South Metro, Arapahoe County

Centennial

Established neighborhoods, parks and light rail along Arapahoe Road.

Centennial is one of Colorado’s youngest cities and one of its larger ones. Incorporated in 2001 from unincorporated Arapahoe County, including the former Southglenn and Castlewood areas, it is home to about 108,000 people spread across nearly 30 square miles south of Denver.

Because it grew as a collection of subdivisions before it was a city, Centennial reads as a set of distinct neighborhoods rather than a single downtown. Most homes date from the 1970s through the 1990s, and the city’s western half is served by the Littleton school district while the eastern half sits in the Cherry Creek district.

Incorporated: February 2001
Population: About 108,000 (2020 census)
Housing: Primarily 1970s–1990s single-family subdivisions; townhomes and condos along the corridors
Retail: The Streets at SouthGlenn, Arapahoe Road corridor, Centennial Promenade
Transit: RTD Dry Creek, Arapahoe at Village Center and County Line stations

West Centennial and the Southglenn area

The neighborhoods around University Boulevard and Arapahoe Road, including the blocks where Varvara helped buyers close on a 2,877-square-foot home on South Emerson Circle in 2026, are the oldest part of the city. Brick-and-siding two-stories and ranches from the 1960s and 70s on roughly 7,000 to 9,000-square-foot lots, mature trees, and The Streets at SouthGlenn, an outdoor retail district built on the site of the former mall.

East Centennial and the Cherry Creek district

East of I-25, master-planned communities such as Willow Creek, Homestead in the Willows, Foxridge, Heritage Greens and Piney Creek were built around greenbelts, community pools and tennis courts. Several of these neighborhoods feed into Cherry Creek High School through Campus and West middle schools. Lots tend to be larger and homes somewhat newer than on the west side, with custom homes in parts of Piney Creek and Foxridge.

Field of wild sunflowers with the Denver skyline and the Front Range in the background — Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie, CC BY 2.0

Parks and getting around

Centennial Center Park, the city’s signature park, opened in 2012. Cherry Creek State Park borders the city to the north, with its reservoir, trails and dog park, and the Big Dry Creek and Willow Creek trails connect many neighborhoods to the regional trail network. Three RTD light-rail stations along I-25 put downtown Denver about 35 minutes away by train.

Neighborhoods and subdivisions

Willow Creek
Homestead in the Willows
Foxridge
Heritage Greens
Piney Creek
Southglenn area
Cherry Knolls
Walnut Hills

A note from Varvara

Centennial is where a large share of my buyer work happens. The neighborhoods are similar on paper and quite different in person. HOA strength, lot shape, basement finish and school boundaries vary street to street, and that is exactly the kind of detail I enjoy sorting out before we tour.

— Varvara Lytkina, Broker Associate, Compass

Ask about Centennial

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