Colorado Real Estate Journal -
In 1990, Dana Crawford, the well-known historic preservationist and Denver developer, addressed a group at Olde Town Arvada, where she was providing consulting services. “It’s an extremely wonderful, little historic area, with a lot of wonderful buildings. But it is looking a little tired,” said Crawford, who at the time was accompanied by a fledgling brewpub owner named John Hickenlooper – before he was Denver’s mayor or Colorado’s governor. Crawford added that “a tremendous amount is to happen in Olde Town Arvada,” an area bordered by Ralston Road, Grandview Avenue, West 57th Avenue and Olde Wadsworth Boulevard. Fast-forward a dozen years and Crawford, principal of Denver-based Urban Neighborhoods, is still high on Olde Town Arvada, even though she no longer is acting as a consultant on its behalf. “It’s been a big success,” Crawford said. “I think it looks really, really good. It is a great example of what the Colorado Main Street program can accomplish.” When she started as a consultant for Olde Town in 1999, “There were a lot of vacancies and a lot of deferred maintenance” in the buildings, she said. And while residents and city leaders were committed to preserving the historic downtown – it has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1998 – “no one was thinking of it as a destination. It needed more restaurants, which it now has.” But it is not perfect, Crawford said. “Whether it is a little downtown or a big downtown, they all have the same wants and needs,” Crawford said. “Olde Town Arvada has done a great job of bringing more restaurants, but it could use some more retailers. It also could benefit from some urban-style loft developments.” Olde Town, however, will cement its reputation as a destination in the coming years, as it will be a site for a GoldLine station along the FasTracks route, she said. In fact, about a year ago, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Federal Transit Administration Administrator Peter Rogoff gathered with other officials in Olde Town to present the Regional Transportation District with $1.03 billion to help build two FasTracks rail lines, including the Gold Line. One official attending was Gov. Hickenlooper, who had this to say: “As the population of the metro area continues to grow, transit will be even more important as communities plan for their future.” Bob Frie, the mayor of Arvada at the time, was equally as enthused. “Back in the 1850s, this was the site of the first gold find in Colorado, which brought economic prosperity to this area, and now this federal investment will be a catalyst for new and sustained economic prosperity to the area once again,” Frie said. Crawford said that the Gold Line, which is scheduled to open in 2016, will provide a continued catalyst for the success of Olde Town. “I think it is going to be one of the most successful transit-oriented development sites along FasTracks,” Crawford said. Frank Griffin, a broker with Newmark Knight Frank Frederick Ross, last fall sold a building in Olde Town to a longtime client and recently completed a flurry of three small retail deals that took up much of the space in the building. He represented the landlord in each of the transactions One of the leases was with Fuzzy’s Taco Shop out of Fort Worth, Texas. “They are new to Denver,” Griffin said. “This is their first store in the Denver area, although they have got one in Fort Collins.” Often when a new restaurant chain comes to the Denver area it tries to open its store in a highprofile area such as downtown or Cherry Creek. “Any of those locations could have been a candidate for its first store,” Griffin said. “What Olde Town has is many of the same characteristics and appeal of a South Pearl Street, Highland or downtown Littleton. Olde Town Arvada is for the kind of tenant that does not want to be stuck in a shopping center. It’s for someone who wants to maintain that boutique feel.” One advantage Olde Town has over some of the other neighborhood shopping strips is price. “I would say that Olde Town rents are on the low side, compared to other areas,” Griffin said. “You would pay a bit higher rents in Highland, for example.” In addition to Fuzzy’s, two other tenants that will be moving into the Olde Town building are Kristos Olive Oil Co. and Pilates Movement for Life. “They both wanted to be in the heart of Olde Town Arvada,” Griffin said. The building they will be occupying at 5760 and 5762 Olde Wadsworth Blvd. is the “original Craig Chevrolet building that was built in 1947,” he said. One of the appeals of Olde Town Arvada is its building stock, said Maureen Phair, executive director of the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority. “They range from the late 1800s to the current era,” Phair said. “What is really cool about Olde Town is this wide range of the age of buildings. We have buildings from every decade. It really is an eclectic mix.” She estimates there are a couple hundred tenants in the area. She estimated the overall occupancy rate of retailers is about 85 percent. “It has definitely become more of a destination place over the past five years,” she said. “A new brewpub, the Arvada Beer Co., has opened that is drawing people from the area and there is a fly-fishing place that is a true destination stop,” Phair said. “And people come to the Olde Town Pickin’ Parlor (a high-end instrument shop) from all over.” It even has a wine-tasting establishment, called the Silver Vines Winery, she said. Still, it remains an unknown to many, she said. “I recently brought some girlfriends down here on a weekday evening, and they were from downtown and Cherry Creek, and they had no idea,” Phair said. The area was as packed and had the same vibrancy as Lower Downtown, she said. “I think Olde Town remains a hidden gem for a lot of people,” she said. “I tell people if you haven’t been here recently, you need to visit it. I tell them they will be amazed. It has the same ambiance of a LoDo or Highland or South Pearl. It’s an authentic place.”