Colorado nonprofit wants to make northwest Aurora the place to be

Before the great Interstates of today were built, northwest Aurora -- which sits on the Colfax Avenue corridor -- was a big deal.

"It's the original Aurora," said Mateos Alvarez, executive director of Aurora Economic Opportunity Coalition. "This used to be the economic engine of northwest Aurora 30, 40, 50 years ago."

He says when people stopped coming through the area as often, the community changed.

"I think everyone agrees it's been through some rough decades over the years," said Alvarez. "A lot of the wealth moved out of this community over the decades and moved out into the suburbs. And it's lacked reinvestment up until recently."

Alvarez and the Aurora Economic Opportunity Coalition want to restore the area to its former glory.

"To really create opportunities, to drive economic activity from a grassroots standpoint or a community standpoint and grow it out over time," said Alvarez.

They are working with the city of Aurora to inject business and revenue back into the area by providing residents resources, working to create a special sales tax district, and looking for ways to fill the empty storefronts.

"We have a lot of brick and mortar buildings that are vacant that could be activated to generate revenue and bring in more tax base over time," said Alvarez.

The nonprofit has been working on it for eight years and is on the verge of some big moves to transform the area like buying buildings to restore them and fill them with local entrepreneurs. Alvarez says soon he thinks Coloradans will want to get back into northwest Aurora.

"It's certainly an exciting time where we're at," said Alvarez.

AEOC says it has seen projects like this succeed in other areas of the country. 

The nonprofit just returned from Boston where workers learned about the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative. A very similar project which began 30 years ago. That area is thriving today.