Blank Barbers has cut a check for its Cherry Creek real estate.
The local salon purchased its building at 313 Detroit St. in Denver for $1.5 million earlier this month, according to public records. Owner Zackary Jarmon told BusinessDen that the purchase was made to ensure Blank’s inaugural store can stay open.
“It was my first business, it was my first shop and I love this neighborhood and I want to stay here,” he said. “I’m not a real estate guy. It’s just that this was a good opportunity and I took it.”
Blank opened in the 1,000 square feet in October 2019. For the first several months until the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Jarmon said he’d have days with five people in the door. Now, the Cherry Creek store does 100 haircuts a day “easy.”
“It was almost worse before COVID than after because COVID got everyone so desperate to get out and do something,” he said. “People were actually seeking salons and barbershops because they needed that connection.”
Jarmon added a Platt Park location in 2023 and another in Wash Park in 2024. Last year, Blank Barbers rolled into the LoHi neighborhood. It doesn’t own its real estate at any of the other shops, and Jarmon has no immediate plans to open another outpost.
He said those stores are following a similar growth trajectory to Cherry Creek’s but are not at the same volume because they are newer.
“I really want to make sure that our shops are doing well and things are running smoothly,” he said. “For a barbershop, it takes a while to get to the sales sweet spot, at least three years to build trust with clients and all that.”
The Cherry Creek building was sold by Aaron LaPedis, who bought it for $325,000 in 2003, records show. That same year, he moved his Fascination St. Fine Art business to 315 Detroit St., next door.
He also is selling that 1,900-square-foot building. Fascination, which he founded in the early 1990s but sold three years ago, is moving to 545 S. Broadway next month, he said. LaPedis said he still owns “about 80%” of the Third Avenue and Detroit Street corner.
LaPedis is also the author of “How to Become a Garage Sale Millionaire” and has written columns and hosted TV and radio shows about collecting, valuing and authenticating art.
“I ran Fascination St. there for over 30 years, and it was time to move on,” he said. “I’ve done well enough.”
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