Colorado Avenue has recently seen a growth of active businesses, especially those that offer social gatherings. What will the city look like in the next five years?
A collaboration between the City of Grand Junction, organizations such as the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) and Business Improvement District (BID), business owners and residents has focused on Colorado Avenue as an extension of the Main Street experience. .
“It’s starting to feel like a downtown with a lot of different interesting places,” said DDA Executive Director Brandon Stam. “If you look at Colorado Avenue, a lot of the businesses and developments that have sprung up there have a different kind of character than those on Main Street, like the Rumblevine or the Melrose Hotel or Cruise Control. In my mind. Inside, the two streets come together and feel more vibrant.”
Mayor Anna Stout praised the collaborative process over the past five years that has led the city to focus on ways to ensure that the downtown feel is more than just Main Street.
“When we engage the community to develop these plans, we find that we are thriving not only on Main Street downtown, but south of Main Street and even north of Main Street,” Stout said. . “We are seeing an expansion from the heart of Main Street into neighborhoods, thereby creating even more attractive places to visit, live and spend time. It has all been a strategic priority for City Council for many years. This contributes to improving the quality of life.”
As we look to the future of Colorado Avenue, there are priorities that the City, DDA, and BID must address to achieve the ideally revitalized area, especially with long-term projects like the Terminal on the horizon.
Areas of improvement
While some businesses have found success on Colorado Avenue and others have welcomed loyal customers, problems persist for some businesses and the street as a whole.
Byrne Boutique moved from Fruita to 441 Colorado Ave. last year after business slowed. The relocation did not result in an increase in customer traffic as expected.
“I don’t know if it’s just because a lot of our customer base is in Fruita, or because we do a lot of things online, or because people didn’t want to come to the store on Colorado Avenue. ” Brooke Brennan said. , manager and employee of Barn Boutique. “Our management has also reached out to some other owners and found that many locations are having a hard time getting people in the door and keeping people in the door. .”
Brennan added that the store hopes to see more activity along Colorado Avenue with summer and warmer weather.
Zesty Moose also doesn’t see much walk-in traffic from people who frequent Rumblevine Brewing Company and other watering holes. Most of Zesty Moose’s business is done online, and the company started as his online-only business in 2007 and has remained his business online for most of its history. It also has loyal in-person customers, but the store’s focus is on wine; Some empty storefronts limit the store’s appeal to people simply passing by.
“Rumblevine is doing really well. They’re busy. But that’s not really my demographic,” said Diana Tap, CEO and founder of Zesty Moose. “We’ve found that the beer drinkers aren’t going to support us. There’s a winery there too, but they’re not wine drinkers just because Rumblevine is there. No foot traffic. I haven’t seen an increase on Colorado Avenue. My demographic is definitely not young people who are retired and have money to enjoy a good glass of traditional wine. I am an elderly person.”
empty space
As Tapp himself pointed out when speaking to the Daily Sentinel, there are several vacant storefronts along Colorado Avenue, including the former space for Loki Outdoor Shop and Mutual Friends, which moved to Main Street. These vacant storefronts can play a role in thriving businesses nearby, despite low foot traffic.
City leaders have touted communication in the process of building a more vibrant Colorado Avenue. Tap believes there is room for improvement in terms of communication.
“I think Colorado Avenue has a lot of potential,” Tapp said. “I think it’s important that the DDA and the City of Grand Junction can improve communication with downtown businesses. We all need to work together to keep downtown vibrant and attractive and attracting visitors.”
Asked about these vacant spaces, Stamm said the DDA is encouraging grants, such as restaurant renovation and expansion grants, as an incentive for prospective business owners to move downtown.
“I think part of the challenge is some of the empty space on Colorado Avenue that needs investment,” Stam said. “Some of those spaces are industrial, and it can be expensive to bring them up to code for new uses. So how do we encourage those redevelopment opportunities? It was a strategy: We bought the old Greyhound (station) with the intention of redeveloping that space.”
long term outlook
The old Greyhound station between Colorado and Ute streets is slated to become a terminal within the next few years. The terminal will be a 100,000-square-foot, six-story, mixed-use, mixed-income complex with 90 to 100 residential units, art galleries and studios, and “highly artisanal” food and beverage options.
A Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) mobility hub and renovated Union Station depot will also join the downtown Grand Junction fabric in the coming years. Each of these projects should have an impact on Colorado Avenue and its businesses, but it’s still unclear what that impact will be.
“There’s no question that a lot of the areas south of Main Street and south of Colorado are starting to revitalize and are in disrepair right now,” Stout said. “When you start revitalizing these areas and start getting people there for cool things like really cool Union Station or a nice Space to Create project or bringing people in directly through a mobility hub, you do The thing is you start to revitalize that whole area, and you start to see a domino effect during development, which leads to jobs and generally more development opportunities, and entrepreneurs to take root there. can be seen.
“Having a broader community vision of what this part of our community is like allows individual dreams to take root as well.”
Another wild card in the future of Colorado Avenue, and downtown Grand Junction as a whole, is the fate of the former Wells Fargo site at the corner of Main and Fourth Streets. This vast vacant lot also includes the largest space in downtown Grand Junction. Most convenient parking lots available.
Stout said the building is not being occupied by a “sticky establishment” because it serves no purpose in keeping people downtown. She also said that because most people can do their banking on the go and the space was being used as a bank, the part of the main street that should have been occupied by the store ended up being occupied by a brick wall. said.
“Certainly, we hope it will be something that will further revitalize downtown. That asset was not being utilized to its full potential as a bank as it stands,” she said. “If you think about downtown, these stores are meant to drive economic activity, like bringing people in to restaurants and retail and activities. That’s the idea behind Main Street. As a place to come together for an experience. Given how large its footprint is, it contributes significantly to downtown’s TIF (tax increment financing), and those TIF dollars are reinvested into downtown through the BID and DDA. Masu.”
There is a potential buyer for the property, but details about the buyer are not available at this time. The city of Grand Junction did not purchase the land because it would eliminate the property taxes that would go into the Downtown TIF from that site.
Stamm said parking at the back of the building could be subject to a shared-use agreement with a new tenant. He added that improvements planned for Fourth and Fifth avenues will make the Colorado Avenue area feel “more pedestrian and mixed-use.”
“Parking in Colorado is a bit of a double-edged sword because it actually negatively impacts some of the business activity in Colorado,” Stamm said. “It’s better for Main Street. Ideally, in the future, perhaps somewhere, there will be another structured parking solution that can accommodate multiple uses.”
