Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

City loan to gourmet food store finalized

Downtown market to receive $335,000

Jeff Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 18, 2006 at midnight

Text size  

More More Business

More stories »

The city has finalized a $335,000 loan to help finance a gourmet food store in downtown Denver, filling a key ingredient in its retail wish list.

Cook's Fresh Market is under construction at 1600 Glenarm Place and is expected to open in October.

"This new business provides a highly sought-after element for downtown," Cecilia Ortiz, deputy director of the Denver Office of Economic Development, said in a statement. "For years, surveys of downtown employees and residents have ranked a food market as the No. 1 desired business for downtown."

Owners Ed and Kris Janos operated a similar gourmet food store in Greenwood Village for more than five years but closed it last fall when faced with a 70 percent rent increase.

Janos said he's tweaking the concept just a bit, adding some indoor seating, "which was always the No. 1 request" at the old location.

He said he expects to employ 40 full- and part-time workers, with his former meat manager among those returning.

The aid is from the city's revolving loan fund program, which helps business owners secure the necessary capital to finance startups or expansions by lending up to 25 percent of the project costs.

Bill Lysaught, program manager for the city's small-business lending group, noted most small businesses have a tremendous challenge raising the necessary funds. In this case, Janos had "raised a great deal of private-sector commitment but came up with a gap," Lysaught said.

The city was drawn to the project not only because it wants a gourmet food store downtown but because Janos had experience operating this kind of store before, Lysaught said.

Still, he said, "because we are taking a risk, we require detailed business plans, and there's a lot of scrutiny."

The boutique grocery store will benefit by being at the new 333-unit 1600 Glenarm Place luxury apartment high-rise, which is beginning to fill up.

While not every project in the city's portfolio has been successful, Lysaught said another gourmet grocery store has proven to be a success - Marczyk Fine Foods on East 17th Avenue.

Janos said he was able to turn a profit after just three months in Greenwood Village, "and I don't want to do any worse" downtown. He said the markets are fairly similar.

"Both have great daytime demographics, downtown even more than DTC," Janos said, with the 16th Street Mall being a great tourist attraction. "At nighttime, (downtown) residences are not as strong as Greenwood Village, but it keeps on growing."

or 303-954-5155