Small business owners in Colorado think outside the box to reinvigorate Old Town Louisville
It's a hard question: What do you do to help a downtown that has already come through the pandemic and the effects of a devastating fire that leveled hundreds of homes in the community around it? Louisville has a downtown with treasured older buildings, some dating back to its mining days 130 years ago, a resource many Colorado communities would cherish. But there are issues.
"Well, to a large extent I think a roller coaster is not a real bad description of it." said Norman "Rick" Kron, president of the Louisville Downtown Business Association. The business association is looking at what it can do to liven things up as the city tries to figure it out as well.
"That's what we're trying to do is to get additional people here to come eat in the restaurants, shop in the shops and increase economic activity that way," he added.
Closures in recent years of signature restaurants like the Empire and the Blue Parrot have compounded with the closure of a large Chase Bank on Main Street that still sits empty. Other businesses are still making a go of it, like Patrick Walsh's four restaurants, a coffee shop and an event space. He remains a believer in Louisville, but, "I don't like having five vacancies on Main Street within a one block area."
The struggles make getting things started harder.
"If it was all it could be I don't think that anyone would hesitate to open up a business in those spots."
The city is considering closing Main Street through Old Town Louisville to automotive traffic during this summer as was done over portions of two years during the pandemic.
"I think it has to happen," said Walsh.
But there are opponents.
Just a block off Main Street, Marco Toscano and a group of other concerned in-town neighbors worry about traffic and parking issues.
"Let's make sure that we're not putting additional traffic in the neighborhoods and RTD has 400 buses that go down Main Street a week. They're now going to go down a residential street," said Toscano.
RTD says it will have to move buses to Lafarge Avenue, a residential street. Parking will stretch to his street fears Toscano.
"If you can't park in front of your home, when you get home from work or you have friends over and they have to park four or five blocks away, who's going to want to live in that neighborhood?"
The city has so far not backed creating resident only parking and there are concerns about the ninety spaces that will be lost on Main Street.
"That's what we want. We just want to be able to follow the footsteps of those communities that have made those the right way," says Toscano, calling for resident parking like in Arvada, which has closed part of its main street to automotive traffic.
The softening of business profits in Old Town Louisville may well be part of a general Amazoning of America, in which retail establishments are dealing with a loss of in-person shopping. Or it could be rising rent. Louisville, is under rent pressure from its location close to Boulder. And then there is inflation and more.
"It's increasingly more difficult. Like, everything's gone up," said Walsh, mentioning minimum wage and the cost of food at his restaurants.
Some businesses continue to do well in the tougher environment, but the downtown has not had significant infrastructure upgrades in years and there are calls for more art and pedestrian friendly areas. The city has commissioned a study to look at needs and ideas, but it is yet to come. The Downtown Business Association backs the idea of closing the street to automobile traffic as a way to spawn interest.
"There are downtowns here that are also small and are also having their issues as well. And so yeah we're in competition with them," said Kron. "Certainly for me I'm not even on Main Street, I'm on a side street right around the corner, of Walnut, but I know it benefits me having people cruise around and have the space open," said Eric Reed, owner of the clothing store, Acme Fine Goods. Some people living near downtown are supportive as well.
"I like the idea of when streets are full and people are sitting outside at their tables enjoying it. It's very social. I might even say it reminds me of a little New Orleans," said Catherine Hunziker. She was thinking though about the need for parking to accomplish it. "You know maybe the answer in the long run is to have create more space for public parking."
Toscano and other opponents of closing Main St. to traffic in the summer say they would just like the city council to pause on the idea for further study before it's current scheduled vote March 19.
"You know we want to get to the core of why are businesses struggling," he said. Meantime there remains hope from business owners making a go of things. "Every day we have customers walking in talking about the dream of opening their own business and you know I'm open arms with telling them to come down here," said Reed.
