approximately five minutes.

“This new station provides a convenient access point into RTD’s regional rail system for commuters and other riders from the growing northeast metro area,” said RTD’s Interim GM/CEO David Genova. “This improvement would not have been possible without our long-term partnership with Denver, its airport team and the landowners, who worked together to create an asset that will significantly benefit the region.”

The station will include the train platform, a public plaza and an 800-car parking lot that is funded and operated by DIA. The station will be accessible from Tower Road and will serve as the catalyst for the 400-acre transit-oriented development named “Peña Station,” strategically located near DIA.

The transit-oriented development (TOD) is planned as a sustainable mixed-use development of office, hotel, retail, multi-family and healthcare commercial real estate. This master-planned, mixed-use transit community is bordered on the south and west by permanent open space. It will have direct access to the hiking and biking trails of the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Refuge to the west via a pedestrian trail below Peña Boulevard.

The first tenant of the development will be the 112,000 square-foot headquarters facility for Panasonic Enterprise Solutions Company. With Panasonic’s involvement, Peña Station will be developed as a global showcase of public/private development. It is designed to be a smart, sustainable community that reflects the true live-work-play community envisioned by Mayor Hancock for the “Corridor of Opportunity” between DIA and downtown.

The community, developed in partnership with Panasonic, will be patterned after Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town, which they developed in Japan. The Sustainable Smart Town aspires to blend nature and cutting edge technology into an “Eco and Smart” lifestyle.

Work on the Peña Boulevard Station is underway and will be complete for the opening of the East Rail Line in the spring of 2016. Construction of the Panasonic facility will begin in October and will be complete by the end of 2016.