Of all the things metro Denver's civic boosters will be talking up to 6,000 visiting real-estate professionals this week, they may be proudest of its maturing mass-transit system and the mixed- use developments that are springing up around new transit stops.

Those transit-oriented developments, or TODs, are largely a Western phenomenon because work on mass-transit systems in Eastern cities such as Boston, Philadelphia and Washington has been complete for decades.

"(At these rail stops), Denver has this opportunity to create a series of linear cities where development is dense," said Chicago developer Jay Case (Orchard Development Group), who is working on two TODs in Denver. "Combine the fact that you create this transportation system with the fact that people are liking this urban lifestyle, and it's a pretty powerful force. It becomes a lifestyle choice."

As part of the Urban Land Institute's fall meeting, which begins today at the Colorado Convention Center, developers and urban planners from throughout the country will be treated to tours, workshops and seminars. Among the hottest topics on the program are those that relate to transit-oriented development.

Completed in 2002, Englewood City Center was the region's first real transit-oriented development. It turned the site of a dying indoor shopping center into a thriving mix of civic buildings, homes, offices and stores, all served by light-rail trains. It has come to be seen as a model for a public-private partnership.

A number of other projects have gotten started since then, along the existing southwest corridor and the soon-to-open southeast light-rail line, which is slated to open next month along Interstate 25 between Broadway and Lincoln Avenue.

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And there's more to come.

In 2004, voters approved a sales-tax increase to fund FasTracks, a $4.7 billion plan to build at least 10 new rail lines over the next decade, bringing riders from throughout the region into downtown's Union Station.

"Denver is not one of America's largest cities, but there are phenomenal initiatives going on," said ULI chairwoman Marilyn Taylor, urban design partner with the New York architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.

One of Denver's attributes is its great street life, a key component of transit-oriented developments, Taylor said. Lower Downtown, the 16th Street Mall and the region's bike paths all are evidence of people's willingness to get out of their cars and be part of public spaces.

"When people ride transit, they're pedestrians," Taylor said. "The scale of community building and place-making around transportation nodes has lots to do with addressing the places between buildings where people interact."

The promise of people wanting to live and work near transit stations already has lured developers from Raleigh, N.C.; Tulsa, Okla.; and Chicago to sites along the T-REX line slated to open next month.

"Denver did an exceptional job of contemplating the realities of population growth and urban sprawl," said Zack Davidson, a Tulsa-based developer who has a $170 million mixed-use project a quarter-mile from the Orchard Road station in Greenwood Village.

It's one of 18 projects along the T-REX line either built or under construction, with a total value of nearly $680 million, according to the Regional Transportation District's transit-oriented development team.

Case is working on two projects along T-REX. The $63 million Dry Creek Crossing at the Dry Creek Road station will include about 248 condos when it's completed late next year.

Case also is working with Chicago-based Joseph Freed & Associates on the 50-acre redevelopment of the former Gates Rubber plant at I-25 and South Broadway.

"Denver has this opportunity to create a series of linear cities where development is dense at these rail stops," Case said. "Combine the fact that you create this transportation system with the fact that people are liking this urban lifestyle, and it's a pretty powerful force. It becomes a lifestyle choice."

FasTracks and Denver International Airport have earned Denver a reputation as a world- class city, said Chris Coble, a senior association with CB Richard Ellis who specializes in transit-oriented development.

"When developers look at different investments across the country, Denver rolls up at the top of the list," Coble said. "We're serious about our future. We're concerned as voters and public professionals that we want a sustainable city."